Politics

I feel that all democracies would be greatly benefitted by allowing open forums, perhaps online, that would allow the people to influence the way the country is run.

Hard to tell, because about any attack can be considered terrorism these days - and if necessary, the author will be described as "radicalised", within days in case he wasn't even religious before. Anyway, before the car crashed in the crowd in Charlottesville, I got advance warning. This happens from time to time when intelligence services organize a terrorist act, especially the French ones, but never before an action by Daesh or some far-right group. Maybe I'm not the only one who understands it that way, because few days later, a car driver crashed willingly in a crowd in Sept-Sorts in France, and I got advance warning for that too. Just like I got adva…

This is a question that I have not heard answered yet. How likely is it that North Korea, or ANY nation with nukes, could have ALREADY smuggled nuclear bombs into major cities? How difficult would it be for them to put a nuclear bomb on a small fishing boat and sail south? Then at night bring it onto land to a waiting car or truck that can drive the device to the center of Seoul, or Tokyo, or any major city? Then if we totally destroy North Korea, an agent in South Korea, detonates it. All their missile launches could simply be diversions. Or could they sell a nuclear device to a terrorist organization?

No, we really can't do it that way. That's not how it works. Let's say it costs $10,000 for a visit from the fire brigade. You're able to pay that when you need to call them and put out a fire? Or pay a subscription fee, which will be higher than the tax because some can't afford it or will otherwise choose not to pay? This is not something you can forego and all of the sudden buy when you need it; your house is already on fire. And the army? What military services can you have that are paid for directly? Either your country is defending itself or it isn't.

Why is there so much gun violence in El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia and Honduras when guns are really hard to get? And most people do not have guns and there is no gun culture like the US. Where are the street gangs and criminals getting there guns from? Is most of the guns being smuggled in from the US there by arms dealers? Countries like El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia and Honduras are not like the US, where it is very easy to buy gun legally. Most people don't have guns and it is very hard to get gun legally. Yet some how gangs and criminals are getting guns so where are they getting guns from arms dealers being smuggled in from the US or Russia? Well s…

A boy in my class was supposedly raped. However, while he's my friend nobody will believe he was raped. No one. Not his parents, not his teachers, not his friends. His parents just don't care. They think he got laid and then regretted it. Teachers pretty much think the same thing. His friends say he can't be raped because he's a guy. Also, since it was the "school slut"(don't crucify me. That's what they say) that he had sex with they say he took advantage of her. And all three of them say he enjoyed it. He's not the strongest kid. Rather scrawny. But he's smart and honest. I've worked on stuff with him a lot and I be…

Some Western countries praise multiculturalism and diversity (at least officially). But when all ethnicities and nation will intermix there will be no diversity anymore. Is it good?

Intent is very important when it comes to prosecuting someone, but should that be enough to overcome giving advice that costs someone their lives? Day after day I see people posting articles against vaccination, or promoting cures for cancer that either do nothing or makes things worse. For this I’m going to assume these individuals believe they are giving good advice, and their intent is to help the individual they are giving the advice too. For years, I’ve used this example. If I have a fly on my chest and your intent is to help me and kill the fly, but instead you kill me. This is an exaggeration, but the concept is still the same. Should good intent supersede har…

It is interesting that there are still the ultra right and communists. In almost every country there is ultra right. United States, Israel, Europe, etc. The ultra right is as dangerous as the Muslim terrorists because they are radical. Two experiences that did not work: ultra right and communists.

I recently watched the BBCs recent version of Richard III. The Earl of Warwick and Lady Margaret were played by actors from ethnic minority communities. I briefly considered this a bit strange since they are playing historical figures who were white. However, i believe history belongs to everyone, and hopefully the inclusion of ethnic minority groups in such plays will help everyone feel like it is their history (for instance i love Chinese history and i consider it my history as much as any European history). I also vaguely remember J.K. Rowling blasting someone for complaining when one of her characters, portrayed as white in the Harry Potter books, was played by s…

Every country in the world that we (USA) would generally consider first world are socialist in key markets if not outright. As I look around the world I struggle to identify any countries that succeed or have succeeded in the past using the limited government capitalism first models Conservatives here in the states advocate for. No country with a standard of living equal to or superior than the United States have lower taxation, less industrial regulation, or free market only solutions for healthcare, education, retirement, unemployment, housing, and etc. What are the legitimate examples of the successful use of Conservative policies?

Anyone? Anywhere? Is this a little odd? PNAS-2017-Marsh-1705853114.pdf

In antiquity, the known world was globalized. The entire Mediterranean region, all civilizations (Cities-State) marketed. Globalization creates interdependence between countries, generates employment and helps nations in their development. This is important because it unites the nations and avoids wars. The only problem of globalization is the widening of the gap between rich and poor. Who should resolve this are the governments, raising the tax only on the rich, France is an example. Globalization or nationalism? It must reconcile the two. Globalization is without a return. The two can walk together.

I would like to address the issue of left(ish) and science-based privilege on this board. The science part is quite trivial. Due to the fact that most members are interested in science, certain basic aspects (evolution, GR, climate change) are con-controversially accepted as fact. Not everyone has the expertise to fully understand the concepts, but at minimum one accepts them as trivially true and gets suspicious when someone addresses these or similar topics in an adversarial manner. In the best case scenario, ignorance is countered by knowledge and hopefully leads to education, willful ignorance almost always leads to argument. Still, it is easy to suspect untoward moti…

Does anyone know details about the life of 20-year-old fan of Hitler, Jim Fields, who crashed his car into a group of protesters of a racist rally? In the interview with his mother, see below, Samantha Bloom seemed to have no clue of her "son's" political following. She thought Jim went to a "Albright" rally, related to Trump. She must be his step mom because of a different last name. Maybe she knew little about the boy's upbringing. Jim had his own apartment by age 20. What about his father, Jim senior? What did his father have to do with his son's racism? Was his father a "repugnant" kind of guy? Or was the father simply always absent and the boy "raised himse…

What's the probability? What will it take to impeach Trump considering the GOP has control of senate and house and supreme court? Will it take a change in 2 years when there is an election and the Dems have a chance to take control of the house and/or senate? Or could Trump become so obnoxious that even his party turns against him in less than 2 years? It seems like Trump wants to take his office to the unknown in unpopularity. He has such opposition already, what can happen in the next 2 years? I shudder to think.

What are the root causes? Do you think there is any possibility of peace in the middle-east in the future? If so, what can we do today to make sure to make sure peace and prosperity in the region?

"Russian-linked bots and trolls have caused a surge in use of the hashtag #ResignPaulRyan on Twitter over the last 48 hours, just as the Republican speaker of the House was returning to his home state of Wisconsin for a month-long respite from Washington, D.C. " "It hasn’t been a common occurrence for the Alliance’s dashboard to pick up on Russian bot activity targeting members of the GOP since the site was launched last week by former FBI special agent Clint Watts. But Ryan wasn’t the only member of Trump’s party to face countless bots demanding his removal. A campaign calling on the president to fire National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster received widespread suppo…

My wife came across this today, please someone tell me this is fake news: http://cnn.com.de/news/donald-trump-says-earth-flat/

I though we might list here and discuss the proliferation of alternative facts, broken promises, and the selection of predators as guardians of our country and economy's trust under Trump's administration. Although evidence has been accumulating since January 20th, the latest appears to be Trump's selection of for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder. Puzder's outsourcing of jobs and advocating robots as replacements for workers demanding wage increases provide more evidence of how Trump's doesn't particularly care about the American worker or adhering to his promises to put them first. Although unlikely, a convincing preponderance of evidence might sway his supporters in th…

Why are they pushing Fentanyl these days? I know before they where pushing Oxycontin/Oxycodone and hyrdromorphone and so on and there was people getting addicted and people overdosing!! But now it seems to have done the opposite and now there are hundreds of people overdosing on Fentanyl every month. It is now a major epidemic. And small speck of Fentanyl like size like a speck of sand can kill the person. Why don't they ban Fentanyl and just go back to Oxycontin and morphine or some thing else to there is some thing safer?

This is a question I haven't heard answered. Can anyone answer it? Fox News often repeats this mantra. Would there be evidence of the Trump campaign's collusion with Russia, available to the general public, considering the investigations have been going on for a year already? I would guess any evidence would have been confiscated by the investigations, and we would not know about it. Or is it a reasonable argument against collusion? Is it reasonable to suppose that such evidence would inevitably leak out? We are told the investigations may take a year or longer. Can nothing be revealed to the public until the investigations reach conclusions?

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/us/politics/trump-affirmative-action-universities.html?referer=http://www.google.com/ This is a sensitive issue but one that isn't being ignored by Universities, businesses, or political institutions. So what do you all think? I will start with that simple question rather than jump straight into stats and st…

I've been somewhat reserve in voicing my opinion on aspects of this administration of late; however, after reading comments made by Admiral Scott Swift I feel I must comment here. In his answer to a hypothetical question posed to him at a security conference in Australia, Adm. Swift, commander of our Pacific fleet, said he would launch a nuclear attack against China next week if Trump ordered it. Indeed, I understand the chain of command and how important it may be for foreign nations to know the strong allegiance of our military to the presidency of our nation, but this response is incredibly idiotic and out of line for one of our military leaders to make in a public f…

I am not entirely sure whether this is a suitable start for a conversation, but I cam across this report from a Canadian health (in the province of Saskatchewan). Report, News article 1 News Article 2 It details the experience of a number of aboriginal women who were coerced into tubal ligation, effectively a sterilization technique. In at least one case they were misinformed and the procedure was characterized as reversible. Now, there has been a long and ugly history of forced sterilization of aboriginals. But what I want to highlight is how important the "informed" part of informed consent is. I will admit that I am a tad outraged, especially as I am involved in m…