The All Things Political Topic - Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex

[ComradeYellow]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2023/06/26/why-peter-hotez-should-not-debate-rfk-jr-on-the-joe-rogan-experience/?sh=11c9e1e24fa0

Yeah sorry I can't support unscientific dip****s who hang out with the likes of Rogan and Musk, no matter how good they claim to be on foreign affairs.  Besides, the American public should be well versed to the fact that peace candidates always turn into war presidents. 

Tempting but ultimately NO.  Someone better plz.

EDIT:  I'm probably inadvertently helping his presidential campaign just by posting this and putting his name out there, and I'll clarify that I don't think he's ALL bad and there's definitely worse candidates out there like Trump, DeSantis and, uh, Joe Biden, I just can't fully back someone who engages in unscientific nonsense so blatantly.  Unless the ultimate objective here is to weaken and help put the final nails in the coffin of American hegemony world-wide and America will just be a second rate nation with its own strange ideas and theories that rejects science.  If that's the agenda, bring on RFK JR.!

Edited June 28, 2023 by ComradeYellow

[BruceVC]

https://news.sky.com/story/royal-air-force-illegally-discriminated-against-white-male-recruits-in-bid-to-boost-diversity-inquiry-finds-12911888

This is an outrageous story about senior and surreptitious discrimination around the hiring and retrenchment of white men in  the UK RAF. A full report has been released about this appalling practice that occurred in 2020 and 2021 and the RAF has committed to " learn from their mistakes " 

The former head of the RAF hiring , a women, refused to agree to this  and she resigned. To quote from the link below " The RAF's head of recruitment refused to follow an order to prioritise women and ethnic minority candidates over white men because she believed it was "unlawful", defence sources have claimed and a leaked email has revealed " 

https://news.sky.com/story/raf-recruitment-chief-refused-unlawful-order-to-prioritise-women-and-ethnic-minorities-over-white-men-leaked-email-reveals-12678612

@Gorth and  @xzar_monty  @Pidesco  can you believe this type of discrimination occurred in the UK? At least its been resolved and its in the open 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gorth]

5 hours ago, BruceVC said:

https://news.sky.com/story/royal-air-force-illegally-discriminated-against-white-male-recruits-in-bid-to-boost-diversity-inquiry-finds-12911888

This is an outrageous story about senior and surreptitious discrimination around the hiring and retrenchment of white men in  the UK RAF. A full report has been released about this appalling practice that occurred in 2020 and 2021 and the RAF has committed to " learn from their mistakes " 

The former head of the RAF hiring , a women, refused to agree to this  and she resigned. To quote from the link below " The RAF's head of recruitment refused to follow an order to prioritise women and ethnic minority candidates over white men because she believed it was "unlawful", defence sources have claimed and a leaked email has revealed " 

https://news.sky.com/story/raf-recruitment-chief-refused-unlawful-order-to-prioritise-women-and-ethnic-minorities-over-white-men-leaked-email-reveals-12678612

@Gorth and  @xzar_monty  @Pidesco  can you believe this type of discrimination occurred in the UK? At least its been resolved and its in the open 

 

 

 

 

 

I would love an independent take on this as I wouldn't trust Sky to give a fair and objective version of anything race or gender related any more than I would Fox. Sadly both The Independent and the BBC has no sources other than Sky. Not saying what is claimed to have happened isn't true, but with their obvious far right bias, I wouldn't trust them to give you the full story.

[Zoraptor]

If that's Murdoch related distrust Sky (UK*, which sky.com is owned by) hasn't been owned by him in ages, Comcast bought everyone else out in 2018. They certainly don't have the same overt agenda that Uncle Rupes had, more a standard corporate one, and though Sky News (UK) aren't 100% reliable they certainly aren't anywhere near the Daily Heil or Scum level to just make things like that up or massively misrepresent them wholesale.

*He still owns the (utterly awful) Sky Australia though.

[BruceVC]

4 hours ago, Gorth said:

I would love an independent take on this as I wouldn't trust Sky to give a fair and objective version of anything race or gender related any more than I would Fox. Sadly both The Independent and the BBC has no sources other than Sky. Not saying what is claimed to have happened isn't true, but with their obvious far right bias, I wouldn't trust them to give you the full story.

Yes as Zora mentioned  Sky News UK is completely different with how they  discuss news, I watch some  Sky News Oz and  I would say  Sky UK is more liberal\left but its probably centralist 

[Malcador]

Wonder if the UK has a racism problem in the military.  Well or maybe non-whites are too smart to go into the forces.

[uuuhhii]

pretty sure uk used to throw hundreds of thousand people drafted from colony to their death

 

they would still do it if they could

[Zoraptor]

The accusations of the Brits using colonials as cannon fodder aren't really well supported at all. Well, except for the Sepoy Rebellion, and that was a different kind of cannon fodder. They were extremely profligate with colonial troops on many occasions but they were almost always more profligate with their own (eg Gallipoli, 3x as many 'real' Brits died as Australian/ NZ). That wasn't, of course, because they were nice and cared deeply for the colonies, there was a healthy dollop of them thinking that coloured colonials would be useless troops anyway* and worse, the Sepoy Rebellion had shown they could be... unreliable, and you need to be very careful arming people who might decide Germany (or whoever) isn't the enemy they want to be fighting.

*then they got repeatedly spanked by Lettow-Vorbeck during ww1, whose main force was Askari, not German...

Edited June 30, 2023 by Zoraptor

[213374U]

Didn't see a France thread. Guess everyone's tired of seeing her burn every other year? Heh.

  

On 6/27/2023 at 7:43 PM, xzar_monty said:

Not impressed by that, I'd say, especially because 40 push-ups sound so meaningless: nearly everyone would have to train specifically for that, but there's just no point. After being able to do, say, 25 push-ups, you're not going to gain anything meaningful from being able to do more. It would be much wiser and a better use of your time to work on your bench press instead and try to get that up to about twice your bodyweight.

Being able to do more reps with a given weight generally translates to a better 1RM, and it will build endurance you won't get by doing the typical 3-5 rep sets while aiming for the biggest possible bench. As for the suggestion of targeting 2x BW, sure... if competition is the goal. For reference, 2x BW bench puts one in the elite category of lifters which is like the top 5%. Non-insignificant risk of a pec tear, where heavy bench pressing is overrepresented as a cause, also casts doubt on whether that's a "wiser and better use" of one's time.

[Gfted1]

Welcome back.

[xzar_monty]

On 7/1/2023 at 1:48 AM, 213374U said:

As for the suggestion of targeting 2x BW, sure... if competition is the goal.

I should have included a caveat regarding body type, so fair enough. In other words, if your build is more towards the Xherdan Shaqiri type (broad torso, short limbs), then the suggestion stands, but if you're more like Stephen Merchant (lanky with long limbs), then best aim for something significantly less.

I know a Shaqiri-type short guy who benched more than his bodyweight the first time he ever tried the bench press, which seems incredibly unfair to me, in a funny way, having myself spent a fair bit of time getting up to my bodyweight. (He was fit enough to begin with but not any kind of athlete at all.)

[Gorth]

It's apparently not only Scotland who wants to get rid of the UK...

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/66082593

The Orkney Islands could change their status in the UK or even become a self-governing territory of Norway under new proposals.

A motion will go before the council next week to investigate "alternative forms of governance".

Council leader James Stockan said Orkney does not get fair funding with its current relationship within the UK.

He wants to look at Crown Dependencies like the Channel Islands and overseas territories like the Falkland Islands.

 

I wonder if they asked Norway first, or just assumed they would be welcomed home?

[Gfted1]

"Were with whoever gives us the most!"

[Malcador]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/04/middleeast/israel-west-bank-jenin-raids-tuesday-intl-hnk/index.html

Water and electricity being targeted is curious, for sure.

[Gorth]

It's not exactly Berlin 1936, but sometimes politicians just have to make sport part of politics

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66094186

Australia won the match after the English batsman left his position in the second test, apparently thinking the over had ended.

British PM Rishi Sunak agreed with the England captain's claim that Australia "broke the spirit of cricket" in taking the contentious wicket.

But Mr Albanese said the country stands "right behind" its team.

"Same old Aussies - always winning!" the prime minister tweeted, referring to the Australian side's two consecutive Test wins so far. His phrase also appeared to be a jibe at English fans who chanted "same old Aussies always cheating" after Bairstow was dismissed.

Some of Australia's best-known politicians were also at Lord's Cricket Ground in London that match, including the nation's second longest-serving Prime Minister John Howard.

 

...

It's an amusing incident, but it also reminds me of how few scandals we've had since the old Prime Minister got the kicked out...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

https://www.texasobserver.org/texans-die-from-heat-exhaustion-after-governor-bans-water-breaks/

As someone who works a job where I am outside for a significant amount of time, I can guarantee that this "Death Star" ban on mandated water breaks is going to result in people dying. The political ghouls and their business backers behind this will have blood on their hands and deserve to burn in hell.

[Malcador]

19 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

https://www.texasobserver.org/texans-die-from-heat-exhaustion-after-governor-bans-water-breaks/

As someone who works a job where I am outside for a significant amount of time, I can guarantee that this "Death Star" ban on mandated water breaks is going to result in people dying. The political ghouls and their business backers behind this will have blood on their hands and deserve to burn in hell.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/16/texas-heat-wave-water-break-construction-workers/

"Supporters of the law have said it will eliminate a patchwork of local ordinances across the state that bog down businesses. The law’s scope is broad but ordinances that establish minimum breaks in the workplace are one of the explicit targets. The law will nullify ordinances enacted by Austin in 2010 and Dallas in 2015 that established 10-minute breaks every four hours so that construction workers can drink water and protect themselves from the sun. It also prevents other cities from passing such rules in the future. San Antonio has been considering a similar ordinance."

"bog down businesses" - figured it was something along those lines.  Interesting attitude towards local government, too.

[uuuhhii]

ban water break

sound like creat horse that doesn't need to eat hey experiment

[Keyrock]

7 minutes ago, uuuhhii said:

ban water break

False. They didn't outlaw water breaks, they outlawed the government mandate for water breaks. There's a big difference between the two. Morally, I feel people should be able to take a water break whenever they feel the need to. Whether that should be government mandated is another story. I'm not going to argue either side of it. I'm just pointing out that there's a difference between outlawing a water break and outlawing a mandate for a water break.

[Gromnir]

23 hours ago, Malcador said:

 

"bog down businesses" - figured it was something along those lines.  Interesting attitude towards local government, too.

in more than a few red states in danger o' going purple or blue in the near future, the us v. them polarization has resulted in banal differences regarding policy being transformed into perceived existential crisis. IF the localities is houston or austin, then the unstated problem being addressed is not so much some kinda generalized push for deregulation but rather a need to hold the line against the tyranny of the libs.

it's not about railroad safety, mandatory breaks for construction workers or even mask ordinances during a global pandemic. texas is protecting its liberty loving citizenry from what comes next, 'cause if you don't stop local governments and their democratic elected representatives from passing common sense ordinances to keep people from dropping from heat stroke or heat exhaustion, tomorrow those same cities and municipalities will be trying to come and take your bibles or your guns. they will create reeducation facilities for adults who do not comply with their authoritarianism and school curriculum will be perverted to indoctrinate youth so that the battle for tomorrow will already be won.

etc.

malcador sees big state government imposing an unreasonable restriction on localities who wish to prevent their non union workers from being harmed and requiring otherwise unnecessary and expensive medical and emergency service attention. is unlikely the original ordinance were passed in a vacuum, so one is left to wonder how many austin employers were taking the oliver twist approach to employee safety and welfare such that the city felt the need to pass such a common sense rule, yes? even so, the inevitable sacrifice o' a few construction workers is a small price to pay in the texan war on tyranny. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

I lean libertarian so naturally my first inclination is to be in favor of less regulation. However, it's not that simple. In a perfect world we wouldn't need any mandates. In a perfect world a sort of honor system would suffice and people would take breaks as necessary throughout the day. Everybody has their good days and bad days and there are days when people get a bit lazy and maybe take more breaks than they really need, but as long as they don't abuse the honor system too much, it's fine. In my experiences that is mostly how it worked. In the past, so long as I wasn't clearly being lazy, my boss would just let me take a break whenever. Here in Cackalacky the law is 2 10 minute breaks and a 1/2 hour lunch in an 8 hour work day, or at least that's what it was before I became a truck driver (whole different bunch of rules and regulations for truck drivers). We would wind up taking more than those 2 breaks and the lunch during a work day, a couple of minutes here a couple of minutes there, and no one would say anything as long as we were getting our work done because I didn't work for COMPLETE ***HOLES. However, complete ***holes do exist, so some level of regulation needs to exist because otherwise scumbag employers WILL abuse their workforce, we have hundreds of years of evidence for that. There are scumbags on the other side too that will exploit and abuse regulations to do as little work as possible, forcing everyone else to pick up their slack, I've witnessed these people with my own eyes. So where do we draw the line? Again, as a libertarian I lean toward less regulation, but I realize it's not that cut and dry. There needs to be some regulation to protect employees from abusive employers.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Keyrock

[Malcador]

Wonder how much of a burden this really was on the companies anyway.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Malcador

[Gromnir]

41 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Wonder how much of a burden this really was on the companies anyway.

is not 'bout the burden of the ordinance. if you have ever worked the kinda job where such rules is applied, you know there is often a tension 'tween workers and management regarding perceived laziness. from management pov, a ten minute break becomes fifteen or twenty in practice and a half hour lunch break is forty-five minutes in reality. every concession owners and management makes, workers find ways to exploit, or so goes the narrative... and is not complete untrue neither. 

is a perception that workers is always the exploited and owners is money grubbing capitalists, but truth is that american small business is predictable more likely failing or barely surviving. running a small construction or landscape maintenance company in the economy o' the last couple decades is probable gonna involve many sleepless nights and worries over money. 

a couple ten minute breaks during the increasing brutal summers in much o' the US is likely insufficient and am expecting most employers is gonna have those big ten-gallon yellow igloo water jugs available so workers may hydrate as needed instead o' just twice a day + lunch. only a couple water breaks during the day for roofers on +100 degree days in arizona, california and west texas would result in mass heat stroke issues.

however, am thinking the existence o' the ordinance in question suggests more than one employer in austin were not being reasonable. you get ordinances like the one in austin 'cause more than one employer is routine doing unreasonable. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited July 8, 2023 by Gromnir

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

59 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Wonder how much of a burden this really was on the companies anyway.

Enough to design a law specifically to target it. Construction is big business here and Perry Homes is a major Republican donor.

However given the law's broad scope, it's more of an attempt to prevent cities and counties from doing anything in regards to business than taking out this regulation specifically. It's not a surprise, the large cities have been trending away from conservative politics for a while and are also where the majority of business happens, so the Texas legislature is trying to nip any "business unfriendly" regulations in the bud by preemptively blocking cities from doing them in the first place. Assuming the Death Star stands the results are going to be pretty bad, the state of the electric grid two years after an apocalyptic freeze showed how vulnerable it was is enough reason not to trust the Texas government at managing anything.

[Malcador]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republican-attorneys-general-issue-letter-to-target-about-pride-merchandise/

"The letter did not include any specific demands nor did it outline how they believe the campaign could violate child protection laws, but the attorneys general did suggest that Target might find it "more profitable to sell the type of Pride that enshrines the love of the United States.""

Culture war nonsense continues

Edited July 8, 2023 by Malcador