Politics

Is the twice yearly change already abolished 👍 or a date that will know for sure 🤞, or still in limbo 😒?

https://youtu.be/q07dm6lPs2k https://youtu.be/RMg0AGE11oo https://youtu.be/l07MYf2iPr4 https://youtu.be/EjdM3s-sMAI https://youtu.be/6GGriN--BA0 As far as I can see, about half of famous Russian musicians and writers are against Putin and his war. All of them have relocated from Russia.

Some recent threads on politics had me reminiscing about a life I left behind many years ago. Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band are not the most famous in the region, but they're based in South Elmsall, the pit village where my father spent his early years. His uncles were all miners. 7 miles away is Grimethorpe, the home of Grimethorpe Colliery Band stars of the film "Brassed Off", Had to follow this lot on-stage once. That was a bit nerve-wracking. 13 miles North of Grimethorpe is Rothwell, the home of the Yorkshire Imps whose Lead Cornet was my first trumpet teacher. A schoolmate, Ian Bousfield, joined them as a 13-year-old (!) before he f####d off to lead the trombo…

The proposal for large monetary deposits is interesting. BBC NewsData centres could pay hundreds of millions in deposits f...The regulator said a fee of between £237,500 to £712,500 per megawatt should be charged for upcoming projects. This thread is to give an airing to the increasing tension between data centres and the wider public, society and infrastructure.

In general, the people on this forum are among the smartest humans I interact with on a regular basis so am asking opinions on the following; Humans have had the ability to satisfy every person's basic needs for at least a century. Furthermore, a large plurality (if not the vast majority) follow religions or philosophical systems that claim (and in some cases, demand) that helping your fellow beings is one of the highest "goods". So why is there still people homeless, starving and dying of curable diseases anywhere, especially in places like the US or Europe? Is there some secret plan by Democrats or Republicans (or any other party in charge around the world) to solve tho…

The simplest solution for Trump would be to publicly announce to Putin, that the US will lift some sanctions on Russia, if Putin holds a referendum in Russia proposing peace with Ukraine and the West, unblocking YouTube, and lifting internet blocks of messengers. Both offers and threats could be made ("carrots and sticks"): for example, he could offer to give Russia some Ukrainian territory, or threaten that if Putin doesn't hold the referendum, the US will begin supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles. If this plan doesn't work, another one could be chosen: block the Strait of Hormuz again, ban Venezuela from exporting oil (and perhaps bomb some oil facilities there for…

Maybe if he stopped micro-managing everything and paid attention to his briefings, instead of getting his corrupt friends involved in vanity projects, so they can fleece millions from American taxpayers ... In breaking news, the American football ( soccer ) player, F Balogun, was red carded during his last game. The ref was originally going to dismiss the infraction, saying it wasn't intentional, but VAR disagreed. Stepping on someone's ankle can result in serious injury; so he was given a red and a one game suspension. Now, the Canadian midfielder I Kone had his leg broken in two places during their game against Qatar, and no one would argue that was intentional, yet th…

A Guardian article highlighting the extent to which the major manufacturers of ultra-processed food are abusing the courts to subvert progressive health legislation. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/22/processed-food-firms-courts-obstruct-health-regulations

The US is doing a lot of silly things but this one is hilarious (and dangerous) on so many levels: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5969935-hegseth-testosterone-testing-dod/ There are so many layers to it. This is biologically and medically dubious, and shows what happens if lack you weaponize stupidity to max lethality or something. It also shows that the weird one-dimensional gender/sex view of these folks is not just a slogan, they really believe in it. (I.e. testosterone is manly, more manly -> more lethal). And on top it betrays a rather limited perspective on modern warfare (how much testosterone does a drone operator need?). And then also the absolute hypocri…

An important problem in modern politics is the ability of Senators to find affordable housing in the months-long breaks they experience between not doing their jobs, and not doing anything whatsoever. Corn cob slats. A solution that befits the most distinguished and betwinkled body of do-gooders that has never existed in the history of humanity. Think about it! Narrow cots consisting of precisely sliced wedges of cobs of corn. What could be a more fitting mattress for our beloved Senators, while they take their time away from the job they never did in the first place? Our President doesn't want us to have housing. I say, forget Mar-A-Lago! Forget Capitol Hill. Forget wha…

When is the conversation going to shift to a sense of personal responsibility? We are the idiots who vote for the people who have sold us out to an extent that is literally and absolutely unprecedented in human history. You f*****g geniuses wanna act like it's a joke? And you Democrats wanna act like it is about DEMOCRACY? You wanna know what I see? A society full to the brim with cowardice, weakness, inefficiency, and stupidity. We are so tolerant and so inclusive. These are not bad values, unless they are an excuse for laziness. And here is what we have: A system set up for catastrophic failure. A society full of nobody giving a s***. This IS your democracy. And you do …

The ideology of the Left emphasizes protecting the weak. Initially this was a continuation of European humanism, but now this has become exaggerated (a reason why the Right constantly criticizes the Left). The Left appeals to various groups of people, whom it calls hurt by "white supremacists," and promises to force these supremacists to pay compensations to these minorities. Thus, leftist governments pay all sorts of subsidies to ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, and disabled people; to some extent, the Left also tries to include all women among these hurt groups who are "protected" by the Left (feminism). The final result is that white working men are forced to pay…

On 4th June, the European Parliament replaced Google with Qwant and five days later, Europe released a sovereign alternative to Microsoft Office.

Few actions can convey just how well a war is going as firing three of your top military leaders just four weeks into hostilities - yet this is exactly what has happened at the Pentagon earlier this week. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/3/hegseth-fires-us-army-chief-of-staff-in-reported-string-of-dismissals On Thursday April 2nd Pete Hegseth the so-say ‘Secretary of War’ stunned the military establishment by announcing the immediate ‘retirement’ of General Randy A. George the Army Chief of Staff since 2023, in tandem with General David Hodne, the head of the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, and Major-General William Green jnr - the Army’s Chief of Chaplai…

Quite a bit as it turns out, in the wake of President Trump’s arrival on his current chaotic visit to China - (China’s President Xi Jinping didn’t even bother to come out to the airport to greet him). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfRYrXzMpHU President Trump has already garnered quite a number of unflattering nicknames on Chinese social media which include: 懂 王 dǒng wáng - “King Know-it-all” 万 税 爷 wàn shuì yé - “Lord of Ten Thousand Taxes” (a pun on 万 岁 wàn Suì - “Ten Thousand Years!”) 川 宝 chuan bao - “Baby Trump” But the latest nickname for Trump to go viral on Chinese social media is a back-handed compliment: 川 建 国 chuan jiàn guó - “Trump The Nation Builder” A…

I have thought much on the question of why, often after revolutions, a new power becomes even worse than previous one. For example, in Russia after 1917 old authoritarian power was replaced by totalitarian one. Here is the answer: each authoritarian power suppresses the opposition, which pose a threat ideologically, more intensively, than rabid/extreme opposition, despite the second one often poses even bigger threat to the representatives of current power. The first opposition is a seculiar democratic opposition, while the second opposition is something with communist/fascist/fundamental etc ideology. This is very clearly seen on the examples of such countries like Syria…

This visit from the King seems to show a greater sense of deference, in the upper echelons of American politics, than it is here in blighty; or is that a bit of BBC bias? I wonder how deep in the American societal psyche it goes?

It's happening far to quickly to be a natural evolutionary trend, most of the motivation to actually reason out a solution is born of poverty and a sense of fairness.

In the US, at least, freedom has been dangled in front of its citizens as the pinnacle of the human condition, something we should all value highly and strive to find and protect. But the freedom to do whatever you want is ALWAYS balanced against the people around you, so that the smaller the group the more freedom it actually has. Larger groups have to compromise to accommodate everyone. Gathering into a society means less freedoms but far more opportunity. The structure of a society and the ways it curtails certain freedoms create even more opportunities for prosperity. Follow the rules on walking together in public and we'll build sidewalks. Agree not to pee on the s…

Without asking directly if one or the other; is there a way in a non-political conversation, to detect/sense if a person is democrat or republican in the U.S. or has tendency to be ? -Or by asking what ?

“I think it means bringing the end of the world closer, sort of.” (Illuminatus! - Vol 1 - Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson) According to a report in ‘The Guardian’, US military commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical “end times” to justify involvement in the Iran war to troops, according to complaints made to a watchdog group. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/03/us-israel-iran-war-christian-rhetoric The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has received more than 200 complaints from personnel across the US armed forces including members of the Marines, Air Force and Space Force. According to one complaint from an NC…

This topic was raised in another thread: 'Time to Disenfranchise the Old Gits' Not entirely clear in my head yet whether the concept applies to nations without a written constitution. Notwithstanding this, should the principle be mandatory for legitimate national government, and should there be any exceptions at all?

Ugh. This is going to pour fuel into already prevalent anti-science/anti-intellectual sentiment in the US. ☹️ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00388-0

Now that I'm of pensionable age, I've had time to look at the actions of my generation and their predecessors in public office; their actions as corporate stakeholders; their typical voting tendencies; and come to the inescapable conclusion that their attentions for the limited remainder of their time here would be better focused elsewhere. Gardening or reading shallow, rose-tinted recollections of the good old days. Let's face it, their performance in these areas has been woeful and one cannot help but come to the conclusion that their declining mental faculties and limited personal investment in anything but the immediate future may be the root cause. So if I felt suffi…

I have conducted more than several reviews in sci-journal for two years or more and wonder the answer for this question both to expect / ensure the faster process and the less subjective assessment?