Politics

I first heard this watching Bill Maher's "Make America Sane Again". So I googled it to find this article from 2015. Does anyone dispute this? If this is true, it is amazing that not more is made of this on cable news. "The bloody conflict in Syria—which enters its fifth year this month [ article dated two years ago 3-2-15]—has killed almost 200,000 people, created 3.2 million refugees, and given rise to the murderous extremist group known as the Islamic State. The roots of the civil war extend deep into Syria’s political and socioeconomic structures. But another cause turns out to be global warming. "When violence erupted in Syria during the Arab Spring in 201…

It is widely bellieved that Hitler wanted to avoid or delay war on US at any cost. So, why did he proclaime war on US in 1941? Wasn't it one of his fatal mistakes?

So I've noticed our politics section is pretty staunchly anti-Trump (I haven't been active here in a while so correct me if this isn't the case) . I'll be frank. I voted for Donald Trump and continue to support most but not all of his policy initiatives. Seeing as how there doesn't seem to be much right wing representation here I'd like to open the floor for anyone to pick my brain as to why I would support such as horrible (insult Trump smear here). I'd like to keep it civil. I know this is an emotionally charged topic so as rational people let's debate as such. I could write a long diatribe about why I support but I think it'd be less boring and more engagi…

So, just out of curiosity, how would one go about starting a new political party in the United States?

I trust that engineers realise that this referendum was not anti European but rather a protest vote about over regulation and lack of jobs both of which affect our economy adversely. To overcome the first we need to simplify to one page maximum all regulations/directives and add government or EU recommendation on how the regulation could be achieved but these are not mandatory. The office of deputy prime minister did an excellent job in starting this off. To provide more jobs now that we are so computer efficient means that we need to reduce the working week to just three and a half days per week and encourage a shift work system as NHS, supermarkets, large stores, se…

Hey, I know I said I'd be gone but I need help. How serious can the charges be if I may have made a method and screwed the state lottery over for a few grand? Like seriously, do I need to get a lawyer and is that actually a legal charge? I can't find anything that says I can't do it and I get in legal trouble for it, so what law would I have broken in doing so? I didn't win millions or anything, it's pretty small in comparison to the money they make. Didn't even think they'd notice. Any advice on this? I'm assuming at least one person here had to have done this before, I mean this place is filled with geniuses. What should I do? Can I somehow plea the case I'm…

http://abcnews.go.com/International/us-launches-military-strike-syria/story?id=46632349 Part of me is glad to see this. Syria used Saran gas on its people. Children, innocents, and others. Then (I understand) bombed the hospital where they were sent for treatment (I've not confirmed though). The question now is: What comes next? In related news - GOP changed rules in the US Senate today because they couldn't get enough votes for their Supreme Court nominee. Lies about Susan Rice are being used to prop up bullshit claims that Obama wire tapped Trump during the election. Steve Bannon was pushed out of the National Secutity Council. Chinese President Xi Jinping is…

How do you think this will play out over time? It seems to me that soon, if not already, Trump will come to reality about climate change. He tweeted that climate change was a hoax and when confronted with his tweet by Clinton in the debates, Trump's response was to deny he said that "No, I didn't" like a 5-year-old who was accused of a misdeed and deflects. Either he was ignorant on the subject or was playing that card for the benefit of his supporters. Now when finding himself in a room with authorities on the subject it will be hard for Trump to continue denying human activity on global warming. There should be a big, definitive, televised debate on the subject…

President Eisenhower had a 91% top tax rate on extreme earnings, which basically took care of two big problems: the worst of the poverty related to circumstances of birth, and the fact that the crazy extreme wealth tends not to circulate through the economy). Do you think we should work towards reinstating such a tax in the US?

What would be the best way to give people a better education? Like extending school through the summer, extending the number of years you go to school(focusing on the United States.)? And I was curious. What if schools tested children every year from kindergarten - 6th grade, and if children tested high enough(I'm talking very high.) they would have the choice of going to a special school run by the government where they would start learning in a chosen field as well as getting an advanced general education. Like say a school had a kid one year who tested high enough. He would be able to decide, without parental approval, to go to the government run school. In t…

Came across this article from the Columbia Journalism Review. They looked at partisanship in media and associated (deliberate) disinformation. The major finding is that while traditional and for the most part left leaning media were interconnected in terms of attention. Right-wing media, including Breitbart on the other hand created their own sphere of news and influence.Thus there seems to be a distinct right-wing infosphere that deliberately isolates itself from the general media landscape. On the left wing end this is far less pronounced and the extremes tend to be isolated more than anything else (instead of self-reinforcing that is). Or in other words partisans…

If Clinton had beef with Taliban, Bush with Al Qaeda, and Obama with ISIS, which group do you think Trump will start something with? And with 'something' I mean 'sending troops into another country because it is necessary for the protection of the U.S'. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think that Trump will start something with Mexico. http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-trump-20170201-story.html This whole ordeal seems fishy and looks like a sham. Who knows, what are your thoughts?

If you're answering, could you please state which country you're talking about as the laws may vary. I'm wondering whether marriage brings any kind of legal benefits such as any kind of tax breaks or anything like that. Are gay people, if they were unable to marry, missing out on any kind of benefits of that sort that marriage brings or is it strictly about the state recognizing them as married?

Will We Start Marrying Robots One Day? Excerpt: Top academics in the UK have claimed that within 30 years, humans will be legally allowed to marry robots and the marriages will be recognized by the state. Next year will see the first ‘sex-robots’ available to the public and some have claimed this will be a catalyst for our acceptance of AI as life. https://spaceinvader.me/2016/12/21/lawfully-wedded-robots-robot-marriages-are-coming/

OK so he is administrator of the EPA rather than a Senator - but Damn all the same http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/09/epa-chief-scott-pruitt.html

I was going to start a thread about the AHCA proposal, but I realized what I really wanted to talk about was the heavy focus on how to disallow medical coverage to lottery winners. The Republicans are very concerned about NOT covering medical costs for people who've won the lottery, taking up 6 of the 60 pages in the AHCA document. Whaaaaaaat? There seems to be a pattern here, and I'm not sure if it's a conservative one, or one influenced by massive wealth, or if it's just a general human proclivity. Lots of folks seem to be under the impression that lots of other folks get lots of things they don't deserve at all. They resent it to the point of irrationality, and ign…

First I must start off with two quotes from Jesus. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22%3A20-22&version=KJV http://biblehub.com/kjv/matthew/10-34.htm Heaven had problems in its hierarchy and so does earth. Now at the present moment in America there are issues from which some radicals would say America needs a violent revolution so that itself does not implode from the ignorance of its leaders. Although Jesus's Triumph on the Cross sent Satan into exile from Heaven into our world he agrees that human's should be passive in dealing with the government as stated in the quote regarding Caesar. Then he incites revolution within the wor…

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Monday confirmed a Reuters report that he was considering a proposal to separate women and children who cross the U.S. border with Mexico illegally, a policy shift he said was aimed at deterring people from making a dangerous journey. Kelly was asked in a CNN interview about the proposal, first reported by Reuters on Friday, in which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would change U.S. policy and keep parents in custody while putting children in the care of the Health and Human Services Department. "Yes, I am considering - in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network - I am considering exactl…

If Trump does actually get funding for the Immigration Wall, the next time a Democrat is elected, the wall can be dismantled. Twice, Dems have put solar collectors on the White House, and the next Rep admin have removed them. Turn about is fair.

There is an old saying that goes something like “An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cures.” The big expense for everyone is health care insurance. That is why it is better that everyone be insured so they may begin to expend the ounce of prevention in terms of healthy life-style (diet and exercise) EARLY in life, and often avoid the expensive treatments for the ailments of an unhealthy life style later in life. That helps to avoid using the emergency room as your doctor of last resort. People need to be reminded and encouraged to make the effort for a healthy life-style. That is why I propose the junk food tax. A panel of nutrition experts co…

Not only does suicide indicate a loss of life and life value, but it's probably economically relevant too. I've only had significant formal study of biological science, but I found the possibility interesting and decided to post some data here. I quickly gathered what information I could regarding the suicide rates of immigrants and also how family disruption (such as that due to deportations) might be conducive to suicide. As it turns out, Mexican immigrants do have higher suicide rates. Immigration and Suicidal Behavior Among Mexicans and Mexican Americans As the tables show, there is no difference in suicide attempts between Mexicans of families without an i…

Obviously, I don't have a horse in this race (as they say) and this ship has sailed (to mix metaphors) but this is an interesting (and bloody annoying) cross-over of politics and science (or lack of). There have been frequent conservative media (is that all the media in the US? I don't know) references to the "fact" that Obama uses a a lot of first person pronouns ("I", "me", "my", etc) and this is a symptom of how self-centred he is. Not surprisingly, this turns out to be bollocks (on both counts). The latest (and possibly last) such story is analysed here: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=30515 Whatever your politics, there is no excuse for this sort …

This story is about Trump's "sheer joy of lying" just for the sake of lying, even about trivial matters. Trump's Lies vs. Your Brain http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/donald-trump-lies-liar-effect-brain-214658 "Donald Trump is in a different category. The sheer frequency, spontaneity and seeming irrelevance of his lies have no precedent... A whopping 70 percent of Trump’s statements that PolitiFact checked during the campaign were false, while only 4 percent were completely true, and 11 percent mostly true." "Those who have followed Trump’s career say his lying isn’t just a tactic, but an ingrained habit." "In his own autobiography, Trump used the …

The topic of the discussion is addressing a terrible opiate epidemic that has struck my city...as with many cities in the US in the last couple of years. I'm open for suggestions any of you have that I can provide at this discussion. ~EE

Russia's parliament has voted to decriminalize domestic violence by an overwhelming margin. The vote decriminalizes instances that do not cause "substantial bodily harm" and do not exceed once per year. My condolences to the women and future victims of this reprehensible vote.