Politics

Former president Trump, you had four years to lead the United States and failed us by your own choosing. Whether it be in foreign policy or domestic policy, you did not protect the nation as commander in chief. We the American people have finally borne witness to what happens when they place an incompetent business man into the Oval Office. Especi…

Many Republicans who still like living in a democracy will not be voting for someone who stole classified documents, manipulated election officials, and led an insurrection against the US. TFG's base isn't interested in the GOP or democracy. The Fascist Floridian made a YUGE mistake, imo, by his extreme stance on abortion, complete with draconian laws: https://www.newsweek.com/ron-desantis-just-made-himself-unelectable-president-opinion-1790939 And let's not forget that COVID-19 disproportionately affected Republican voters because TFG told them they didn't need to vaccinate or wear masks: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30512/w30512.pdf Consid…

I have an evangelical acquaintance who claimed God saved Trump at the last minute; I executed a perfect scripture based attack by pointing out that the bible claims the devil actually has dominion over this world until jesus returns after the tribulation. I don't believe it but hey you gotta meet some people where they are at. So who really saved Trump? Satan. Having salvation army ministers for grandparents has it's benefits... a few at least. Won some respect there at least and it also gave me a few ideas for advocating for rehabilitation based justice versus punitive justice within religious demographics. I think I felt my diplomatic reasoning skills level up! Alt…

The Indirect Sale of Marijuana by the U.S. Government: A Complex Relationship Abstract The legalization of marijuana in various states has created a complex relationship between state governments, the federal government, and the cannabis industry. While the federal government maintains marijuana's status as an illegal substance, it indirectly benefits from the industry's profitability through taxation. This paper explores how federal tax policies impact marijuana businesses and the broader implications of this indirect relationship. Issues such as banking restrictions, legal inconsistencies, and ethical considerations are also examined. Introduction Th…

In a country that charges for everything, one has to worry about food first and foremost. The challenge of finding a significant other especially if you are as picky as me really is a lot more tricky AND potentially dangerous. You know every dating service will charge large arbitrary sums and it is difficult enough with the compounding charges for transportation, food, and shelter then you have to add up owning a room, or maybe if you're wealthy a home. Occupations that provide all of this don't leave any free-time so you need a dating service that rigs the random chaos of normal social interaction what with gender segregation being a real thing. Gender segregation has it…

Would that have made the GOP temporarily indestructible with Don jnr thrust under the crown?

Many people around the world, especially in Russia, call themselves opponents of democracy. Their logic is simple — they believe they live well enough now without democracy. I will demonstrate the flaws in this reasoning. Currently, there are quite prosperous monarchical countries such as Jordan, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. However, these modern monarchies are very different from ancient monarchies characterized as Eastern despotism. In today’s world, monarchies neighboring democracies must maintain relatively good governance, or they risk being overthrown. In civilizations unfamiliar with democracy, the oppression of the lower classes by the upper classes…

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/17/president-biden-tests-positive-for-covid-unidosus-leader-says.html So this is now happening. Anyone else feel like 2024 is actively trying to be bigger and badder than 2020?

I wanted to use this thread to discuss the rise of far-right sentiments across the world and start with this article https://www.vox.com/politics/361136/far-right-authoritarianism-germany-reactionary-spirit It provides some background about the the rise of democracies and includes this sentiment from Francis Fukuyama There are various lines of thoughts, but in article suggest that a lot is driven by ethnic resentment related to immigration: In many discussions on this forum, there have been puzzlement why folks like Trump with strong authoritarian tendencies have been able to gain so much ground in democracies and often fear has been an underlying cur…

I have come to some conclusions concerning the politics in the West; however, I haven’t watched the western mass media very much, and I am asking the people here to comment. As far as I can see, this is a typical situation: voters are asked to choose between several candidates, and Candidate A proposes some kind of rubbish because of which people don’t want to vote for him, but they don’t have much choice, since candidate B, while voicing a normal position on this issue, proposes some other rubbish on another issue. In fact, this means that is some kind of hidden collusion between these candidates. In the United States there is a confrontation between the leftists who w…

Is Political Conservatism a Mild Form of Insanity? Death Fear (among other unsavory attributes) Predicts Republicanism [bolding mine] Further reading on the study: Researchers help define what makes a political conservative @ UC Berkeley

I live in Russia (please note that I support Ukraine). I believe that the political scientists now do not fully understand how authoritarian and totalitarian regimes function, and what is their weakness. These regimes all declare that they are “people’s”, that dictators express the “will of the nation” and so on. These dictators, with the help of propaganda and the repressive machine, do often indeed shape the opinion of the majority of the population in their countries; but they never admit it. I want propose the easiest way for Western countries to defeat Putin and Xi. First, the United States must reconsider its nuclear doctrine, and declare that the use of US nuclear…

1) The Chinese made better Cars then the Americans now, BYD. 2) China could be the first one to put man on Mars. 3) NASA's chief is worried about China getting back to the moon first. Here's why NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told NPR he sees the U.S. in an urgent race with China. 4) Boeing is falling, the Chinese aircraft, C919, is going to be a better one than Boeing's 737. 5) China has the capacity to build combat ships at 200 times the rate that the US can, per leaked US Navy intelligence. China's shipbuilding capacity has dwarfed US capabilities, per leaked US Navy intelligence. A Navy spokesperson confirmed the leaked material's authenticity to …

Hi kids I don't find it will happen literally. Eg some politicians may look a bit robotic but they're not made of metal and wires. But there is ever increasing automation of traditional jobs, especially manual jobs, eg someone's invented a machine which can lay bricks 3x faster than a man. On a theoretical basis, what would society look like if ALL paid employment became automated so there's no more jobs for human beings? I guess all money in the economy would eventually flow to the owners of the means of production, people who own all the robots and robot factories. Everyone else, the jobless, cash-less proletariat, would I guess have to go back …

Today I learned about Schedule F appointment, which is an insidious method of US government control and a subversive tool for those who aspire to dictatorship. Schedule F appointments essentially allow the reclassification of potentially thousands of US government workers as political appointees who can be hired and fired at the whim of the Executive branch of US government regardless of qualifications. Potentially, under Schedule F appointment if restored, a president can fire any so designated federal employee who conscientiously refuse his directives and replace them with a sycophant willing to do and say whatever he commands regardless of consequence. I shiver at t…

...and now a bible salesman! This short video is a good example of Trump's assumption that other people are as hateful and greedy as he is. A lot goes on in this short video. "The great John Paulson made plenty of money in Nevada. He doesn't live there but he makes a HELL of a lot of money. He makes money everywhere he goes actually. He's a money machine. You know what? Put him in treasury. You want to make a little money?" "....Then we go to South Carolina where we have done really well, where I have done well...." Notice how he contorts his mouth as he talks and how he belittles Tim Scott, but Tim just rolls with the punches. "Almost every one of them end…

Juanita N. Holmes is a name that may become more widely familiar in coming days. She is an American police officer and administrator who is the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation - and she has the responsibility of interviewing and making sentencing recommendations to Judge Juan Merchan in respect of newly convicted felon Donald J. Trump before his sentencing hearing on July 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juanita_N._Holmes One issue that is of particular interest to a Probation Officer is whether a felon is in compliance with 18 US Code §922(g), a Federal law that renders it illegal for a convicted felon to be in possession of a firear…

"Let's stop being so damned respectful! Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness... Lets stop being damned respectful!" RICHARD DAWKINS 2002 "I think it's very sad especially in universities... where you should be free to speak your mind and to listen to something even if it's something you don't like, and it's very tragic that universities seem to have bought into the idea that if you hear something you don't like you should shut them up and refuse to let them speak" RICHARD DAWKINS bleating to Piers Morgan about cancel culture …

"The jury has found former US President Donald Trump GUILTY of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment made to former porn star Stormy Daniels. He becomes the first former president to be convicted of a crime. This is for the first count of the 34 charges in total. There are more verdicts to come." This is current. He is guilty on the first three counts, so far. I thought it might be worth its own thread. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-69069142

The CEO of TikTok appeared before Congress yesterday to defend his platform, which has over 150M US users. https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-ceo-face-tough-questions-support-us-ban-grows-2023-03-23/ Democrats and Republicans seemed equally out for blood, and equally unqualified to fairly judge the popular app. Meta and Facebook hired an outside firm for a smear campaign against TikTok, and to me it looks like the committee members have all received lobbying funds from the Big Tech firms to incentivize banning this pesky competitor. Some of the questions asked were phenomenally stupid ("Does TikTok access the home wi-fi network?" asked Rep Richard Hudson …

One of the biggest problems in this world is human overpopulation. Adults with means can adopt children in need of homes unselfishly as opposed to making more babies. Whenever the planet is overcrowded, life widely suffers needlessly. Overpopulation is one of the main reasons desirable employment can be so difficult to attain. When people are fewer in numbers, hiring is much more in demand to furnish the economy with needed human resources. The world needs so many humans to make our modern living and comfort possible. If there were only 1,000 living people in the entire world at any given time, we would be still living in caves with loin cloths and hunting with spears and…

https://apnews.com/article/trump-election-2024-rhetoric-germany-antisemitism-31002afb91b642c0314223d19e51f427 Trumps social media account shares a campaign video with a headline about a unified Reich This was not a campaign video, it was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the President was in court, Karoline Leavitt, the campaign press secretary, said in a statement. In related news, an urgent call goes out for optometrists to aid Trump staffers with sudden severe vision impairments.

It seems strange for me, why the American Civil War happened in the 19th century. I mean that, as far as I can see, civil wars and “Smuta” are an attribute of an authoritarian society, not a democratic one. I understand the mechanism of the Time of Troubles in Russia in 1612 or the Three Kingdoms in China: this situation occurs because any aristocrat wants to become a monarch, and the legitimacy of power is determined not by elections, but by the fact that the ruler is in power. Why then did turmoil also occur in the USA? My question is: when the southern states seceded from the northern states and mobilized, was that the decision of the people of those states? Did p…

i wouldnt say this is a brain teaser or puzzle but just something to think about and discuss If you were to pick any 5 Countries to rule the entire world what would they be (feel free to include maps of what the boundaries would look like) Mine are the nordic countries like Sweden, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, etc

A helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi the President of Iran has gone missing in a remote region of NW Iran close to the border with Azerbaijan. Foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian is also said to have been onboard the same craft which was part of a convoy of three helicopters that were returning from a visit to mark the inauguration of a new dam in neighbouring Azerbaijan. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/19/iran-helicopter-accident-live-president-fm-on-missing-aircraft Various reports from Iranian news agencies say that the helicopter made a “hard landing” somwhere near the Iranian border town of Jolfa. Iranian rescue teams are struggling to re…