Politics

Inow, In the failed front two, you state that "we see the exact opposite", and while I can think of a few examples of airhead children, not possessing the skills and abilities of their parents (my plumber's son for instance,) I can think of many many more examples, of managers, leaders, store owners, craftsmen, scientists, movie producers, business leaders, thought leaders, military commanders, and politicians, who actually have the credentials and abilities and the ethics to be capable and trustworthy leaders. And where we see brilliance in disenfrancised individuals, we might get gang leaders, or revolutionary figures and such, but they are still the "leaders" of s…

Boris Nemtsov, critic of putin, has been killed 27-Feb-2015 Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Nemtsov "Close to midnight on 27 February 2015 in Moscow, Nemtsov was shot four times in the chest as he was walking near the Kremlin with a female companion. He was on the Bolshoi Zamoskvoretsky Bridge when "several people" got out of a white car and shot him in the back, according to the Russian media." BBC source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31669061 "A leading Russian opposition politician, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, has been shot dead in Moscow, Russian officials say." "In a recent interview, he had said he feared Russi…

"A new paper by Stephen Rose of George Washington University that was picked up by the New York Times created a stir by claiming that inequality fell after the crisis. While the crisis proper did hit the well-off hard, and past accounts allow for that, a large range of analyses had found that income and wealth inequality rose after the crisis. That mean the Rose paper was potentially important, and even if not, it was useful to those who’d like to claim that the new normal is benign, even virtuous, so it has gotten quite a bit of attention." http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/03/debunking-claim-inequality-fell-crisis.html This seems to be a topic of increas…

ISIS has been getting away with a horrendous murder rampage across Syria and Iraq, but now they went too far burning the Jordanian pilot alive. Beheading is tame in comparison. Jordan is reacting saying they will revenge this murder. Why have I not heard the two magic words when it comes to defeating ISIS: INFILTRATION and DEPROGRAMMING? Train people to join ISIS and appear to be "normal psychopaths" which is what ISIS needs. If ISIS cannot trust its' recruits any longer, it will collapse. Also there are a lot of impressionable youths who need to be deprogrammed in an Islamic deprogramming camp. The good news is probably Jordan and some other local countri…

This topic is adressed to our members living in the United States of America. How do you judge the current US politics? All areas of US domestic politics - upholding the rule of law, nature of inter-party relationship, administrative efficiacy, protection of freedoms I would be interested in comparison with EU and comparison with United States in the past.

Say you live in a village, in the lands bordered by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, about 55-60 hundred yrs ago, and the population has grown enough that a government is needed to run and oversee this now city/state, what should be the purpose of such a government ? What should it be tasked with ? What should be the extent of its power ? Lets leave out any religious influence that would have been manifest in ancient people so as to make it easier to compare with present day governments. How has government and the expectations we have of said government changed through the ages ? Has it become more or less intrusive on people's lives ? Has it gotten too big/powerful o…

Funding canceled for clean coal plant "Under a looming budget deadline, the U.S. Department of Energy has dropped its plan to give $1 billion in funding to FutureGen 2.0, a $1.65 billion clean coal project in Illinois." https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-ticker/funding-canceled-clean-coal-plant?tgt=nr Anyone know more about this? I'm not a conspiracy buff but seems convenient for certain industries to cancel this project not to mention that there is a lot of opposition from some environmentalist to any solution that does not exclude coal altogether.

Money has no right to influence the decisions made in a fair and equal democracy based on free market capitalism. Imagine what might happen to something like pro-football if the rules allowed for outsiders to bribe referees for favor in observing and calling penalties, instead of the referees following and judging events in the game against rules in the book to the best of their abilities, without a bias, to lean in favor of a bribe. What does the same effect do to our legislative body? The reps are no longer making decisions based on ethics and responsibilties to the attitudes of their constituents equally...the consider those who give them money and adopt more of t…

What are your thoughts on the thawing of US-Cuba relations ? Will this mean the added influx of trade/tourism brings some benefit to the destitute Cuban people. Or will the corrupt Cuban system use it to strengthen and further its dictatorial hold on the country ?

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This is the response from North Korea after being accused by the US for the cyber attack by the "GOP" (Guardians of Peace) on Sony, costing Sony hundreds of millions of dollars, to retaliate for the movie "The Interview". North Korea said they were framed and want to see the evidence and work with the US to find the culprit(s). The US rejected this offer from North Korea. What do you think about this? It seems to me that the US should do anything it can to open dialogue with North Korea. The US does not need to give away sensitive info about HOW we figured out North Korea is responsible for the attack. We should send a deligation lead by the basketball playe…

When a country supplies aid, like weapons/war equipment... to a troubled country; the cost of such materials is paid to the equipment manufacturers turning the money printing machine on; or the recipient country pays in goods like petroleum ?

From the BBC Condemnation is automatic, necessary, and yet essentially futile. We must stand together; it is only if we hope and work in the belief that a determination to preserve freedom of speech, human rights, and the tolerance through the ideals, existence and maintenance of the democratic pluralistic state will eventually win through.

Recently there aired on History Channel a few new documentaries, including “Lee H. Oswald – 48 Hours to Live”. It was very interesting to hear the few things Oswald said, and see a re-enactment of what he did after shooting JFK. Little is known of him except his living in Russia and his contacting the Soviet, and Cuban, embassies in Mexico City shortly before the assassination. Did he tell them what he was planning? Did they encourage him and promise to help him escape? If Oswald was not killed by Jack Ruby, would it have come out that Russia and/or Cuba was behind the assassination? History is often a record of delusional actions by actors. Hitler’s strat…

Even the democratic political systems resort to implicit violence at its core, no less than any other forms of governments. The reason is simple, violence is a universal language that is understood by biological entities. This is a common denominator. It is also the ultimate evolution/competition force. So violence deserves its central role in shaping human history and political systems. It is somewhat obvious but carefully disguised by all political establishments. Today we denounce violence employed by 'terrorists'. We should. But on the other hand unfortunately we have to put it in the context discussed above.

I guess we should step in and save the whip and buggy makers from competition from those upstart automobiles. And the photo industry from digital competition. And the video tape rental people from digital downloads. Western Union from text messaging. IOW, so what?

Hi everyone I had absolutely no idea where to post this, since I cannot find the answer anywhere and this forum section is the best possible area to ask it. In Belgium, we have a television program which makes parodies on the speech of this funny little guy: Does anyone have any idea who it is? I'd just like to know because he seems a (religious leader) of something, for which he is quite young. Aside of that, he looks dangerous. Here's a video of his speech (don't mind the parody subtitles): Thanks! F.

This was raised in another thread. Want to explore it here. I'm asking specifically about whether voting is best considered a right or a privilege within a representative democracy or constitutional republic such as the system implemented and operating in the US. Assume this is a forced choice and wishy-washer middle of the road answers are not allowed. A right? A privilege? An inherent requirement? What say you?

Saw this article http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/us-use-of-shannon-airport-makes-ireland-a-target-anjem-choudary-1.2060258and was not impressed. My advice would be if he would prefer us to appear more neutral then you shouldn't kill our citizens

Have you all been following the controversy of "The Interview"? Well, I just found out they released it online, on Youtube, although I suspect it might be available from other places as well. Four days ago.

Since 2007, the Aldabra Banded Snail (Rhachistia aldabrae) has been the chief poster mollusc of climate alarmists across the globe. That's because - according to a peer-reviewed paper published by an "expert" in the field, Justin Gerlach, it was the first extinction directly attributable to climate change. It has been found alive and well - and living where it always has for the past 80,000 - on the Indian Ocean atoll of Aldabra. Oops, that should be mollusk! Sorry about that!! Did you happen to read the November 25, 2013 Canadian weekly magazine Macleans cover story? Adds more fuel to the climate alarmist fire. But, since you rightly insist that a single event …

[...] When I first saw that someone [in the USA] was spotted with ebola, I thought to myself that the workers were seriously ignorant. Personally, I think the National Security Agency should step in, put things on lock down, and quarentine issues until this problem is solved. Am I right or wrong? Yeah, maybe some civil rights would be violated, but at least it won't be a plague. It looks like the issue is getting worse from what I'm seeing on the news.

This was my Grandmother's injunction every election day and I believe it has its origins in Ireland; it certainly has that wonderful unbalancing effect of many Irish aphorisms - you are not sure where the humour finishes and the seriousness begins. Real reason for post was tag a couple of pretty disturbing articles concerning tomorrow's Election. For those not in USA - it is midterm elections for all of the house (likely to remain Rep) and enough of the senate to change from Dem to Rep. Here is a beeb jokey article about midterms and here is the wikipedia page Here is a pretty chilling article summarizing some of the recent legal changes (Citizens United and ne…

I am really not sure of the validity of the conclusions - really posting because of the beauty of the construction and breadth of the project's ambition http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/30/middle-east-explained_n_6056786.html?utm_hp_ref=world

I've seen this in (computer) gaming. Large companies buy more and more of there smaller competition, consolidating into one. Until one huge and several "small" organisations remain, with few employees, and very strong ideologies, which is why they never sold out, making more profit than the large companies because the large companies are so broken and attract no talent, only now being able to exploit and disgust customers again and again. I don't see this as being sustainable and at some point the large organisations operating like this will collapse, theres no such thing as "too big to fail". However even if this doesn't happen, it's already worked to fun…