uncle bernard

A potential second coup attempt in 5 years is apparently under way in Bolivia. The military has forcefully entered the presidential palace. President Arce is calling for democracy to be protected. For those who don't remember the last one, popular president Evo Morales was on his way to an impressive re-election when his opponents claimed malfeasance. The claims were supported by western agencies. It ended up being a math error (or maybe on purpose) and the claims were bogus, but the military already stepped in, removed Morales, and installed a far-right politician whose party received 4-5% of the vote. Fortunately, the position of that illegitimate government was not tenable and they were forced to have an election a year later which resulted in MAS, Morales' party, sweeping back to power. Hopefully, this second attempt fails. If you know anything about the long history of coups in this region, you know there's a very real chance we are involved in some measure. Bolivia has the world's largest Lithium reserves. The coup government immediately signed a large Lithium deal with a major German company to start upping extraction.

I think you'll find 99% of progressives don't think George Soros should be able to buy elections either.

the main goal is to make their exports cheaper to increase international trade while making imports more expensive so money stays in the country. paired with intense government spending cuts to reduce the deficit. a major criticism of this strategy is that it concentrates wealth at the top. the rich who own the exports make money from increased trade. the regular people who buy imports lose money. in theory, the wealth is supposed to eventually trickle down, but that’s never totally worked the way it “should.” another hallmark of shock therapy is the selling of government assets to the rich for pennies on the dollar. the offload puts money in the bank and reduces the overall spending profile long term, but it also continues to concentrate wealth at the top as the rich gain extremely valuable assets for little to nothing. this is the origin of the russian oligarchs. it’s a hard strategy to stomach morally. nearly all of the burden is born by the poor and middle classes. it has extreme material effects on people. one of the largest collapses in life expectancy in recorded history was in the soviet union when they transitioned to capitalism through shock therapy.

No, our efforts at removing air pollution - in the form of aerosols - makes the reduction of total emissions even more necessary. Both must be reduced. Pollution causes serious health issues. Carbon causes rapid temperature increases that are too fast for the environment to adapt.

He slashed the value of the peso against in the dollar by 50% in his first days in office, which was part of his plan. Millions of people became poorer overnight, which caused many to fall below the poverty line. We'll see how it works out. The effectiveness of "shock therapy" is highly controversial. It also has historically been paired with right-wing authoritarianism to control the social unrest caused by such painful policies for the poor and middle classes. The "Chilean Miracle" under Pinochet is the classic example. Came to power with a military coup in the early 70s (with the aid of the CIA), murdered thousands including the extremely popular elected president, and let the "Chicago Boys," economists from UChicago, take control of the economy. Proponents of shock therapy point to this as an example of its success, but many point out that it was largely unsuccessful until copper and lithium, which Chile had vast reserves of, became far more valuable in the 90's. The other unquestioned effect of this strategy is vastly increased income inequality, which causes its own problems and is unsustainable. If you're looking for a fun read, check out The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

"What do we do with this?' Well, you could start by actually reading the article before assuming it's stupid. The gist is that the heating effect of increased carbon in the atmosphere has always been slightly offset by the air pollution caused by those gases. The aerosols in carbon cause darker cloud cover which better blocks the sun. As air pollution is cleaned up, less of the greenhouse effect is offset because the aerosols block less sun which means that the Earth would heat even faster than it has been.

1) Israel has blocked ton of aid from going into Gaza for 8 months. That's a fact. It's something they brag about. That's why the US felt it needed to build the pier. 2) Do you think Hamas shooting at aid trucks has anything to do with the IDF *using aid trucks* for their raid that killed almost 300 people? There is a reason why that tactic is highly controversial. It has obvious consequences. There are two combatants in this conflict and your (the rhetorical "you") one-sided ignoring of the actions of one of them is the major reason this conflict is on-going and people are still dying.

Won't Trump's tax cuts add to the deficit?

hadn’t seen it until i read your post. i condemn it.

there can be more than one psychopath in the world. this isn’t highlander.

Looking forward to your complaint that there are an excessive number of cop shows as part of a specific agenda. Seriously, how many NCIS agents are there in this country? Do they really need that many shows? What agenda are they pushing?!

Personal responsibility! Well said.

wait, you saw sexual behavior at mardi gras, the festival famous for women flashing??

as I’ve said several times, the people saying there are no innocent civilians in Gaza echo the evil words of Bin Laden after 9/11. It’s an evil worldview.

The obvious solution to this is if you don’t want to see “sexualized” behavior at a Pride parade, don’t go to a Pride parade. Have you ever even been to one? Or do you just see conservative pundits complaining about them on the internet?

You can ask people to suppress their identities to make you comfortable as long as you are willing to do the same for them. No displays or talking of religion or conservative politics in public. That’s the golden rule. You follow that to its conclusion, it means no expressing anything at all in public lest you might offend someone. The rational application of the golden rule to the public square is if you don’t want people to judge how you live, don’t judge them. move on. seeing gay people on tv isn’t going to kill you.

"I'm Mr. Personal Responsibility. It's the most important thing in the whole world. Also, the public square should be tailored to my beliefs so I never have to see anything I don't support."

Should Christians be expected to hide their cross necklaces and bible verse t-shirts to avoid offending non-believers? Should Trump supporters take off their MAGA hats to avoid offending democrats? Or maybe we can all be adults and understand we live in a free country with people who live life differently than us and they have every right to do so. Also, not sure what kind of media you're consuming, but I've never experienced public nudity from gay people. If there is an event somewhere where that's the expectation, maybe it's the parents' personal responsibility to not bring their kids? As for sexual innuendo, this is what fast food commercials used to be like. Our culture is far less sexual than it used to be.

Yeah, that's why they might choose an abortion. Btw 60% of women who get abortions in this country already have a child. They aren't foregoing having children. They can't afford to support the larger family. Nearly half are married or live with their partner. Lots of people choose the nuclear family *and* abortion.

So you want the government to enforce limitations on free speech in the public square? Is that not "Big Government?" No. Why would it? Just from a household income standpoint, that makes raising a child much, much easier. You complain about Big Government, yet want them to stop people from expressing themselves in public because it makes you uncomfortable. You complain about the downturn in the nuclear family, but I think you'd call any sort of public aid program that incentivizes children and makes them easier to raise "Big Government." The word I'd use to sum up your belief system is "ENTITLED." You literally want a safe space from views and lifestyles you don't agree with. Where does your "personal responsibility" to ignore what you don't like and move on show up?

Sounds like the Israeli's should stop giving him what he wants then. Welcome aboard to Team Ceasefire, scout!

Can't believe I forgot the last line! "force fed cultural support for abortion" Translation: most of the country disagrees with you and it makes you uncomfortable. The culture has no responsibility to cater to your minority views. Last time I checked, conservatives aren't being forced to have abortions. That's all they're owed by our free society. How can you preach "personal accountability" and complain when everybody else doesn't censor their views to protect your feelings?

If you ignore all the examples to the contrary, sure.

1. The number 1 threat to my job would be from conservatives for my pro-palestine views, so yes. They have very publicly been going after peoples' jobs or students' futures for this. Conservatives have also been working hard to get teachers fired for "promoting" woke ideology. 2. I'm sorry crimes were committed against you. Crime will always exist. It's far, far lower than it was in 70s-90s. 3. Where are you getting those numbers? I don't watch network TV, so I can't speak to current shows, but I do know Modern Family was huge and that featured 3 nuclear families. I feel like sitcoms are out of style in general. Most shows are focused around Doctors or Cops these days I think. 4. So your guy is the twice-divorced billionaire who cheats on his wife with pornstars? Is that supposed to promote the nuclear family? As opposed to the faithful catholic guy with 4 children and 7 grandchildren? You're gonna have to explain that one to me.