comrade_Comrade

Brood parasitism in one picture.

[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEeu-93XoAALrwi.png[/img]

@comrade_Comrade
Since a picture is a thousand words, i'll give you a thousand likes.
edit: XD will 200 do?

'@Maraka' as long as they're free :)

@comrade_Comrade Yes they are.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/us/how-the-soviets-won-the-space-race-for-equality.html

Valentina Tereshkova (selected by Khruschev specifically because of her "proletarian" background) was indeed the first woman in space. Also she was the reason why Korolev said that "There won't be even one more woman in space while I'm alive" (someone alleged that he used c-word instead of "woman"), so first female cosmonaut group was disbanded six years later due to "lack of usefulness" without a single additional flight. Second Soviet woman to go to space was Svetlana Savitskaya - she got her chance 19 years after Tereshkova, because Valentin Glushko (who replaced Korolev's successor Mishin) decided to score some PR points. Even under his leadership all-female crew was never assembled.

Using Soviet space program as an example of equality and representation requires special kind of ignorance.

@comrade_Comrade
Really? That's unfortunate. Valentina Kerman was based on her. She's one of only two Kerbals with the 'badass' flag set in her data.

'@Dan' details vary, the least controversial position is that she got a bad case of space sickness, did not communicate well with ground control, had difficulty with manual orientation (automatic attitude control was programmed incorrectly by some technician) for reentry burn, did not communicate before and after reentry burn (opinions vary about it being her fault or equipment malfunction) and violated protocol for medical experimentation by eating food provided by locals after she landed. According to Boris Chertok, later she was personally debriefed by Korolev for thirty minutes and, apparently, driven to tears in the process.
There are also claims that she became hysterical either before launch or during the flight and later missed communication window with ground control due to unscheduled sleep, but that may well be untrue.

Cynical view is that getting first woman to space was a technical "first" that didn't require any new equipment and a batch of spacecraft made obsolete by improved "Voskhod" had to be used up anyway. Having woman at controls would also support the position of design bureau that system they've built could be operated by someone without Air Force experience. Tereshkova's difficulties with manual orientation of spacecraft were, in fact, used by General Kamanin to argue that only fighter pilots can be trusted with controls under the stress and unfamiliar conditions of space flight.

@comrade_Comrade As I mentioned before, PBS has been showing a lot of documentaries about the Space Program leading up to today's 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, and their commentator Sergei Khrushchev had a lot to say about Korolev.

At the time, the US was suffering a bit of an inferiority complex, with the Soviets having launched a satellite before we did, put a living creature in orbit before we did, put a man in space before we did, put a woman in space before we did. . . They even landed on the Moon before we did! if you count the unmanned Luna 2's crash landing, and Luna 9's soft landing. But we got our guy on the Moon first, and it was an American who hit the first lunar golf ball, so there! [links removed]

And yes, the burgeoning feminist movement (called Women's Lib back then) did use Tereshkova and our beat-the-Russians mentality to their advantage. See how much equality Russian women have? Why can't we do just as well or better? As you say, a special kind of ignorance.

'@uktana' I heard an interview with Khruschev about Korolev and Moon Race. I'd say that he underestimates how right Korolev was in his preferred solutions and the scale of issues that could be encountered by manned program using Chelomei/Glushko's rockets with toxic fuel.
One of the space program's biggest jokes is that Glushko, who was so married to the idea of hydrogen being terrible fuel, ended up working on Energia/Buran system with it's main hydrogen/oxygen engine.

Soviet equality is an interesting thing really. It existed on paper, in rules and on screen (gender and ethnic representation in media was a big thing), didn't seem to do anything to general benevolently partronizing attitude towards women in personal interactions. Protection of motherhood was also a big deal, and even "liberated woman" was expected to form a family, which was considered a basis of healthy society.
One uniquely Soviet phenomenon (partially caused by gender imbalance and shifting employment requirements after WII) was a proletarian Comrade Woman - built like a tank, working in "physical" occupation (machining, construction, menial labor), stereotypically more manly than her deadbeat husband she's drags through life.

@uktana
HBO's From Earth to the Moon is good watching. It's all on Dailymotion, last I checked.

Rabbi Altmann and his secretary were sitting in a coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935. “Herr Altmann,” said his secretary, “I notice you’re reading Der Stürmer! I can’t understand why. A Nazi libel sheet! Are you some kind of masochist, or, God forbid, a self-hating Jew ?”

“On the contrary, Frau Epstein. When I used to read the Jewish papers, all I learned about were pogroms, riots in Palestine, and assimilation in America. But now that I read Der Stürmer, I see so much more: that the Jews control all the banks, that we dominate in the arts, and that we’re on the verge of taking over the entire world. You know – it makes me feel a whole lot better!”

@comrade_Comrade Too fucking good.

@comrade_Comrade Absolutely brilliant. Well done!

@comrade_Comrade I'm amazed that this is the most liked comment and only has one dislike. Not because it's a bad comment, but all the other most liked comments have so many dislikes, along with likes!

'@TheHappyAmerican' it's a good joke and it isn't a political statement, there isn't much to disagree with.

@comrade_Comrade jokes are the only thing that can save us now, with all the confusion and political tension in the world

'@Baconcheesewheel' humor is a coping mechanism, probably the only thing it can save anyone from is an exit bag.

@comrade_Comrade But it is a political statement... Just a very good and subtle one.

'@froggyrules' it can be read in a couple of ways, so at least it's not definite. At least it's not on the nose and has merit outside this specific context. Always glad when joke is so well received.

@comrade_Comrade It's a very astute political statement. And it didn't get downvotes because it went wooosh! above the heads of all the downvoters.

@comrade_Comrade It's no surprise every socialist POS who eats this phony "Russia collusion" BS as an excuse to feel good about being hateful bigoted self-entitled fascist hypocrites also believe this anti-semitic "jews control the media" BS. Meanwhile fat SJW turds like Rob Reiner brainlessly fart "bawww anti-semite" while supporting the Sharia-loving BDS movement in a pathetic pretentious attempt to have it both ways.

@Abe Wow. First, I've never seen such Hypocrisy in a single comment. Second, have you ever seen a political compass? Liberalism and Facism are on different sides of the spectrum. Rob Reiner is a liberal, not a socialist. Liberals are not Socialists. And you confuse Socialism and Communism. Third, Trump explicitly said recieving something from a foreign power to help in an election isn't collusion (which it is). Please learn facts next time you post.

Some of the most interesting aspects of Winter War are the scale of diplomatic failure that led to it, the fact that British and French government made some *questionable* promises to Finland and the sheer dissonance between actual outcome of the war and public perception of it to this day.

@comrade_Comrade

Indeed. And still we are having this discussion. and I am not speking in Росси́я.

с чего бы это так?

So, a lot of criticism towards "Chernobyl" is swept aside with "it's not a documentary, it's more important to get the general idea right even if technical details are wrong". Ok.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En28kNyKyr4

In reality, this "minister of coal" was born in 1927, started working when he was 15 years old, by 22 years he was a chief mechanic in the mine, by 28 he was a chief engineer, later deputy director and director of the mine, then state mining company. Only in his 50s he held various offices in ministry of coal industry of USSR. If anything, Schadov knew how to talk to miners and would be held in high personal and professional regard.
Workers for tunnel project were provided by multiple mining sites and construction companies, volunteers were picked and vetted by local party committees. According to interviews, they were at very least not cynical about their job. At worst, some of them could be theoretically "voluntold" to take this job, but that would have been done in very different manner.

Image of minister being escorted by armed guards is a huge load of crap. 1986 is not 1946, and this isn't a lead mine "employing" German POWs. Outside of prison camps, idea of having army or interior troops guards with rifles is beyond idiotic.

Of all things wrong with the series, even with all the scientific illiteracy, the biggest embarrassment of all is the level of not getting relationships within Soviet society. Surprisingly accurate in some details, series is just a caricature where it really matters.

@comrade_Comrade
I keep meaning to watch that. I'll keep that in mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHef2gLqqtQ
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5GTvaW34O0
are decent, at any rate.

'@Dan' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSbCIDtAzjY

There are more short episodes on that channel. Actual footage could have been sanitized, but it's still valuable.
Turn on youtube's subtitles, they're in good English.

Things that remind me of why I've decided against working in management: having to point out that two people in a team of seven can't pull their own weight and cause about 60% of failures, cannot accept responsibility for that, don't seem to improve and, frankly, it would be better for everyone involved if those two would find something else to do. Extra difficulty setting: having to get along with those people even after they are no longer on the team, plus complete absence of any real metrics other than "everyone in the team knows it's you, they just don't want to feel like an asshole for saying it".

[img]https://i.imgur.com/7Y4MXCr.jpg[/img]

LMAO.

https://twitter.com/Mach1ne_4423/status/1162471080532910085

Physics AND history joke. There should be no blue LEDs though, unless sphere is underwater.

Growing basil on window sill has some similarities with free-to-play games: engaging and cheap at first, until you realize that past beginner level it starts getting expensive. Also, both things are about as entertaining as watching grass grow.

How did I know that Starsector exists.

Before: "Did you read anything other than Harry Potter?"
After: "Did you watch anything other than Chernobyl?"
News from Severodvinsk are now commented by dozens of illiterate assclowns - can't even understand what sieverts really mean, but here's an "analytical article" that proves that everyone is going to die from cancer or acute radiation poisoning.

Things happening in Moscow look like there will be some sort of political fallout, one way or another. It's either 15 years too late or 5 years too early, but I wonder if government's reaction to it will cause more disturbance than event itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuv6TVv0r44

Ah, the romantic atmosphere of space exploration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olvO7F02tmc

2:28: loud thump means it's 0:1 if favor of storks
2:55: loud thump means it's 1:1 and remaining hawk just got a big meal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzYC7cXUk1g

Must have been an interesting place to be in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtkgy2TBYOg

0:16 is a blatant safety rules violation, but let's face it - probably most historically accurate technique there.

Found a series of lectures on infantry tactics and organization in 18-20th centuries. It's interesting how much of effort went into theoretical and practical development of what is represented now as "a bunch of people in silly hats and uniforms walking over an open ground in a line abreast".

@comrade_Comrade

'@ApplesRock' "Gaining ground? How does it work?" -- everyone involved in Battles of Isonzo.

Aside from incompetence, main source of casualties were wrong expectations - rapid-firing artillery was expected to be the big killer, while machine guns were underestimated. Eventually, small unit tactics like those used by German Sturmtruppen, and different use of artillery and force concentration helped to break the stalemate even without tanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86YeTM3DRg8

There may be a twist to those stories about stork delivering a baby.

Early stages of WWI in a nutshell:
Bolt action rifles and machine guns provide volume of fire which turns an attack against dug-in infantry into a suicide.
- Never mind, we'll flank them.
Both opponents trying to do the same maneuver at once prevents flanking.
- We'll flank wider.
Frontline stretches so much that there is no land left for flanking.
- We'll use artillery to break through.
Artillery runs out of shells.
- I don't know what is to be done. This isn't war.

Because ethanol is ethanol in any package.
During prohibition in USSR people managed to extract it from most surprising sources: shoe wax, phenolic glue, wood finishing compounds, brake fluid. Electronic engineers and medical personnel were among the best people to be friends with, since they had access to large amounts of 95% ethanol by necessity. Perfume was considered by some to be almost a soft drink. In post-Soviet Russia to avoid paying excise taxes some people just sold "window cleaning solution" which consisted of 95% ethanol (more or less pure), 5% water with some coloring agent, various tinctures sold at pharmacies became very popular.
German V-2 rocket used potato alcohol as fuel, heavy drinking was a problem at Peenemünde, I bet that same happened when V-2 derivatives were developed in USSR. Also, drinking literal rocket fuel is so metal.
Most of those who died drinking this did so either because of liver damage or when someone would cut non-drinking alcohol with methanol. Hence the joke that ends on "one more round, guys, and I'm going home - it's getting dark too soon today".

Abusing hand sanitizer is an amateur hour.

@comrade_Comrade Prohibition in the USA was stupid enough. Given how Russians are with their alcohol, prohibition in Russia is probably one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard of.

It would be about as stupid as prohibition of soy sauce in Japan.

'@txag70' alcohol consumption in USSR went as high as 10-14 liters per capita per year, that's x2-2.5 of US historical maximum. Measures taken during Gorbachev's term had, in fact, significant positive economic effect from improvements to productivity, life expectancy and overall health... Which was overshadowed by massive loss of budget income that depended on sales of alcohol. Rates of petty theft and assault were reduced, but organized crime and moonshining received a boost. Not as much as it happened in US, but some effect was there.

Also I think it was at that time opium became a significant but unacknowledged problem for USSR, to a point where entire "commune" of junkies could live in single apartment, regularly sending more functional members to places where poppy production (intentional or not) was concentrated.

@comrade_Comrade Hahaha Aaaaaand it's how you get a blindness pandemia. =D

I remember ~10-15 years ago there was a health crisis in Poland because guys drank vodka mixed with engine oil. Brutal.

'@MagicRooster' at least methanol in significant quantities kills. There was also a pandemia of deafness before that, when some of the higher ups in Ministry of Health ordered to treat tonsillitis (both acute and chronic) in infants with antibiotics. That prevented some harmful complications, but also destroyed auditory nerves. Growing up without hearing prevented them from learning to speak, so eventually there were entire factories that specialized in providing employment for deaf-mutes. USSR holds undisputed first place in production of unintended consequences on massive scale.

@comrade_Comrade Well... at least USSR didn't turn a deaf ear about tonsillitis, which where obviously not the case of the people treated for this illness, poor guys.

Actually this problem was a classic back in late 19th century, than mid-20th century but it's impressive.

@comrade_Comrade

"Abusing hand sanitizer is an amateur hour".
I want that quote on a t-shirt.

'@DarkMage7280' you'll have to do it now. Also should look well with sandals :)

Some people figured out that if someone doesn't understand your language you just have to repeat what you said REALLY LOUD.

@comrade_Comrade And SLOOOOOOWWWWWLLLY

'@Akamar' feels like eternity, doesn't it?

@Akamar But the people who you actually don't understand BECAUSE they speak so fast don't speak more slowly.
Another thing people like to do is repeating using the exact same words. Like it didn't cross their mind that maybe you just didn't know some of the words they used. Or that just speaking more clearly would help. Some people mumble just enough so that you can't understand everything even though you speak their language.

@comrade_Comrade
Isn't that an English thing?

'@AussiePengwin' it's universal, as far as I can tell.

@AussiePengwin And American.

To be "fair" - English is by far the dominant world language at present (depending on how you count, about 25% of the world's population either speaks it as a first or second language, or understands at least some), so it's been an easy - if extremely patronising and rude - trap to fall into.

I spent a fortnight in Sweden a few years ago. At the time I hadn't learnt any Swedish (other than maybe numbers, "please", "thank you" and a few simple tourist phrases). Two things were fascinating. Firstly, that there was a distinct generational divide between people who could speak English and people who couldn't. Secondly, that, even so, there were enough words in common that - if I just paid attention and was patient - I could mostly get by without an actual shared language. For example, my wife and I managed to have a long conversation with an elderly lady in a shop somewhere up near Dalarna about the embroidery kits she was selling, despite the fact that none of us spoke a word of the other's language.

We went on to a wedding (the reason we were there); I spent most of the time boring people rigid with all the similarities between Swedish words and Northern English/Lowland Scottish dialects...

@Doghouse
English-speaking, I mean. It's quite common here too.
But Australians just can't be hearsed to learn other languages past 'hello' and 'how much for the beer?'.

@Doghouse Interesting that you brought up the lowland Scottish thing. My first English teacher, way back in third grade, told us that the Swedish accent most commonly gets compared to the Scottish lowlands one, at least among Londoners/People living south of Yorkshire in England. Does this hold true or is that something that she cooked up? I've also heard that we sound like Americans who moved to Glasgow in time for elementary school when speaking English (ie a somewhat garbled mix of SoCal (standard Hollywood) and lowland Scottish). Mostly due to most movies/TV shows being from the US while most one-on-one interactions we get with native English speakers are from the UK. Any credibility to that claim?

@AussiePengwin At least with Germans, that is very common as well.

@comrade_Comrade It alwo help if youwave your arms in big and confusing gestures.

'@Rogers' weird facial expressions obviously increase effectiveness.

@comrade_Comrade Ah, I see you've met the English.

'@hikariuk' Russians do that too, seen just that in Finland recently.

@comrade_Comrade And repeat really often. Preferredly raising your voice a little more each time.

So this is how turnips protected themselves from Irish. Potatoes weren't so lucky.

Never understood the point of turning something trivial in a protracted ritual. Just check for alpha radiation and drink, time is not made of rubber.

@comrade_Comrade Is radioactive tea a common hazard in Russia?

(I'm assuming you're joking, of course)

'@VictorMortimer' "Is radioactive tea a common hazard in Russia?" Not really, unless you've escaped to London and giving away all sorts of sensitive information.

@comrade_Comrade Fine black humor. Well done.

'@comrade'_Comrade The ability to restrain yourself is incredibly important in a violent culture. Japanese tea cups are intentionally fragile for this reason.

'@Joggar' if you want to be serious, food-related rules that are complicated and not religious or sanitary in nature are more likely to be a way to distinguish social class. Nobility was only upper and middle managers of violence, I don't think that people who did the actual killing were known for their manners.

'@comrade'_Comrade They kind of were, and it was common in a *lot* of feudal cultures. The ritual of the "loving cup" included various steps meant to keep both hands busy so neither party could throw a punch. I bet there's plenty in Russian history that have simply fallen by the wayside in the last 1-6 centuries.

'@boring7' when Mark Twain wrote about that cup, he missed the obvious: if you have a heavy cup that you need to hold with both hands, you don't need to stab or throw a punch - just use the cup to split the other guy's skull. Finnegan's wake in reverse.

The thing that didn't fall by the wayside of Russian history is long tradition of mass fistfights as a folk entertainment. Restraint there is demonstrated by not hitting anyone in the face or groin, and not kicking people while they're down.

'@comrade'_Comrade You mean the... Samurai?

'@Joggar' yeah. There is some variation throughout the history, but samurai were first and foremost feudal land owners and administrators who didn't have to fight often or at all. Even when they went to war, they would bring conscripted peasants with them. Just like with knights, popular attention is directed towards single combat using swords, when in fact most of the work was done by foot soldiers with spears and bows.
If you want an example of really violent groups of people, Swiss and German mercenaries of 15-16th centuries would be a better fit.

As for fragile cups, you can look up what "eggshell" or bone porcelain is. Thin-walled ceramic cups are difficult to make and would be more rare and expensive status symbols, particularly in pre-industrial times.

@comrade_Comrade
Being unable to understand traditions of another nation doesn't give you the right to mock them. Asian cultures believe in internal peace and those ceremonies are not just consuming something. They are also respect to others.
But I assume you cannot know that since you send bombs to innocent people.

@comrade_Comrade Maybe they want to spend their time enjoying their tea ceremony. Not everyone has to spend their time the way you deem appropriate--that's the beauty of us all being individuals on this earth

Until 2011 beer was actually considered just that: beer. Some regulation of advertisement was self-imposed by manufacturers as early as in 2003. The only significant effect was that beverages with low enough alcohol content were regulated slightly differently and weren't subjected to excise tax (edit: it was, but tax rate was very small).

In 2006, new rules were implemented for licensing, accounting, transportation and sales of drinks with high alcohol content, which still didn't include beer, beer-like products and some cocktails with low alcohol content. In 2011 law was modified to cover everything with alcohol content over 0.5%... Including perfume.
2006 law actually made it mandatory to register production and movement of products containing specified percentage of ethyl alcohol in unified federal database (EGAIS), which didn't work properly even in 2015. Perfume industry eventually was excluded from this law by an executive order, but only after it took a serious financial hit from not being prepared for new regulation and then being unable to work with EGAIS due to technical issues.
Same waiver was, apparently, later issued to wholesale distributors as well, which in combination with technical limitations of software made that database useless for it's stated purpose of monitoring production and tracking movement of ethyl alcohol from producer to consumer.

@comrade_Comrade I hate to summarize-it just seems rude, and I don't mean to be-but I'm having a little trouble following. Beer was considered alcohol by Russian society, but not by the government until 2011, when the 2006 laws concerning the production and transportation of alcoholic products were modified to include beer. On a side note, perfume was included in the 2011 laws, which caused a lot of problems for perfume companies until an executive order excluded them. Is that right?

@MoralCode
yep. Also dry hours were introduced recently (no alcohol is sold at night)

'@MoralCode' yes, that's a good summary. Socially, even back in Soviet Union beer and wine were (as far as I know) were always seen as a class of their own - not hard liquor yet, but not something appropriate to kids, at least for regular consumption.

@comrade_Comrade
#9787777

Sounds like one big pain in the ass.

Meat seasoned with all the salt in the neighborhood is not a food - it's a great excuse to drink all the beer in neighborhood.

@comrade_Comrade By that reasoning Denmark should love it!

Personal protective equipment is not mandatory in places where tourists can get to. Unless they eat something, stay downwind from burning vegetation or take dust baths, worst case scenario is that they'll have to discard clothes and take cold shower at checkpoint.

People who sneak in without guides and past checkpoints are at risk of stumbling into a hot spot that wasn't cleaned up, but most of them seem to have at least a cheap Geiger counter and enough sense to walk away from places where it goes crazy. Their risk of getting cancer is probably still lower than risk of getting a brick through the skull while they play stalker in a building that wasn't maintained for 30 years.

Great. River now can be sued for damages and will pay income tax.

@comrade_Comrade
That sounds bad. Rivers tend to not have any incomes; nobody would employ them XD
On the other hand, would that make hydro powerplants slave labor?

'@NeframeTheCosmonaut' rivers have tributaries, therefore they receive non-monetary income in form of water. Individuals are taxed on direct income, unlike businesses they can't pay tax on income minus expenses. Plus, river as individual may have to apply for water use permits or whatever is required by local legislation, and it may be subject to penalties under environmental laws and regulations if river's action introduces contaminants into water.

Hydroelectric power plants can indeed be seen as a form of slavery, but that argument has to be made in court and there is probably something that can be argued about eminent domain and/or river trespassing on private, state or federal property.

@comrade_Comrade
Seems like rivers will have to spend a few decades in court if we decide that they are indeed people despite not being sentient entities.
On the other hand, if the river was there before the hydro power plant was built, isn't the entity responsible for the hydro power plant guilty of illegal seizure of land? Not sure the USA would care given how it arose, but still something that has to be worked out.
My money's on the corporations being considered right on all accounts and the rivers probably being convicted of murder for anyone who drowned in it, despite (arguably) being self defense.

'@NeframeTheCosmonaut' regarding seizure of land: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain
For some libertarians and conservatives in US this is an important political issue, along with asset forfeiture.

Legislation regarding self-defense differs between state, I'd say it would suck to be a river in California. Drowning death should not necessarily be a murder, it can be classified as manslaughter... But even injury, property damage or even reduction of adjacent property value (i.e. erosion of river bank that decreases amount of useful land) may result in at least civil lawsuit. Damaging or destroying a bridge can be viewed as an attack on critical infrastructure as well.

@comrade_Comrade
Yeah, it may be easier for the rivers if the US simply extend some reasonable environment-protection laws, rather than declaring the rivers to be people.

Well, the american conservatives may say it's an important issue, but their policies tend to be somewhat hypocritical, especially when it comes to minorities (and I feel confident saying that the rivers would be declared as such).

'@NeframeTheCosmonaut' considering amount of existing local and federal laws and regulations and the fact that EPA existed for quite a few decades already, lack of reasonable environmental protection laws is not immediately obvious. I don't think that many people considered it reasonable that SpaceX had to delay landings at Vandenberg for a year to assess effects of rockets on local snail population. Measuring impact of sonic booms on harbor seal mating behavior was meme-worthy.

Water covers over two thirds of Earth, any bodies of it are hardly a minority.

Regarding conservative policies, it would be interesting to see what you're referring to.

@comrade_Comrade
I had not heard of those, but they do indeed seem meme-worthy. Seems like EPA is doing their jobs, just that it's more a case of a job left half-done by agencies that are at best half-funded. Like all byrocracy.

By volume, yes, but in numbers? How many bodies of water can you name? And can we count all bodies of water, or would that be the aquaeous equivalent to including all eukaryotes under the defenition of 'human'? Should their

Regarding conservatives, mostly that they declare anything the democrats do on state level to be "anti-democracy" while they openly aim to limit the ability of minorities to parpicipate politically (one of the states have an ongoing motion to declare HBTQ+ to be a religious practice of secular humanism, as well as a motion to have secular humanism excluded from religious freedom all so they can pass laws against it*). IT should be noted that I'm probably biased, as trying to find american sources that could spell "journalistic integrity" if their lives depended on it is an exercise in futility.
Now, democrats are awful too; I prefer them because they are less bigoted.

*source: https://thinkprogress.org/kansas-lawmakers-file-the-most-bizarre-anti-lgbtq-bill-ever-e5f0bad33204/

'@NeframeTheCosmonaut' https://twitter.com/TalulahRiley/status/320421724644573184
https://twitter.com/TalulahRiley/status/320422298618302464

Bureaucracy expands to serve the needs of expanding bureaucracy. There is never enough budget to do everything that an agency wants to do.

Considering that plenty of arguments were made in favor of compensating for political power of few wealthy people, idea of compensating for physical size and power of few large bodies of water should be apparent.

TP not only admits it's political bias, it's founder has direct ties to Clintons. You should take a look at original text, especially since it was conveniently linked in the article. Reading that I see an attempt of legislative trolling by 7 Kansas Republicans, and measure wasn't even voted on yet.

Isn't it bigoted to automatically ascribe positions of several individuals in Republican party to all conservatives? Especially considering that not all Republicans are conservatives and not all conservatives are Republicans. Jeff Sessions, for example, is a Republican and his stance on asset forfeiture was criticized a lot by conservatives, libertarians and, certainly, registered Republicans.
Compare that to that the fact that race-based wealth redistribution is directly mentioned in Democratic party's platform in 2016.

@comrade_Comrade
That is a good point: no nation will ever have the funds for everything.

I suppose that you could indeed consider such laws to apply.

Yes, they are probably aware that it'll never become law, but the purpose is to stall anti-discrimination policies.

Yeah, as I said the democrats are assholes too; just a slightly lesser evil from my point of view.
I will consider what you said though: most republicans are indeed reasonable good people, they just happen to be aligned with a party that puts people who isn't on top. Important to remember. Easy to judge faceless masses, but parties made of people.

'@NeframeTheCosmonaut' the more likely purpose of that law is to die in committee. But even assuming that you're right, what is "anti-discrimination policy" to some is morally unacceptable to others. Being more or less consistent with one's religious beliefs on homosexuality does not make opposition to eminent domain hypocritical.

I wouldn't call a party increasingly influenced by collectivism and ideology of class struggle a lesser evil.

@comrade_Comrade
I didn't mean that their opposition to eminent domain was hypocritical; that's very consistent. It's the part with only supporting holy code when it is personally conveinient or gives a justification for harassing others. And following your own religious beliefs is fine, trying to force it upon others isn't. And even if they should, can't they at least figure out which variant of christianity that should be the divine constitution? Cuz it seems to me the average american christian, among democrats and republicans alike, is a nice person who is okay with equal rights to minorities and women.

Looks like we'll have to agree to disagree then. I don't like collectivism either, but when the options are authoritarianism or slightly more progressive authoritarianism, it doesn't really matter.

'@NeframeTheCosmonaut' opposition to eminent domain has nothing to do with holy code, it's an opposition to what seen as violation of property rights.

"Following your own religious beliefs is fine, trying to force it upon others isn't" works both ways. When Catholics are required to recognize same-sex marriage or topay for medical insurance that provides abortions/abortifacients, you bet they will try to resist that. Especially considering that same-sex marriage was introduced by a judicial ruling, not a proper vote.
Average American Christian is increasingly perfunctory. Church that has become a social club will be okay with a lot of things.

Authoritarianism is impossible as long as US Constitution isn't heavily amended or disregarded altogether. Republicans, at least right now, prefer to keep it as is and interpret it in textualist manner. That is, in fact, reflected in recent SCOTUS nominations.
Collectivism and ideology of class struggle, along with idea that efficiency of scientifically managed society is superior to capitalist one, were foundations of totalitarian Soviet state.
I'd take status quo or smaller government with more pronounced codification of moral values over USSR 3.0.

@comrade_Comrade
Isn't that what I said? That I merely used their selectivism as an example?

As I've understood it, nobody is asking the church to recognize anything; a state marrige or civil union is a legal matter in regards to family and inheritance. Now, I'm not going to pretend that I know how the american taxation system works, because I don't, but if the problem is that they don't want to fund same-sex marrige or abortion it seems like there would be more productive ways of doing so than a blanket ban, such as having individuals be legally required to cover such costs themselves. But as I said, I'm not very well-read in american social economics so there are probably aspects I don't know about.
That it was a judicial ruling rather than vote is a good point, because it isolates it from religion: if the citizenry does not agree with a law, imposing said law isn't terribly democratic regardless of why the citizens disagree. Of course, this would make it a matter of State VS Federation, and I don't have the perspective to objectively judge who is right (and I'm willing to assume you don't either). The problem is that I've never seen anyone attempting to make that point, the point is always "god hates fags". Then again, I'm not an expert in american internal politics; my knowledge is mostly concerned with what affects our hegemon-vassal* relation and friends I have in the US.

Although I have to agree with you that mostly anything is better than soviet 3.0, the constitutional limitations that apply to the conservatives also apply to the socialists; and although the far-left are highly collectivist the power wielded by the lobbies in the US should not be underestimated. If the worst comes to pass, that could be a good thing.
I'd also like to note that I don't agree with the logic of class struggle; that all American politics can, and will, be reduced to "that's racist" or "that's classist" by one side or the other prevents them from holding any real discussion and moving forward. Furthermore, I don't think it's a coincidence that areas that have abandoned class-think have less social issues, stronger economies, and lower inequality of income than areas that continue to insist that it's still the 1960ies.

*yes, it's a bit overdramatic to call it that, but who doesn't like drama? Nobody, that's who! (as you might be able to tell, I'm not 100% serious)

'@NeframeTheCosmonaut' apparently a subset of Catholics consider legal recognition of same sex marriage as morally impermissible as legalization of murder. They've ran out of realistic ways to counter it, so outside of demands for ability to opt out of participation in related activities, aforementioned legislative trolling is probably the only way they can put up at least token resistance.
Regarding abortion - there were issues like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zubik_v._Burwell and ability of religious doctors to refuse to perform the procedure.

I'll wrap it up at this point, there doesn't seem to be any more reason left to torture a moderator with these walls of text.

@NeframeTheCosmonaut! Sorry to reply to a different comment but your relevant comment ran out of replies. What areas have ditched class struggle? I'd like to study this

@Think_Tank
"Abandoned" might have been exaggerated, but in the city I live in (Linköping) it is much less prominent than other parts of Sweden, even in the rethoric of the far-left and alt-left parties. We still have problems, of course, but the poorest people around here is roughly equivalent to what most western countries would call 'upper workers-class', differences in income and education between natives and foreigners are negligable past the first five years (since by that point most are fluent in swedish and know how our society opperates as well as a native), over-all crime rate is only slightly lower but hate-related crimes are rare (compered to the rest of sweden; I haven't compered our stats to international) and when they do happen it usually isn't majority-on-minority, but rather minority-on-minority (there is some animosity between homosexuals and bisexuals, some ethnic groups are here because their countries have spent the last 40 years bombing each other (though it rarely becomes violent) and so on). Same goes to a lesser extent for the rest of our province.
I'd like to note that I can't prove what is chicken and egg here; if reduction in antagonism and furthering of common goals to society leads to strengthend economy and more egalitarian outlook, or if overcoming hurdels makes class struggle obsolete and catalyses progress towards oppression-free society.
Cultural outlooks and values probably plays into it as well; us being materialistic, xenophile, and mutualistic may have made us more susceptible to views 'common good' than other societies would be.

@NeframeTheCosmonaut

@NeframeTheCosmonaut oops, mistake. Ok, that last bit is the thing, in America the conservatives value individual rights over the collective welfare of individuals. But that's because it's what our country was built on, so I can't be too hard on them.

@Think_Tank
Ah, yes, the collectivism/individualism thing. I'd like to note that, as commie/Tau the notion of "Common Good" sounds, mutualism differs a lot from both in that the focus lies in strengthening the rights and liberties of the individual through all individuals responsibility for others and society as a whole. The superorganism (society, state, etc) is never more than the added value and abilities of it's constituent parts (organisations, agencies, people); a society divided against itself can not flourish.
It's very important to remember the base distinction: your welfare is meaningless if you lack the freedom to exercise it. Collectivisim taken at face value, even democratic collectivisim, is a one-way ticket to being a cog in a machine. And cogs are always replacable.

You're gonna need a bigger sheep.

@comrade_Comrade Or a flying shepherd.

'@Rogers' bonus points if he's Dutchman.

So there are proposals to ban sales of new Call of Duty game in Russia, and it was already removed from Sony's digital store.
While it would probably be a silliest reaction possible to a game that portrays Russian as a reskin of German SS, almost everyone has to point out that compared to MW and MW2 the singleplayer campaign's story is utter garbage.

It is a testament to creative bankruptcy of game's writers (and creative team in general) that given actual and at relatively well documented events in Georgia, Libya, Syria, Africa, and, most of all, Ukraine, all they could do is excrete a profoundly idiotic piece of agitprop peppered with representation checkboxes.

@comrade_Comrade I'm meh about the idea overall, but it sounds like a very shitty game series.

@vlexitrokxh They’ve had their highs and lows. Like the initial 3 Call of Dutys, “No Russian” and the success of the Modern Warfare multiplayer, to the weird and mostly unliked recent games like Infinite Warfare and Ghosts, to now.

If you played the right games at the right times, it was really fun and the campaigns are good, but I’ve recently becoming less and less of a fan of the multiplayer.

'@vlexitrokxh' original games about WWII were good for their time, Modern Warfare 1 and 2 were great, a lot of people seemed to like remastered MW1. MW 3 is when it started going downhill, everything past that was not up to the same standard.

Every fighter pilot knows that all of this is wrong and it's best to be a fighter pilot. It's the only person who can look down on you while being 160cm tall.

@comrade_Comrade 20th century is over. Drones/unmanned aerial power is so much more efficient.

Warheads on foreheads is an unofficial motto ;)

'@txag70' unless drones are made mostly or completely autonomous, electronic warfare renders them ineffective or exceptionally vulnerable against peer opponent, or even someone who just bought that capability. Fighter pilots are here to stay for at least one more generation of planes.