hexclock

waveparticle said:

robin huber said:

I have mixed feelings about this. Good business, but gets the PRC off the hook for welfare of its own—more money for weapons. OTOH every iPhone I buy does the same thing. Apple can’t get out of China fast enough. 

China hater!

mayfly said:

waveparticle said:

mayfly said:

What a great way to drive the use of bicycles for everyday commuting, instead of automobiles. While the Netherlands have always been far ahead of anyone else in bike usage, there's always room to improve. They get a lot of rainy days, so being able to park inside has at least two advantages. You don't get soaked while unlocking your bike, and you don't have to sit on a soaking wet saddle.

Bike use benefits the planet's ecosystem, too. And it benefits people, too, as they get more and more fit and healthy.

It's just too bad that America, which overall is moving in the right direction in some cities, political divisions have created anti-bike sentiment in other cities, creating a hazadous climate for cyclists.

It's only a garage, but making it look stylish and hip worth the extra effort.

Have you been to Amsterdam? LOL Its land area is 64.00 sq mi, or 8 mi across. Most of the 921,402 people probably live inside the city. Is it practical to drive auto daily? 

It's not practical to drive an auto daily anywhere in the world. It's a selfish choice. Either by urban planning which makes commuting by bicycle impossible or dangerous, or geography, or by people who could commute by cycling or mass transportation, but choose to drive.

. 

mayfly said:

irnchriz said:

mayfly said:

mike_galloway said:

mayfly said:

saarek said:

Appleish said:

From the country that instituted Brexit against popular opinion and had an unelected leader that was only in office for a few weeks, who destroyed hundreds of billions of pounds from their economy.

Either you’re a revisionist or you simple don’t understand how referendums work.

The vote for Brexit was clear, the majority of the population of the United Kingdom voted for it to happen (17.4M to leave vs 16.1M to remain).

Yes, Scotland and, to a lesser degree Northern Ireland, voted to remain. However even nearly 40% of the Scots voted to leave which is a fact that the SNP never recognises as they pretend that all of Scotland voted to remain in the EU.

Was it the right decision? Well, I don’t think we will truly know that for at least another 10 years. None of the  prophetic doom and gloom scenarios ever got close to materialising and the country was always going to be worse off during the initial divorce stage.

Either way the result of the decision is largely irrelevant, what is relevant is that a democratic vote was taken and was then acted upon (albeit poorly).

This is how democracy dies. The "democratic vote" was driven by anti-immigrant and racist factions with big megaphones stoking the fires of fear and loathing in the population to the extent that they vote against their own interests.

Democracy is not about right or wrong - it’s what the majority vote for, no matter how stupid they may be.

The first Common Market referendum and EEC membership referendum was in 1975 , to gauge support for the country's continued membership of the European Communities (EC) 

Yes - 17,378,581 Votes (67.23%) - No - 8,470,073 Votes (32.77%)

So that time (1975) the people voted to stay in then in 2016 another lot of people voted out. I could argue the first lot were manipulated and deceived by fear mongering (the disaster that would occur if the UK left), but that would be unfair.

Unfortunately this is democracy, other systems have been tried with not really any better results.

This is NOT democracy. This is subversion of democracy in favor of extremism, nationalism and racism. And it's the the next stop on the road to authoritarianism. Which is the next stop on the road to tyranny. Which is the final stop before the end of the road: tyranny.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”

Alexander Fraser Tytler

How I love conversing with educated and thoughtful people like you, irnchriz! Well put, wasn't it? In fact, it was Plato's stated belief (in The Republic) that democracy is the worst form of government, for the same reason: it always descends into tyranny. But then, his ideal goverment was by enlightened monarchy, ie: a philosopher king or archon, such as Solon of Athens, or emperor, like Marcus Aurelius later on in Rome. Unfortunately, as Lord Dalberg-Acton observed in the 19th century, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The Socratic philosophy boils down to monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy, autocracy, tyranny, totalitarianism. Rinse and repeat. My observation leads me to believe that America is in the final stages of democracy, degraded by the rise of oligarchs in and around all branches of government, determined to impose their autocratic lust on the rest of us.