Politics

Eskimo Pie is no longer. The Cleveland Indians are no longer. The Washington Redskins are no longer. The cook on the Cream of Wheat box is no longer. Aunt Jemima is no longer. ESKIMO is a fun word. INDIAN is a fun word. The COOK made Cream of Wheat fun to eat. Ford got rid of the MERCURY trademark because it is a Roman god which might offend folks of other faiths. PONTIAC was Native American so General Motors axed it. PLYMOUTH is gone from Chrysler Motors because the name sounds too Anglo-Saxon. The OLD in OLDSMOBILE might have offended the anti-ageism crowd. Who knows? I hate it when there are those woke-sters who make every effort to rid America of her unique heritag…

Trump has just started gutting military leadership, starting with the chief of joint staffs. The chief of joint staffs is supposed to be a termed position that crosses over administrations precisely so they can't be partisan hacks. I assume most of us here have heard the Padme Amidala quote from Starwars I'd argue that liberty in fact dies once the slavers are made generals and leaders. This is the part where I ask the Americans here; how do you expect to keep your democracy intact after this? We all know where this is going, increased defiance of courts and Congress, no more checks and balances, the goading of the American public to engage in protest…

President Trump outlined his vision of of the future of the Middle East yesterday after a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/05/middleeast/takeaways-trump-gaza-proposal-intl-hnk/index.html Leaving aside the little matter that this plan would amount to the wholly illegal ethnic cleansing of nearly 2 million Palestinians who would be forcibly evicted at gunpoint by US forces to Egypt and Jordan (once the US has finished occupying and subduing Panama, Greenland, Mexico and Canada) - you have to wonder what muslim voters in such places as Dearborn Michigan USA will make of it all ? https…

... would it be a red state or a blue state? I've also heard Trump say that Mexico should become a US state. Maybe Claudia Sheinbaum should take him up on that offer. Then Trump would have to open the border with Mexico and allow Mexicans free reign of the US. Wouldn't THAT piss off his MAGA supporters?

The most common criticisms of centrally planned economy is that it stiffs innovation and that (due to lack of price signals) it cannot detect and respond to shortages or overproduction as fast as market economy. Are these valid criticisms? Does planned economy by necessity need to be less efficient?

Within the first week of this administration, they are starting a muzzling program, where federal researchers are not allowed in engage in "external communication". These would include the CDC and NIH (avian influenza, anyone?). This would also pause systems that are needed to evaluate research grants. But good news, a pause has also been ordered on all federal grants and loans. So there wouldn't be any grants to disburse, anyway. This applies to many other federal programs, including food programs and housing. But for the context in research, some see it is a strong indication that the administration seeks to control narratives by crippling critical resarch. ht…

When a reporter asked Trump if Musk and his Muskrats, really NEEDED that access to Americans' sensitive data? Trump replied, "Well, it doesn't, but they get it [DATA?] easily. I mean, we don't have very good security in this country, and they get it very easily." 'Disgrace': Critics outraged by apparent confession at Trump's latest press conference WHAT doesn't?! WTF "IT DOESN'T"?!! And WHO is "they" that gets "IT" easily? YES, "we don't have very good security in this country, so I will exploit that weakness. I will hollow out security services, FBI, CIA, Inspectors General everywhere, and anyone who can oppose me" (which will please Putin and Xi.) "THEY …

A 25 y/o member of Elon Musk’s DOGE team who had been given access to highly classified U.S Treasury payment systems has abruptly resigned Thursday after recently deleted social media posts were brought to light by The Wall Street Journal. His posts advocated the repeal of the Civil Rights Act, the adoption of a “eugenic immigration policy”, and the proud declaration: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5289337/elon-musk-doge-treasury Elon Musk has subsequently denounced the public identification of his DOGE aides on X and by The Wire as a “criminal offence” before conceding that an unknown number of his DOGE appointees are software engineers associated wi…

Elon Musk will be happy to be the shadow president. Trump has been aging rapidly recently, due to the immense stresses on him. Trump looks more depressed than ever. I think Trump may have some kind of nervous breakdown before his term ends, but Elon will be pulling his puppet strings. Elon is the false prophet. His T-shirt says "OCCUPY MARS." He wants people to take loans or sell their homes to afford a one-way ticket to Mars, and a SELF-SUSTAINING colony on Mars is so far away, according to all the scientists I've heard from, hundreds of years away, if ever. (Let's spend those billions fixing earth!) So ignorant people will throw their money at Elon for his projects. But…

There is literature that claims that all violence is a contagious disease, transmitted from person to person. This point of view gives primary weight to nurture, or learned behavior as opposed to genetic predisposition. Unfortunately, this discussion has not begun in the international relations literature, that I have seen, where there is an important caveat. In this literature, there is data that suggests that human conflict is related to a cumulative process, called power law data discovered by Lewis Richardson in 1949. A power law is a relationship between frequency and intensity such that wars are either small and frequent, or rare and huge. Forest fires and eart…

I wonder what the US would actually end up looking like if somehow their brand of Christian Nationalism was in fact fully implemented. Seems to me it wouldn’t be too far off a Republic of Gilead type situation. How could anyone actually want to live in that type of society? This is just beyond me. Maybe they simply don’t understand the ramifications of what it is they are advocating for. Even in Atwood’s novels, many of the main architects of the RoG are portrayed as secretly loathing what they had created. As they say, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.

We already had some discussions on this topic, but now the White House has decided to put their own definition of sex (they basically abolished gender- no, really). This is a feeble attempt to provide themselves with some pseudo-scientific credentials. The definition are as follows: Now, there is a biological definition that defines the different sexes as producing large or small gametes in anisogamous species. However (and as discussed earlier), that in various species the assignment can change. I.e. some fish start off by producing large gametes and produce small ones later in life. In other cases individuals do not produce either at some point in their life. Th…

Is this racist or some other reason why Trump is doing this? GO HOME’ — White House removes Spanish language from website https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/go-home-white-house-removes-spanish-language-from-website/article_0efe01bc-d7fd-11ef-b30e-2fdb0dc1e66d.html Minutes after Donald Trump took the Oath of Office to become the 47th President of the United States, the White House’s website was re-vamped, including the removal of a Spanish language section. The landing page for the White House’s Spanish language communications similarly went dark in 2017, but had been restored in 2021 during President Joe Biden’s tenure. https:/…

Funny. All the technology in the world won't beat commitment to a cause. As Ukraine shows as well earlier in the war and it is still pretty artisanal in its weapon development.

There is a finite quantity of fossil fuels and materials to produce nuclear energy on Planet Earth. It's only a question of how long before the world takes renewable energy dead serious. It's not a question of if but of when. Should governments now mandate EV manufacture and use? Is EV manufacture and use now mandated in your nation? Should energy production, distribution and consumption be driven solely by markets? In the United States of America, the GOP policy on energy now is "drill, baby, drill". That is extract crude oil and natural gas on American soil to the fullest extent possible and even export these fossil fuels worldwide t…

Why do some people here say Trump is sexist? How sexist his Trump? I notice some people say that Trump is sexist and hates women? Is that true? When you look at the congressman and senators is it about the same has Biden or the white house or when you look at Trump cabinet ministers like department education, department of finance, department of healthcare so on. Is there major difference? Mostly all guys now?

They most certainly got my vote in November of 2024 as Donald and Mike Pence got my vote in 2020 and in 2016. It was nice to see fake senile Old Joe and that fake ex-VP dame get out of Washington on that helicopter and that big jet airplane. I agree with Donald Trump that Biden/Harris never had a legitimate administration in the first place because the 2020 election was tampered with. I saw Trump's inaugural speech. He said, DRILL, BABY, DRILL! He doesn't like that federal mandate to push electric automobiles onto the public also. The whole EV thing has a way to go before it blooms in full and is ripened to perfection. At age 60, I will probably be confined t…

I think it's readily obvious that some people shouldn't have children (e.x. severe cases of child abuse and neglect). Likewise, I think we can agree that society needs some amount of people willing to have children at any given time (e.x. if no one had children, humanity would cease to exist), but obviously that doesn't mean that society needs everyone who is currently having children to be doing so. Regarding "how many children" society needs people having, this is a tricker question. Theoretically humanity could "survive" even if only a small amount of people were having children (just as how humans existed for most of history as hunter-gatherers, and larger popula…

Environmental protest continues to take endless forms most beautiful. The use of chalk paint, to facilitate its removal, was a good way to downplay the vandalism aspect. And since Darwin's seminal studies included observations on chalk beds extending from England into N France, it seems a more respectful choice in terms of recognizing his contributions. (I may be over-connecting dots here) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/13/just-stop-oil-activists-spray-paint-charles-darwin-grave Lee said: “We are trying to get the government to act on climate change. They are not doing enough.” Bligh said: “We’ve done this because there’s no ho…

I see that in modern countries, which call themselves democratic, a hidden authoritarianism is mainteined by votings where the citizens can vote for both something good and something bad in ac single vote. For example, the Americans voted for Trump because they disliked the inflation and transgenders in big sport, but now Trump or Vance will say that they voted for prohibiting abortions and stopping the support of Ukraine. In Russia, a sample of such packed voting was e.g. the referendum of 2020 for changes in the constitution; it can be said, that the Russians mostly voted for new parts like “A marriage is a union between a man and a woman”, but after that Putin was…

Allan Lichtman is famous for correctly predicting 9 of the last 10 US elections. He says his final prediction will come in August. At this moment it looks like Biden will win in 2024 by 9 out of 13 keys. Skip forward to minute 12:00 for the analysis of keys: To summarize his findings for 2024: 1 MIDTERM GAINS - FALSE - clearly no Dem midterm gain 2 NO PRIMARY CONTEST - YES, clearly no primary contest 3 INCUMBANT SEEKING RE-ELECTION - YES, clearly Biden is incumbent 4 NO THIRD PARTY CHALLENGE - LIKELY, but not certain about RFK Jr's challenge 5 STRONG SHORT-TERM ECONOMY - YES, certainly true 6 STRONG LONG-TERM ECONOMY - Y…

These two rulers are very similar: 1) Both came to power rather by accident; 2) Both showed themselves as relatively secular, not fanatical, maybe even pro-Western; 3) Both started their rule quite liberally; 4) In 2021, according to official data, Assad "got" 95% of votes in the first tour of the presidential election. Putin "got" 87% in the first tour in 2024. The next point is that any dictator benefits from the situation when the population have a little choice - either this dictator or a civil war. Please tell me if anyone knows how Assad did it in Syria. Currently I understand how Putin does this in Russia: 1) Now Chechnya is in fact an…

How do you feel about the fact that many psychiatrists believe that scientists' work is useless, that science itself is pointless, and that no one needs to do anything—just relax? For example, they say that nothing in the world can be changed or improved, that past events are the reason for this, and that people's decisions have almost no influence. They claim that if you believe something can change in life or that people's lives can improve because of science, you are just as delusional as the scientists themselves. This question is explored in more detail in the book Harry Potter, Immortality, and the Conspiracy of Psychiatrists.

What is the cause of inflation? Did Argentina and Venezuela not have out of control inflation? I thought countries like Argentina and Venezuela had out of control inflation? What cause the inflation in Argentina and Venezuela. I hear today there still high inflation in Argentina and Venezuela and it is not coming down but getting worse.

The pharma industry is responsible for the pricing of so-called “niche” generic drugs, whose suppliers exploit weak competition and regulation to hike prices On top of this you have evergreening whereby pharma drugs continually have their patents renewed due to small formula changes etc, and the vast majority of drugs fall in to this category. The pharma industry is not really that interested in doing that much research in to rare types of cancer which are not going to create much drug sales, and if they do put money in to research it will usually only in relation to where they think the most profit can be generated. In reality many pharma companies spend m…