Politics

Are these not the same thing? Why is one allowed on this forum, while the other is not?

As a kid I loved fire crackers, even on rare occasions cherry bombs and M80s that my brother and I bought in Tia Juana as kids. However, after grammar school I lost all interest in fire crackers. What kind of adult wants to know how to build a bomb that can kill or seriously hurt people? I never searched the internet for instructions on how to build a bomb, but why does that critical info NEED to be available to anyone? Such instructions should be constantly tracked down and removed from the internet, even if it keeps popping back up. There could be search and destroy bots that track them down.

It appears Hillary Clinton is potentially considering another Presidential run in 2020. In various circles I have seen a lot of trepidation among Democrats surrounding the possibility of another Clinton campaign. To me it is a very interesting situation which seems to have paradoxical feelings on different level among both Conservatives and Progressives. The first being that Clinton is though to be too divisive and flawed of a figure to head a national campaign. Conservatives appear to hate Clinton more than Democrats like her. Yet it is the anti Clinton propaganda pushed by those hoping to defeat Clinton politically who have created those feelings and they will do t…

On March 23rd, 2010 the Affordable Care Act passed into law and mostly took effect on January 1st, 2014(the delay mostly due to infrastructure requirements). Since then it insured on average 11.4 million people in 2017. But it did more than just establish a government insurance program, it also established several independent hospital guidelines, health insurance regulations, and more. However, there are several problems with the ACA that I feel we could improve on. First off, the HACRP, which stands for Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program. It's designed to penalize hospitals scoring in the worst quartile for rates of hospital-acquired condition…

Taxation without representation is a well worn slogan familiar to most in the western world. Yet throughout the world's democracies and more specifically in the U.S. millions who pay taxes do not have the right to vote. Green card holders, visa holders, and those in the U.S. on deferred action pay taxes yet have no right to vote. Depending of the state U.S. born citizens can be denied their right to vote pending run ins with the law. In Western Democracies what should the standard be? Should paying taxes guarantee you a right to a vote, should a right to a vote be guaranteed regardless of taxation, or should govts be able to restrict voting to tax paying individuals based…

Journalist J Kashoggi was was allegedly ( well, pretty certainly ) killed in the Saudi embassy in Istambul, Turkey. This brazen act was carried out without much thought to deniability on the part of the Saudis, even evidence of the involvement of the Saudi Crown Prince might be forthcoming. What isn't being discussed is the fact that J Kashoggi was a 'hack' journalist, only interested in promoting the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood, and an extremely vocal critic of the Crown Prince, and his reforms. The Crown Prince, on the other hand, has introduced more progressive reforms to Saudi society in the last year than in the previous 100yrs. I realize the ends…

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has release new figures for the number of arrest related deaths around the country and the number is higher than earlier estimate. https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ardprs1516pf.pdf In the past we have debated reason why this happens, compared it stats from other countries, argued about which protest methods are acceptable, and etc. For the sake of this thread I am assuming we all agree the number should be less and that this is a problem which must be addressed structurally (policy, training, organiztion, equipment, etc). Given our new political climate what can be done structurally and where would it begin?

The BBC reports how Ford is getting around US import tax regulations. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45875405 Is what Ford are doing good business or 'sharp practice' ?

Recently the favorability of Trump has risen. Trump's success can partly be attributed to a large number of Americans that can be enamored, and therefore conned willingly, by a good, SLICK, sales pitch. Many Americans don't see his mannerisms as obnoxious. They are attracted to that brash, combative style, a "street fighter" who fights back. SALES is a major part of the American economy. There are many people in sales. Their commissions depend on how good they are at pushing their product on someone. A good salesman can sell ice cubes to the Eskimos. Many salespersons must admire an expert salesman. People really like to hear an upbeat, brash, carnival barker who…

The recent nomination of B Kavaaugh to the Supreme Court highlights and magnifies the problem with the highest court in the land. Judges are appointed to the Supreme Court by a Government, when the opportunity arises, as an extension of the government's ideology. Republicans nominate extremely conservative judges, while Democrats nominate progressive ( or activist, depending on your viewpoint ) judges and since appointments are for life, the Supreme Court can be right or left leaning for many changes of Government. Once a majority is established in the Supreme Court, laws passed by a government are either 'rubber stamped' by the Court, or modified ( even rendered in…

If Yes, what will it be fought over? If no, why not?

This is not about B Kavanough's suitability for the Supreme Court, nor whether he is innocent or not of the accusations levelled against him ( and certainly not about D Trump ). The issue I want to discuss is whether the MeToo movement has made Due Process a thing of the past. It is no longer 'innocent until proven guilty', but guilty until you can prove yourself innocent. Have we, in our rush to provide a level playing field for victims of sexual assault, taken away the rights of a group of people ( males ) to a fair trial ? The fact that a woman, with dubious recollection ( self admitted ) of events that happened over 30 yrs ago, is to be believed beyond doubt, and …

Racism at the Athens, GA, library Hi, my name is Jb, and I’m a Christian, as you know, the bible teaches about correctable and not correctable people, about saved people and lost boys, about children of the lord and children of the devil, in other words there are immortals and mortals, and both are evil, however immortals can change, I mean we can be less evil, unfortunately mortals can’t, I mean they can’t stop their rebellion, so one day at the library, there was and storm warning, and one lady that works at the counter came to tell me to leave, but she was very ugly, very rude because she was thundering her fingers, for that reason I didn’t leave immediately but I…

What Do you think about gun control? I think that there should be a ban on Citizens using assault weapons because they are weapons of mass murder.

Here it is, Friday, August 31st. If Mueller is going to issue a progress report on his special investigation into Trump, today is the last day. Otherwise, the next 2 months are off limits for any actions, indictments, or announcements because it would interfere with the Midterm elections in November. What do you think? That means we won't be hearing from Mueller until after the elections.

So she was acting crazy and showing signs of mental illness...... does this warrant the police shooting her to death? In the UK or the EU I am certain she would have been taken into hospital and helped through her mental illness..... in the USA? - BLAM! Take that you crazy bitch! That's the end of you. No more troubling your neighbors with crazy shouting. Despicable policing! If the gun laws weren't so stupid in that country then the police wouldn't have been so certain that her BB gun was a real one and wouldn't have had to blow her away just to make sure. Fucking ridiculous. I don't expect her family will get compensation for a wrongful shooting - it will be…

Over the past several weeks media personality Alex Jones has had various social media accounts shut down. Alex Jones is broadly viewed as a right wing pundit. Claims of political bias and censorship of right leaning views have been made regarding Alex Jones's situation. Now today Trump has claimed that Google's search algorithms are political bias. I have seen and heard various arguments regarding this. How do members of this forum view the issue? I personally think all the arguments about freedom of speech, inappropriate censorship, and people being to PC are nonsense. Figures like Alex Jones can (and do) have their own websites where they say what they want. They c…

What's the view like from the US side? Why is her lawyer dragging up payments made to Trump's lawyer by various companies? She seems to be making a career out of it all.

Bit of a contrast to the US isn't it? No messing. Bravo Italy. What do you think?

Trump is the only politician I have ever witnessed that casts permanent condemnations on people. That is the childish way, the Nazi way. It started with Rosie O'Donnell over a decade ago in 2006. She criticized Trump for his treatment of beauty pageant participants, and he responded by calling Rosie a "LOSER" as well at fat, stupid, ugly, etc. That is when I realized that Trump was an idiot that became a billionaire. I was perplexed at how could such an idiotic character become so wealthy? Later I learned that was because his wealth was handed to him by his Dad on a silver platter. He was pampered his entire life with enablers, yes-men, yes-women, and yes-lawyer…

It looks like the US administration is having another go, since that time with Apple.

A supreme court ruling has been announced in favor of a Colorado baker. The case involved a Colorado baker who refused to serve cake to a gay couple for their wedding. This case seems like a good example of a situation that show how discrimination is justified in a certain context, where the context is within the framework of the religious beliefs of the baker. What do you all think of the case? Is it justified?

With variety of economic systems out there, there is a lot to choose from. Unfortunately, there is only examples of how it turned out for each country that tried it, and each country is different. This means that there is no way to tell if it is right for you country, as this would require a sample of the climates of customer trends, loan availability and history, opportunism and other factors too. Hell, it comes down to being so specific it is mind throbbing. So, to simulate the economic system, the best the state can do is work it out on paper. Without marketing analysis, there would be only assets - yes observing the assets of the country is the onyly reliable inf…

By now we all understand that Trump often lies on twitter. One of the more Machiavellian things he does is proclaim policy changes which he hasn't actually made. Like when he proclaimed the military would not accept trans-gendered individuals yet it is or his repeated tweets about his travel banned which has actually been blocked, rewritten, blocked, and rewritten some more. The genius of the tweets of course is that his follows often assume the policy changes have been made. It is a way for him to gloat about things his supporters wish were happening whether they actually happen or not. Those tweets, while ugly and dishonest, I view as politics as normal. A politician l…