Politics

The first labor strike in the New World is made by.. Poles.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown_Polish_craftsmen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1619_Jamestown_Polish_craftsmen_strike "The Jamestown Polish craftsmen's strike of 1619 occurred in the settlement of Jamestown in the Virginia colony, and was the first strike in the recorded history of North America. Polish craftsmen had been brought to the colony by colonial leader John Smith to make glassware, pitch, and tar. When the colony held its first election in 1619, the Polish craftsmen were not allowed to vote, and they went on strike on June 30, 1619. Due to the economic importance of these craftsme…

What do you think of Donald Trumps remarks about Mexico? From what I can gather he said something like "Mexico is sending a lot of bad people across the southern border" not that Mexico is a country of bad people. The SMUGGLERS are the bad people, they are the rapists, murderers, and other criminals. Right?

Is it easier to eat with one chopstick or two? This simple thought experiment helps explain the methods of professional manipulators of popular opinion. To elaborate, an issue is chosen and polarized using various methods of propaganda, leading the majority to enlist in either of two camps, both of which are effectively controlled from the top down, usually by the plutocracy. Issues not selected by the plutocracy are literally off the table and exempt from scrutiny and public consideration.

Where should such a topic belong?

Since they’re only purpose is revenge, why do we need so many?

In 2008, Obama predicted that his environmental policy of shutting down roughly ninety gigawatts of fossil fueled electricity would cause costs to consumers to skyrocket. Joke's on him if we are past the Tipping Point, heheheh. But he will probably be a better sport about it than those freezing in the dark.

What do you think of this idea by Donald Trump to defeat ISIS? "Bomb the hell out of them" says Trump. Can that be accomplished without too much permanent damage? I doubt that means the oil field fires set by Saddam as he exited Kuwait. It makes sense since the financial support for ISIS is mostly oil revenues. Is there a way to disable that money conduit temporarily, so that it would require expert engineers to fix it, since most of the ISIS fighters are not expert engineers or rocket scientists? Then place an international ban on any expert engineers fixing the money machine of ISIS. "...Trump said the U.S. military should destroy the oil fields in Iraq…

It will happen, count on it. Robots work cheap and do not complain, let alone organize into unions. They react faster and do only what their program specifies, no deviation, no fatigue, no human frailty. No discrimination, no sexual harassment, no maternity leave or substance abuse on or off the job. You are already obsolete, have a nice day.

With election fever upon us here is an interesting proposed derivation of the word Parliament. Scroll down to the end of the article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32273170

I just saw the movie Space Junk 3D at the IMAX theater in our museum of nature and science. It's a fascinating look at the problems we have with all the orbital debris from satellites and rocket boosters in the various Earth orbits. It's not so much the sheer volume of zombie satellites that aren't functioning anymore, it's the fact that collisions in orbit happen too often, and every time it does, two satellites become thousands of smaller bits of debris whizzing around at an average of 17,000 mph. Each of those bits has the capability of producing exponentially more debris as these clouds of junk intertwine. The problem was given a name back in the late 70s by NASA,…

Overtone had suggested about a week back that Germany might reduce its dependence on lignite coal for electricity generation by importing solar energy from Spain. I regard this as an intriguing idea that he is invited to develop on its very own thread, submitted for your approval and scrutiny. My apologies in advance if I have misstated the particulars.

How wrong do you see my inexpert politics view of Greece ? : Young Greeks have and will have difficult times, older Greeks have their mattresses stuffed with money from long lasting easy bonanza, reflecting a near 50/50 division in voting. Both lenders and recipients of financial aids will get wealthier no matter what be the end result of Greece paying or not a debt. Too easy living for too long causes unreal expectations for the future to be even easier.

In competitive video games, there is a system, things you can and can not do, there is an objective, something you must do to win, there are other players competing against you within that system, attempting to win. There are winners and losers. In that system there are many combinations of moves, each better or worse under different circumstances than other combinations of moves. Through competition the players, through trial and error, discover the most effective combinations of moves. Other players, players who lost against these combinations, adopt them until another player comes up with a combination that beats that move. Sometimes one combination is more powerful th…

Harold has seen the light and is now no longer a skeptic regarding AGW. To make up for past misconduct, and to prevent further "spinning of wheels chasing red herrings down rabbit holes"(delightfully memorable phrase), I contribute a suggestion. Sue the carbon emitters, take them to court. Start with the frivolous ones like NASCAR and all those with the deep pockets to sponsor these vehicles. Winning in court will be a piece of cake with all the evidence at our disposal and we can educate a lot of rednecks which will be sure to be paying close attention to the trial. We will win big and use the funds to pay for ever more ambitious targets while those newly educate…

And women or womyn, as the case may be, have a safe and happy Independence Day. A little patriotic trivia for you, Francis Scott Key was a pacifist and opposed the War of 1812 on religious grounds. But on the Fourth of July we celebrate not being cursed with a monarchy in addition to our other burdens. Long live the Republic!

Do you think same sex marriage should be made legal by SCOTUS? Why or why not? Do you have a half hour? If so, this collection of clips from the arguments conducted just today at the Supreme Court of the United States is really digestible and well edited: http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/04/super-cuts-from-same-sex-marriage-arguments/ Direct link to the above referenced audio (so well done and so timely!): http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SSM-Supercut-Small.m4a

I'd just like to take a moment to thank the conservatives on SFN. I grew up in Indiana and my friends got married today. They were the first couple to have a same-sex marriage in my home county. Thanks, conservatives. If it weren't for your ban, we would have had to wait longer for marriage equality. I wholeheartedly encourage the conservative members in states without marriage equality or same-sex marriage bans to call their state legislature and ask for a ban so all 50 states can have marriage equality.

Yesterday this 21 year old went into a church, sat for an hour listening to Bible study, then shot and killed 9 people. How long until we will hear discussion in the news about his PARENTS? His parents must be very embarassed, since they created a monster. This psychopathic boy is probably the product of bad parenting, or no parenting. It will be very interesting to know more about his parents. The origin of most problems in the world is bad parenting, or non-parenting. "...Roof's father gave him a .45-caliber pistol for his birthday, according to uncle Charles Cowles." http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/06/18/charleston-suspect-is-dylann-roof.ht…

"There is no place in science for 'toeing the line' with some 'doctrine' or 'consensus'. The best science is always the one that breaks the consensus. This is why we celebrate Einstein and Boltzmann today, for example. In their day, both stood up against the prevailing 'consensus'. Yet, today we know there is no 'ether'- Einstein was right, Kelvin was wrong. And, yes, thermodynamics is derivable from the kinetic theory of matter and...atoms do exist- Boltzmann was right too." -Zdzislaw Meglicki

On Tuesday on the Jimmy Fallon show presidential candidate Jeb Bush spoke about the first meeting between himself and his future foreign bride, Columba. " It was love at first sight. I spoke little Spanish and she spoke little English, but when you are in love you can overcome those barriers pretty quick. There's another language that matters the most." John Ellis "Jeb" Bush is an American businessman and politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is the second son of former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush, and the younger brother of former President George W. Bush. Bush met his w…

Why is it that most of the countries in the world are in debt?

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

I read a great article about space policy I wanted to discuss. Here's the link to the article by Dave Baiocchi and William Welser IV: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/space/2015-04-20/democratization-space In overview, space exploration has, in the past, been the domain of major states. As technology continues to find ways to make sending satellites and other vehicles more affordable, private companies are laying plans to increase the number of launches and vehicles dramatically. But right now, space policy is still largely non-existent, and certainly isn't geared up for the massive efforts private enterprise has in mind. Right now, the Outer Space Treaty loo…

There are many conspiracy theories that surround this idea, and they talk about the formation of the New World Order, or a one-world government. However, nobody seems the question what the problem with a one-world government would be. So, is there any reason to not have one?

I said nothing about how Hitler or Stalin were deposed or not. And I certainly wouldn't encourage thinking that what they did was anything but criminal. However the Weimar republic in Germany in the 20s had runaway inflation. I'm sure you've seen the pictures of the weelbarrows full of Marks needed to buy a loaf of bread. In ten years Hitler had rebuilt the economy ( through military spending among other things ) such that Germany could challenge the major powers of the world militarily again. Stalin had his 5 yr plans in the late 20s with the express purpose of modernizing the Russian economy. And they succeded. The fact that 8 million Ukranians died of starvat…