secrets_of_the_commotion

https://time.com/7297269/founders-wealth-inequality-could-destroy

Economic inequality in the US has reached record levels, with nearly 70% of wealth concentrated in the hands of the richest 10%. Corporate profits and shareholder dividends have skyrocketed over the past five decades, while the share of economic growth reaching workers has steadily declined. By 2023, the working class had effectively lost the gains it had built up since the post World War 2 era.

This growing wealth gap threatens American democracy itself. The poorest half of the population owns just 3% of the nation's wealth, and the consequences are visible in worsening health outcomes, rising addiction and suicide rates, and increasing family instability. At the same time, the influence of the wealthy over politics has deepened, eroding trust in institutions and fueling populist, often authoritarian movements.

If the US is to preserve democracy and social stability, restoring the idea of "general welfare" as outlined in the Constitution must become a priority. Inequality is not inevitable, but reversing it will require bold, long-term reforms.

Among the possible solutions I think are raising the minimum wage, reforming the tax system to ensure the wealthy pay a fairer share, strengthening labour protections, and investing in affordable healthcare and education. These measures could help rebalance the economy and rebuild trust in democratic institutions. I know, easier said than done, especially with the stance of the current administration.

asthfghl posting in

talkpolitics

I present to you the Quantum Bus!

Speed: Unknown/unknowable
Direction: Several at a time
Stops: In the realm of probabilities

fridi posting in

talkpolitics

Starting September 1, Russia has a new law (№ 281-F3) that makes even searching online for so-called “extremist content” punishable by fines. What counts as extremist? Pretty much anything the state decides: from LGBTQ+ information to opposition posts, music, films, or books.

REUTERS

The law allows penalties of up to 5K rubles, supposedly only if intent can be proven. But in practice, intent is subjective, and the lists of banned materials are constantly expanding. With nearly 40% of Russians using VPNs to bypass restrictions, a huge portion of the population could now be branded potential offenders.

Authorities claim VPNs are not banned. But promoting them already brings hefty fines, and using them to access blacklisted materials could be taken as proof of “intent”. Lawyers point out that monitoring such activity is murky and could easily open the door to arbitrary enforcement.

This is not about safety or order. It’s about tightening control, silencing dissent, and reminding people that every click might be watched. To me, this is yet another step towards fascism, cloaked in the language of “security.”

What’s most chilling is how ordinary behaviors such as reading, listening to music, even searching out of curiosity can now be criminalized. A society where information itself is dangerous is one where fear replaces freedom, and that’s exactly what authoritarian regimes thrive on. If anyone had doubts if Russia was descending into fascism, here's your proof.

abomvubuso posting in

talkpolitics

Hey everyone! Here's the monthly topic that you guys chose at the last poll:

Conspiracy Theories We Kind of Wish Were True

And here's the poll for October

What should be the next monthly topic?

1) The Middle Eastern Powder Keg
2) Multipolar World In The Making
3) Climate Change: Adaptating To The New Realities
4) The Information Battlefield
5) Pop Culture as Political Weapon

Feel free to suggest more...

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Per the dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.

There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.

denise posting in

dw_news

A reminder to everyone that starting tomorrow, we are being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court. People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we'll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.

The block page will include the apology but I'll repeat it here: we don't do geolocation ourselves, so we're limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider. Our anti-spam geolocation blocks have shown us that their geolocation database has a number of mistakes in it. If one of your friends who doesn't live in Mississippi gets the block message, there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don't control it. The only way to fix a mistaken block is to change your IP address to one that doesn't register as being in Mississippi, either by disconnecting your internet connection and reconnecting it (if you don't have a static IP address) or using a VPN.

In related news, the judge in our challenge to Tennessee's social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds.

The Tennesee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it's still a risk to us. While the fight goes on, we've decided to prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk. We do not need to block access from the whole state: this only applies to new account creation.

Because we don't do any geolocation on our users and our network provider's geolocation services only apply to blocking access to the site entirely, the way we're implementing this is a new mandatory question on the account creation form asking if you live in Tennessee. If you do, you'll be unable to register an account if you're under 18, not just the under 13 restriction mandated by COPPA. Like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we're sorry, and we hope we'll be able to undo it as soon as possible.

Finally, I'd like to thank every one of you who's commented with a message of support for this fight or who's bought paid time to help keep us running. The fact we're entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work. I've also sent a lot of your comments to the lawyers who are fighting the actual battles in court, and they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do. Thank you all once again for being the best users any social media site could ever hope for. You make me proud and even more determined to yell at state attorneys general on your behalf.

luzribeiro posting in

talkpolitics

"People don’t know this, but the leaders of Europe - Macron, Merkel, the Italians with their pizza, all of them, crying, literally crying - they come to me, they say, ‘Sir, please, please, be the President of Europe.’ And I said, look, I’ve already been the greatest President of the United States, everybody knows it, but Europe - Europe needs me even more.

The EU, folks, total disaster, so many flags, nobody knows what they mean, too many stars, maybe 27, maybe 48, I don’t know, nobody knows.

They said, ‘Sir, you have the biggest brain, the best words, we want your words instead of our laws.’ And I said, sure, I can do that, I can be President of Europe, and maybe also King, why not, a very stable genius King, the first, the best, people will love it.

And Brussels - have you seen Brussels? Waffles everywhere, the best waffles, but no leadership. Under Trump, the waffles will be crispier, stronger, not soggy. Germany, France, Poland - all of them - they’ll stand in line, they’ll say, ‘Sir, please tweet for us, your tweets are like constitution, stronger than NATO, much stronger.’

And I’ll tell you, NATO will be called TRUMPO - much better name, very powerful. And the Queen of England - very nice lady, very royal - she told me, ‘Sir, you would look tremendous in a crown.’ And it’s true, folks, nobody wears a crown better than me.

So yes, the leaders want me, the people want me, the ducks, the wizards, even the baguettes - they all want me as President of Europe. And it’s going to be huge, the biggest Europe you’ve ever seen, believe me!"

Actual news: Donald Trump makes up title that he claims Europeans call him

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Secrets_of_the_Commotion

Reading

America's biggest problem

Friday WTF. Meanwhile in the Balkans

Yet another step towards fascism in Russia

Monthly topic

Code deploy happening shortly

Mississippi site block, plus a small restriction on Tennessee new accounts

Friday WTF. The egomaniac in chief.

Profile

October 2017

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