Politics

Much has been said about the Germanwings co-pilot who coaxed the pilot out of the cockpit, so he could lock the door and crash the plane. What about his mental state? How often does a pilot, or bus driver, intentionally kill themselves AND their passengers? It seems like a severe hatred of other people, including himself. News report stated Andreas told his girl friend (or x girl friend?) that he was going to do something that will be remembered that will "change the system". What can this possibly mean? What change to the "system"? http://www.nytimes.c...ubitz.html?_r=0

In my understanding any democracy and freedom could exist until majority of people could protect them with weapons in their hands. Will technological changes (especially development of weapons and all-pervasive spying systems) ultimately make free society impossible? Then we have to admit that technological progress slows down social progress? Isn't it paradoxical? I mean what regular people in some modern civilized country (who are armed with non-automatic guns at best) could do against stealth bombers, nuclear bombs, submarines etc. In the nearest future there will be robotic military and police systems and spying cameras at every corner. Is there some way to reverse th…

Greetings! I was interested to know what this forum's community thinks of Socialism, so I made this topic to discuss Socialism. As you may (or may not) have noticed from my signature, I am a (Market) Socialist. I simply prefer it to Capitalism, but (unlike many socialists) I am not anti-capitalist. I simply have no reason to be against it. If I had the power I would encourage people to form cooperatives, but I would still allow private enterprise to exist. What is your opinion on socialism? I'm going to make a few points in an attempt to prevent arguments and confusion about certain things...though I doubt that people on this forum will need this. I. T…

Are we moving from political differentiation to ever increasing political integration ? Is there a movement from a Type 0 to a Type 1 civilization ? I subscribe to this view. Do you agree ? PS. Subtract variables like terrorism, genocide, pestilence and the like and we'll get there....

I have copied my question and endy's and iNow's replies off to new thread t avoid disrupting iNow's determinedly focussed thread. The current system clearly does not accord each US voter the same weight - if it did then Presidents could not be elected without a plurality of vote and they are (4 so far). I assume that if the preceeding is accepted then there must be a very good reason for sticking with the current system. Endy and iNow have both responded with the idea that this halts the tyranny of the majority - mob-rule, ochlocracy (that is just too nice a word not to drop it in) but I am not sure that this isn't a rationalisation of tradition r…

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.