Politics

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…

While a lot of the focus in recent discussions is understandably focused on the US elections, there is a world-wide ongoing anti-establishment voting going on in Western democracies. We have discussed various elements related to that, and argued about the role (or rather, the diminishing role) of the political center. I cam across a Vox article that contextualizes quite a few of our discussion points and I think it may be worth a read, as it provides more general perspective on the shifting political landscape. https://www.vox.com/politics/388284/trump-2024-win-global-anti-incumbent-system It does not claim to provide answers, but I think it adds to the narrative tha…

The problem with stem cell treatment or organ transplants? The problem with stem cell treatment or 3D organ printing. Could 3D printing be the future of organ transplants? - BBC News https://youtu.be/IUx_vkB3PFc?si=vgAQZnhd5n6Q7EUv What’s really blocking the development of stem cells and tissue engineering is the fact that it is impossible to sell them profitably in a country where you have to spend $1 billion and 15 years of time to get government approval to sell it at all, and then it has to be paid for by an insurance company or government payer rather than the consumer. So the reality is, these things aren’t going to come to the market un…

https://kimgriest.medium.com/real-reason-the-american-middle-class-is-disappearing-901cb78ababf The authors say that the inequality has been growing in the West in recent decades - the middle class is disappearing. This can be measured as the growth of the share of the world's money owned by the richest 1%. The authors attribute this to the fact that Reagan lowered taxes for the rich in the 80s. The authors also write that the mainstream Western mass media are silent about this problem or lie. This is evident with both CNN and Fox News (especially CNN). And this can be explained simply - these 1% of the richest are interested in this state of affairs, and…

What does second term of Trump mean for the US now? What caused the US polar shift vote where political shift moved to the far right and MAGA movement is where the US is at now. I see some similar political parties starting up in Canada, UK and Europe in upcoming election there but they not so far right like Trump. They are mostly centrist party or left centrist with strict border closing and stoping immigration there. But Trump seem more hard core conservatives and ultra far right so the US voting block has moved to hard core conservatives and ultra far right views now. I also don't see abortion or LGBT being thing in Canada, UK and Europe like it is …

I am not happy with billionaires controlling everything either. Who would you elect: Republican Steve Jobs or Democrat WOZ? Which one would have the better vision? Who could make the World a better place? I know this is off topic. And it might not be directly comparable to Trump and Harris. But it may show why the election went the way it did. It does relate in several ways. Especially if it would be Trump vs. Bernie Sanders. Or maybe even Biden. Some may say it’s Victor von Doom vs. Reed Richard’s.

The main rules should be: as long as you don't hurt yourself or hurt anybody else, as long as you don't take others' freedom or your own freedom, you can do whatever you want, without exception. Also, violence should only be used either to protect the innocent, or to fight the law if the law becomes intolerable (just as the American revolution happened because of "intolerable acts.") The government should be a democracy just like America, with one difference: the representatives and the people voting for them should have great intellect and great compassion (both together, otherwise they cannot vote, and cannot run for office.) They need to have every relevant kind o…

I came across the following that might be of interest: https://substack.com/home/post/p-151721941 ================================================== Duty to Warn Letter - to VP Harris - Re: Election 2024 (Revised 430PM) Stephen Spoonamore Nov 16, 2024 November 15, 2024 Honorable VP Kamala Harris The White House Office of the Vice President 1600 Pennsylvania Ave Washington DC 20500 Dear Madam Vice President. …

So the big question is, if Cuba launched Russian missiles at US mainland targets, HOW MANY NUCLEAR WEAPONS WOULD THE US LAUNCH AT CUBA?

In a situation of constant nuclear threats, people still don't know how they work. The people in Russia are brainwashed, but it will be not true to say that they support the Putin's war and his nuclear threats. Most Russians are completely apolitical, they consider talks about politics as something slightly indecent, and they even don't understand that they risk of being annihilated in a nuclear war. The Putin's nuclear threats have a manipulative nature; if the Russians know about them, this would lead to a decrease of Putin's rating in Russia, and soon after that, a new Prigozhin in army will arize who will end the Putin's ruling. It would be a good decision, if Bi…