Politics

I assumed that in this forum this topic would not lead to any arguments, but some of the posts in the DEI thread lead me to believe that potentially there are different opinions on that matter. As mentioned in the other thread, the Trump administration has been censoring topic they deem DEI, including the Enola Gay, black medal of honor recipients (now reversed https://www.military.com/history/highest-ranking-black-medal-of-honor-recipient-erased-pentagon-dei-purge.html) and used it as a pretext to censor research, via NIH freezes and so on. That alone should be chilling sign to all free speech advocates, but they extend things further beyond the governmental systems…

In AD 98 the Roman Historian Tacitus wrote Agricola, an account of the military conquest of Britain (some twenty years earlier) by his father-in-law General Agricola. In chapter 30 he puts this memorable saying into the mouth of Calgacus, a Caledonian tribal chief, on the eve of the battle of Mons Graupius against the Romans in 83 AD. This phrase has rung in my mind ever since yesterday’s announcement that Hamas and the Israelis have finally agreed a ceasefire. You only need to look at press photos of the urban landscape to which the people of Gaza are now returning to understand why. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx2nzlj2j4kt The one piece of good news today is that …

(for those unfamiliar: Costco is a chain of warehouse-style store, selling lots of varied things including groceries, electronics, appliances and furniture) “A first-of-its-kind Costco with 800 apartment units above it is coming to Baldwin Hills, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles that Census Reporter finds has a poverty rate 25% higher than the national average.” https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/hundreds-of-apartments-are-being-built-on-top-of-a-costco/485190 In the US, commercial property is generally separated from residential (at least in spread-out areas), owing to zoning laws, and it’s been this way for a while - anything built in the last 75-100 years in…

I have applied for my retirement benefits in November. My application is still in process. I understand that eventually they will pay retroactively whatever accumulates since November. Without any interest. Thus, the OP question.

I hated it when we lost our public utility, Public Service of Colorado, and sold to a private investor named Xcel Energy back in 2000. Rates went up immediately, service stayed the same for a while, so it just seemed like handing over more money just so a corporation could profit. After 25 years, it's now come out that they've been lax on maintaining their grid system. Four years ago, a major fire was caused by downed power lines and high winds, and Xcel got the crap sued out of them. The state demanded they come up with a solution, and the best they could do was to shut off consumer power whenever the winds get too high. They're calling it a Public Safety Power Shutoff. …

On Bluesky someone posted a picture purporting to show that the Bondi shooter is actually a Jewish person from Israel. I found a Daily Mail image of the shooter on the bridge, named as Naveed Akram and they seem to be the same person. What are your thoughts? The social media page of David Cohen has apparently vanished. I putthe two images together for comparison.

Hello all. You won 10 million on the lottery. After paying for the liquor excesses, and the psychiatric treatment visit, you go to collect the prize. You get a 5 million check and deposit it in your account. Next day you call The IRS (tax) office to congratulate them for making/getting/earning/taking from you a 5 million share with zero investment and not even moving a finger. They did not wait for the tax filing limit date to collect. The filing date limit is April 15 next year. Do you think the tax institution will return funds to you corresponding to the collection in advance of about 10 months ? If does not happen, where can you claim 'justice' to get back 10 m…

For the last few days I have ben unable to reach Rationalwiki. There does not seem to be any commentary on the internet about this, and I suppose there may be an innocent explanation. However I have an uneasy feeling about this, in view of the attack on academic freedom by the Trump administration. I would expect Rationalwiki to be something of a target, as it focuses on debunking pseudoscience, conspiracy theories and misinformation. Snopes I see is still however functioning normally. Does anyone have any information about this?

I've come to the conclusion that about 20% of Russians get sadistic pleasure from inflicting suffering on Ukrainians. It can be said, that there are three peoples in Russia: an apolitical majority, a pro-war minority, and an anti-war minority. And the pro-war minority ("vatniks") impose Putin's current policies and persecute the democrats in power. Putin wouldn't have started the war if the “vatniks” didn’t persecute people like old liberal Medvedev, A.Chubays, I. Nabiullina; and his war is turning them into sadists. I can explain why Putin needs to torment Ukrainians, causing them as much suffering as possible. For the past 20 years, there has been a clash of two ideolog…

I have been looking for information for a long time on cases of interaction between bloggers from Europe and the USA and government agencies. In other words, all confirmed cases of such interactions in which bloggers promoted the initiatives or narratives of the government with which they collaborated. Can you write about the most high-profile cases? Thanks in advance!

His deliberate incursions into NATO members airspace is obviously trying to get a positive reaction from the West. I don't buy the idea that he's testing for weakness, I think he's hoping to drag China into the conflict. Otherwise he's just poking a bear for fun.

So Zohran Mamdani could be the next mayor of the Big Apple, and one of his proposals is to stop subsidizing private grocers and use the money for grocery stores run by the city. It would eliminate the need for increasing profits, and provide an actual benefit to the taxpayers funding it. Currently, those taxpayers subsidize private grocers, taking on some of the liability for the businesses without gaining anything for it (indeed, prices are even higher now). City stores could provide cheaper groceries, which benefits anyone who eats. I know TFG is calling him a Communist, which is horribly wrong, and even Zohran calls himself a Democratic Socialist, but this isn't even r…

The Marxist idea of history being teleological, i.e. progressing towards a specific, predetermined goal seems to me to be a secularized version of Christian eschatology with the World Revolution being the equivalent of the Day of Judgement and Communism (stateless, classless society) being the equivalent of Paradise/Kingdom of Heaven. The similarities are especailly uncanny with Marxists Leninists - they have their own prophets (Marx and Engels), the Apostle (Lenin), the infallible Pope (Stalin/Mao), the Judas iskariote (Trotsky, Deng Xiaoping), priesthood (the vanguard party) etc. Maoists even had a thing called "struggle sessions" which were public lynchings of individu…

Which side will Canada be on in the forthcoming second US Civil War ? That's it. the question.

Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka was informed by the US embassy this week that his visa had been revoked. No reason was given. Report here

As far as I can see, if we compare USA with Europe, the latter looks like USSR: it has more equality, but less freedom. The laws control everything in Europe; for example, cucumbers for sale must be of a strictly defined shape. And this makes too difficult for a smart person to start its own business. I have heard from many people, that in Europe, people drink more alcohol, than in the USA. This can be explained as the result of political situation. A psychologist have told me, that craving for alcohol is a consequence of the absence of aim in life; and it seems that the lack of freedom in Europe makes the Europeans more prone to alcohol. The Americans were at least able …

Just want to see if people think if a platform where everyone, (and yes I do mean everyone, even if at signing up, verifying individual’s identities and providing a safe workable voting system is practically impossible) could be represented as a Global Citizen would be a good thing? As a democratic platform, all votes would only be on policies that would be umbrella policies that affect all of humanity. So a first ever vote would be ‘Do you want to live in a peaceful world or not’, or ‘Do you want protect the global natural environment’. I am not asking for opinions of whether it could be achieved, as atm it can’t, but rather would such a system if it could be, be advanta…

I would like to say; If the American Government were happy to fire a Hell Fire Missile at the UAP. They CLEARLY don't believe the UAPs are of Alien origin. Which leaves with me two options and they are both REALLY strange. 1: They believe they are China or Russian Drones 2: They believe it could be some sort of amphibious undiscovered life like an armoured Box Fish or Super JellyFish Edit: I missed, this was supposed to be in Speculations. Ooops. Sorry. 2nd Edit: Politics, I'm happy with that.

It seems unlikely because why would you want to irradiate the land you want to occupy? However, suppose Putin did use a nuke, how would the US and other nations respond? It would probably not be a nuclear response. Could a response be a massive conventional strike by thousands of cruise missiles?

How would you describe yourselves? I myself have experienced quite a significant poltiical evolution from being a Libertarian at age 18-21, then a Social Democrat and then a non demonational Marxist this year (age 31-31) although I am tolerant of other left wing movements as well as Christian Democrats. Mostly socially progressive as well, ambivalent about gun rights (gun ownership rate is negligible here in Poland and there isn't much debate about it). My political evolution towards the left started with a gradual realization that free market cannot solve everything roughly at age 21.

Hi Some time ago, i've heard that Gazan couldn't go away to avoid the bombs I understood that if they tried to leave Gaza, they were physically prevented/shot Is it true? I understood that some are leaving these days, like without hiding, were they allowed to leave all this time? The subject is not about "to go where" regards

I am very worried about geopolitical situation developing recently. India leaning towards China could be just end to USA's position as world's superpower. It will not only impact geo-politics I am worried about scientific and technological leadership USA has been enjoying. Unfortunately American public severely underestimate impact of immigrant in the scientific and technological field. Most of the recent strides in AI, batteries and quantum computing have been led by Chinese and Indian immigrants. Loosing that channel could reverse American leadership. Technical center's will slowly move towards Asia in large numbers.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/authors-celebrate-historic-settlement-coming-soon-in-anthropic-class-action/ “If every author in the class filed a claim, industry advocates warned, it would "financially ruin" the entire AI industry. It's unclear if the class certification prompted the settlement or what terms authors agreed to, but according to court filings, the settlement terms are binding. A lawyer representing authors, Justin A. Nelson, told Ars that more details would be revealed soon, and he confirmed that the suing authors are claiming a win for possibly millions of class members.“ I saw something recently that claimed a significant part of construction…

Iowa Democrats win massive upset...Iowa Democrats win massive upset to break GOP supermajorityCatelin Drey's victory may portend more good news for Democrats next yearAn 11 point Republican advantage turned to a 10 point Democrat win by Catelin Drey.. It would be gutwrenching if similar results to this had not occurred but this is a modicum of good news. Whether it will translate to the midterms if indeed the midterms are allowed to reflect voters' wishes in the ballots is another question. I have the suspicion that the Republican strategy is to provoke a national (notional?) emergency so that the midterms can be cancelled or falsified and I don't see how that can be pre…

Hi all. You own a salmon nursery. Your reproduction technique/genetics or somewhow for a couple of years puts a distinctive orange spot on the fish skin coming out of your 'factory' facilities. The young salmon are freed to the river and they continue to sea and open sea until adults. If caught by a fisherman, could you claim ownership by the orange spot identification ? 🙄 Twisting the above... If every fish released is tagged with 'ownership' as a dog would; and caught by a fisherman at sea... I think it has been done extensively with free roaming cattle 'branding'.