Politics

For years, I assumed big-city rent was expensive because the bragging rights, and/or glamour, of urban areas were worth the money in the eyes of their residents. I don't know how sustainable such a situation is; I figure the menial jobs like janitor and grocery store clerk necessary to keep such a city going surely can't be compensated well enough to pay for their out of control rent; but I figure if they decide that it's worth it to go to such a major city, and those who have other priorities opt to live in small towns, so be it. If the rich take over the big cities, then that means that at least their money is going to some landlord instead of to buying a second yacht o…

Do you think it will happen? Is Biden weak, do you think the Democrats need to be more aggressive? Been inspired by this: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/joe-biden-says-his-hands-are-tied-on-a-2415-minimum-wage-thats-not-true/ar-BB1e6X8x?ocid=BingNews

So recently I've been hearing about various teenage criminals being tried as adults because of the seriousness of their crimes. But if the point of leniency for teenage criminals was to dismiss them as not knowing any better... doesn't that notion apply regardless of the seriousness of their crimes? If whether or not they know better depends on the individual... why have leniency for teenage criminals at all? Why not just draw from the same interval of sentencing options we have for adults, and if they're not wide enough for individuals of any age who didn't know better, widen the interval of sentencing options for adults too? For most of history, …

I see this webcomic linked to a lot. Quite frankly, I see it linked to far more often than I see people actually claiming their First Amendment rights are being violated by a private company denying them a platform. The other side of it, of course, is that I do see a lot of people calling it a violation of "freedom of speech" in a more general sense; in the idea that protecting people from getting thrown under the bus over their beliefs by their own employers despite otherwise doing their jobs. The only question is whether the phrase "freedom of speech" has a legitimate application beyond the Constitution's use of the phrase. And the on…

I am not an economist or politician. However, I am hearing rumours of a world economic crash, possibly in the next year, that will rival the 1929 economic disaster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBpL2WwGiw4 Harry Dent: Stock Market 40% Crash in April, Nothing Can Save You, Bitcoin to Zero, Gold to $1000 - YouTube We, the public, should be able to analyse and assess how economic changes can influence all aspects of life including political manifestations as well as sociogeopolitical responses by a concerned public (e.g. me) Do others see stability, limited instability or widespread instability?

I think most people get the wrong picture when they say that this country is doing something against that country and so on. In fact, from about the beginning of our era, dual power was established throughout the world, power was divided into priestly and royal. These are kshatriyas and brahmanas, church and kings and the like, all this was all over the world and only the Asiatic Huns preserved the classical patriarchy. At the same time, the power of the priesthood was apparently transnational. The royal power has mutated into the executive, and the priestly into the legislative (which puts the right people with the help of ochlocracy). The executive branch became s…

The U.S. is an oligarchical republic, not an officially democratic nation. Oligarchical lobbying and bribing have all affected the American government entirely in every state. An increasing amount of people have voted for a better public education system, better public healthcare, better internet providers that have faster internet speeds for modern video gaming, better infrastructure, improved economies in American small towns, and other things to no avail because the rich and powerful people who truly own America are part of a smaller population that control it through oligarchical lobbying and bribing. Elitist big corporations are killing small businesses in …

My hypothesis: Some far-left ideologues feel a compulsion to prove a connection between liberalism (though as Severian so neatly pointed out this morning, they really mean an enforced progressive agenda) and intelligence. And that this desire for a connection is fundamentally equivalent to the desire by some on the religious right to prove the existence of god through faux scientific evidence. By way of example, I offer this Slate opinion piece about a new scientific study published in this month's Nature attempting to connect liberalism and intelligence. I'd link the study itself, but it's under subscription so we can't read it without paying (how convenient). …

Again I ask because I'm not very familiar with all American States. I am familiar with New York State where minimum wage currently stands at $12.50/hr ( I believe ), and is scheduled to increase to $15/hr over the next couple of years. Is minimum wage a state responsibility, or is it federal jurisdiction ? Does every State have their own min wage, and how low is it in some of the poor Southern States ? Seems a lot of the poor Southern States are very good at attracting industry, with 'Right-to Work' legislation and low min wages. Are they purposely keeping people at low wages/non-union to attract industry/jobs ? Would a federally mandated equitable minimum …

There’s literally no precedent here. Do I bump this thread to discuss the 2nd impeachment of a US president who will almost certainly be acquitted an unprecedented 2nd time by spineless GOP Senators, or is a new thread more appropriate? [/rhetorical] The Democratic House managers have IMO been doing a phenomenal job, but reliving the insurrection yesterday and today whilst watching them make their case has made clear for me that one of my favorite parts of the Biden presidency thus far is being able to watch the evening news again without it so deeply torturing me.

Is there a silver lining to be drawn from the current situation? Are the opponents to concerted action based on scientific understanding who have shown their hands on this occasion broadly the same group we can expect to be digging in their heels when it comes to any action at all when the time comes (of course it has come but seems to be being deliberately ignored-eg the windmills in Texas ploy) Are we getting any closer to a very widespread acceptance that we are all in this together in a very shallow pool or has the populace shown themselves to be ready for more snake oil merchants who will offer them short term satisfactions and attempt to turn u…

I wanted to share this brief 9 minute video presentation, mainly for its unique approach regarding international space agreements, but it's also a great overview showing many of the various actors and institutions currently involved in trying to hammer out some rules regarding orbital debris and other problems facing us in the space around our planet. Very interesting research, and a crash course on what's happening in orbit.

For years, I've been angry at religion over its opposition to ESCR (embryonic stem cell research). So angry at it, I threw leftism under the bus just to see of that'd help prop up anti-theism's reputation. So angry at it, I used to blame religion for everything from homophobia to the election of Donald Trump, without actually stopping to ask myself if religion's even at fault for the aspect of it that got me angry at it in the first place. See, one of its detractors' favourite talking points is "if it were really about cures, they'd tell us specifically what disease they're going to cure, how they're going to cure it, and channel the money straight into that and n…

I'm not sure if D Trump was the useful idiot of the GOP, or if the GOP were D Trump's useful idiots. Those people in INow's photos are there for D Trump, not the GOP. If anything, he seems to have fractured the GOP into the group that wants to cut him loose ( including M McConnell now ), and those who cling to his coat tails in the faint hope of retaining power ( no matter how crazy, and illegal, he gets ). Maybe the Democrats should be thanking D Trump, he has exposed the craziness of the current GOP, and may well end up wrecking their current organization.

Lets say you're driving a car, as you're doing so you're converting energy into lots of different forms. The energy starts out with the gasoline in the gas tank. The gasoline has chemical energy. As the gasoline burns the chemical energy is released and converted into kinetic energy as it drives the pistons. The pistons turn gears which turns the crank shaft which finally turns the wheels that sends the car forward. Now each time the energy is converted some of the energy is lost. When the gasoline burns not all of the energy it gives off goes towards driving the pistons, when the piston turns the gears not all of the energy goes towards turning the gears. When one …

My competency has been maligned by the USA, so I'll begin with a defense of my competency. I was elected student body president at the U.S. boarding school with the highest SAT scores. I applied to 3 of the top five U.S. universities and was admitted to all. I got a bachelor's degree in cognitive science, with academic honors. I dated a sitting U.S. Vice President's daughter for several years. Then I got physically sick. I saw M.D.'s at the most reputable hospitals (doctors with lower science grades than I got, M.D.'s who haven't read Euclid, Gauss, and Godel). and they behaved irrationally and arrived at nonsensical conclusions. The laziest M.D.'s diagnosed me with …

My thoughts go out to the recent cold weather in continental North America. Especially since we in the UK have benefitted with unseasonally warm weather from the outer circulation of this weather system. So it is sad to see climate science deniers or just the anti green energy lobby hard at work. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-56085733

Haven't seen this type of behavior since ( video clips of ) the late 60s. Seems violent protest is the new normal for American society. This past year has seen an insurrection on the elected Government of the Country, as well as a Summer of violent protests against authority/Judicial system, while cities were taken over, and held, by unlawful protesters. D Trump just lit the fuse ( or recognized the flaw ), it can't all be blamed on him; this is uncharacteristic behavior for the American people, on both sides of the political spectrum. Does the end justify the means now? Is violence and destruction warranted when you think your cause is just ? Whatever happene…

Any thoughts on Ivanka Trumps future in politics. From the little I've seen she seems to be serious about it. Does anyone think she can actually gain enough support to achieve anything?

Quite possibly, but how would we know that? If it's more than a comment we can look at opening a thread. If it's because, say, Yang doesn't wear ties that would hardly be worthwhile. https://www.yang2020.com/policies/student-loan-debt/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-55760673 "Google has threatened to remove its search engine from Australia over the nation's attempt to make the tech giant share royalties with news publishers" Google appears to be flexing its muscle against Australian plans to make laws that will affect its position . Is this tenable? Google is accountable to whom? Its shareholders? Any legal requirements? More generally ,what is the responsibility of multinationals to the countries that they operate in? Do they avoid local laws by resettling ( or making the threat to do s…

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-science-rival-covid-health-threat.html Attacks on science rival COVID-19 as a public health threat: As public health experts feared, COVID-19 cases and deaths surged in the US following the Thanksgiving holiday, when millions of Americans ignored pleas to forego traditional gatherings. In a new Essay published 28th January in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, "Anti-science kills: from Soviet embrace of pseudoscience to accelerated attacks on US biomedicine," vaccine and infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Hotez explains how the richest country in the world allowed the pandemic to spiral out of control. extract: …

So the pandemic has cast much about education in a whole new light. For all people's virtue-signaling about lofty ideals of education, it seems a lot of people were just using the education system as a de facto babysitting centre. Makes one wonder what else people have to say about it they might not really mean. While we're re-evaluating voters' reasons for supporting the education system, (or at least its continued existence) let's re-evaluate our ideas on what to do with it. 1. I think standardized testing should be lower-stakes, but more frequent. Disagreement among teachers about "how good is good" as far as student answers go, let alone which …

I keep hearing from proponents of so-called "traditional gender roles" that bringing women into the workforce "diluted" the labour pool by giving employers so many more prospective employees from which to choose. The idea, as put forth by gender role proponents, is that this so reduced upward pressure on wages that it is partly responsible for the fact that wages are low enough to make both partners need to work; and that, in turn, women in the workforce are (supposedly) at fault for women who would prefer to be housewives not having that option. Of course, I can already think of three reasons why an increase in the minimum wage sounds to me like a better solu…

The story from a non-political medium: https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/22/dutch-hacker-trump-twitter-account-password/ If seven tries is all it took Victor Gevers to use the psychological method to crack the US president's Twitter account. How bad is that for the Western world? Your thoughts eagerly awaited.