Gute Nachrichten. Die Schokoladenration wird von 40g auf 20g erhöht.

Oh, the possibility that Trump has to hand the trophy to Spain becomes more and more possible. That would be so horrible for him… Go Spain!

They have for decades been at the forefront of cheating. Which party broke into their competitors offices to so on them? Who used the supreme court to stop the count in Florida, where after the fact it was found out they would have (narrowly) lost?

They know they cheat at every opportunity, so they need to accuse their opponents of the same.

More combined starches: Verheiratete (German, something like “married couple”) are a kind of dumplings with potatoes together with diced fried bacon. One of my favourite local foods.

Only if there are ways out for the elite. Otherwise it’s essentially a defense co-op. If you believe your country is using the military in ethically wrong ways, that’s the actual problem, not the draft.

It’s not really even about being a democracy. Kommunist East Germany with one of the most formidable surveillance systems to date could only look on when a sufficient percentage of the population rose peacefully.

I believe the plumbing for democratic change is still present in the US. What is preventing change is people doom scrolling on the couch.

Ich erkläre es mir viel damit, dass die Entscheidungsträger natürlich Auto fahren. Bestenfalls mit Chauffeur/Personenschützer. Was mit der Bahn passiert tangiert die eben nicht direkt. Ich würde wirklich gerne wissen, wie viele Bahn-Manager jemals oder gar gewohnheitsmäßig mit ihrer eigenen Bahn fahren…

Japan wäre aufgrund der hohen Bevölkerungsdichte ohne funktionierendes Bahnnetz nicht lebensfähig. Selbst mit funktionierendem Bahnnetz ist der urbane Verkehr sehr dicht. Keine Ahnung weshalb sich die Schweiz so ein gutes Bahnnetz hält. Aber für Deutschland ist das Netz offensichtlich keine hohe Priorität, zumindest nicht für die Personenbeförderung. Und für den Gütertransport kann man auch einfach die Personenzüge warten lassen. Zumindest müssen die Züge mit denen ich fahre Güterzügen vorfahrt gewähren.

Will there be a special song? “Ding, dong, the witch is dead” is Thatcher.

I don’t think it’s about being able to afford it. More that he is loath to let her have anything at all on principle.

It’s not about whether a perpetrator deserves to live or not. It’s about the reliabilty of the judicial system. Even this day and age with our amazing forensic techniques, plenty of innocent people get indicted instead of the actual perpetrators. It’s also about what executing people does to the society doing the executions. Honestly, I have tons of sympathy for the character Hawkeye in Avengers: Endgame. However in this sort of fiction the people getting killed absolutely certainly are guilty. Reality is much more messy than that.

Fun Fact: what killed communism wasn’t so much the ownership details of the means of production, but the fact they chose a command economy instead of a market economy. Planned or command economies are bad, no matter what political ideology is behind it.

Also: the way politicians world wide allowed conentration of mega corporations, I feel we are moving much more towards a command economy than a market economy.

We were talking office suites, but yeah. Though M$ should have lost the OS wars not against Linux (it was a fledgling OS at the time) but other systems of the day. OS/2 was what a stable win3 should have been. VMS or true64 Unix could do stuff windows server could only dream of. Yet marketing to pointy haired bosses brought MS the victory, not technical merit.

I upvoted you, because by and large you are right. As a caveat though some people do have office tied up in automated workflows with scripting in some sort of M$-language. In that case you would have technical hurdles in addition to lobbying and politics.

The American use of the word “moderate” irks me anyway. An American “moderate” Democrat passes as a non-rabid conservative elsewhere. The Overton-Window has been shifted to the right to an extent that’s not funny anymore.

You fail to see that both approaches are valid in the correct context. Establishment Dems need to go. But the right place for that are the primaries.

If an actual progressive doesn’t get endorsed or runs as an independent in the actual elections, you might need to hold your nose and vote blue. That way you get another chance for change the next time around. If you don’t vote whoever isn’t MAGA, I honestly don’t think there will be a meaningful next time to vote. MAGA is already trying their best to rig the elections. If the house (and hopefully senate) don’t change this time, I think the experiment is over.

So by all means press for change in the primaries. What the US desperately needs is to overturn citizens united, but also a reform to the election system. First past the post is toxic.

The only thing that makes them “left” is that they are not Republicans and that Republicans keep calling them left.

Establishment Democrats would fit right in with traditional conservative parties throughout Europe. I could easily see Merkel of the CDU being to the left of quite a number of Establishment Democrats.

Exactly! There is even still defense equipment in use that uses 8inch floppies!

Not entirely. Generally of course people who don’t have to labour for their livelyhood have more time and certainly more resources to influence politics. But the common man can make their voices heard. -you can vote in your interest. Be careful of what people try to tell you is your interest -you can protest (peacefully); look at France to see a populace that doesn’t just take what is rammed down their throats -you can talk to your neighbours; discuss things with them to form an opinion; don’t just parrot talking points from media; -you can write to representatives; sure, your letter won’t be directly shown to then, unlike one from Koch or someone. But it won’t go unnoticed. -participate at town halls -participate in polls A fortune 500 CEO or Forbes billionaire list name will have more impact than a single voice from the population. But organised, the voices of the population make a difference. Organisation, participation and critical engagement can make a difference.

Conquerors are worthless. They come and go. What makes a realm/an empire stick around and last, is if the leader is a good administrator. What set the Romans aside was not so much military ability, though they had that. What set them aside was their ability to organise, plan and administer.

Ich würde gar nicht mehr unterschreiben wollen, dass das so ist. Wir heben auf den niederen Rängen wohlmöglich weniger Korruption. Man bekommt seine Meldebescheinigung auch ohne den Beamten zu bestechen. Aber ich glaube das Mauscheln ist auf höherer Ebene weiter verbreitet als dokumentiert. Alleine die Cum-Ex-Geschichten, die scheinbar auf politischer Ebene verschleppt wurden (bewusst?) könnten die Bilanz stark verändern. Die Korruption scheint weniger weit verbreitet zu sein, meinetwegen. Aber ist die Gesamtbilanz wirklich niedriger?