Femal basketball Britney Griner is spending time in a Russian Gulag facility in exchange for being arrested for smuggling dope into Russia; apparently that is an offense against Russian law. Because she is a star the public wants her released from jail, unlike ordinary people that suffer consequences of legal entanglements somewhat differently. Billionaire Lebron James has asked for Griner to be set free.
The news people said the President of the U.S.A. would need to pay "a terrible price" to get Griner released. Maybe confessing to RUssian collusion ior alternatively British collusion would be the price. Maybe the price could be to ask the major news networks to allow President Putin 10 minutes of major broadcast media airtime to explaion his point of view on Ukraine- in exchange for Griner's release. Just a thought- President Putin might like the opportunity to speak directly to Americans instead of being filtered through a biased media, and Griner might like the chance to legally buy dope in one of several U.S. states if she actually is stupid enough to use the junk.
The Democrat Party has had total control of the House and Senate for a couple of years now and haven’t advanced a single global warming reduction bill in spite of campaign [promises to do exactly that. It is challenging to believe that there purpose hasn’t always been to spoof the public and use the global warming issue as a lever to put forward their social agenda. Global warming reduction is important to all people rather than just democrats so they are cool just don’t seem to care much.
There are always issues that arise that Democrats can use to put the global warming fix on the back burner and just let carbon dioxide parts per million rise and the ecosphere decline. Its fine if everyone gets stupid with less oxygen in the atmosphere with Democrats apparently. Packaging a global warming fix bill with day care for example, won't get it done.
The Ukraine war is partly a Democrat construction. Their policy to hate Russia and just try to force their way on everything left to alternative to Russia taking back what they feel they own historically for-themselves. Its useful to understand the point of view of other people to leading to war. Democrats understand their own point of view and marginalize everyone else so far as they can.
In a few months it is quite likely Democrats will lose the Senate and or House and nothing will have been done to reduce global warming. Realizing that the public is aware Republicans won’t do anything in the public sector to reduce greenhouse gases their tactic may be to use it as an election prop one more time, promising they will get a greenhouse gas reduction bill done if re-elected. In my opinion their will always arise social issues like mass shootings that can bump out global warming legislation; convenient for Democrats to put up contentious social legislation with the same old arguments and standing political differences of opinion to consume time. One must believe it is done intentionally. They want a world more suitable for reptiles and cold, blooded evolving creatures.
It might be a good idea to consider unconventional approaches to bringing peace and prosperity to Europe-Asia and the United States since the usual indignant bullhead sort of approach might lead to nuclear war within a year. Russians are alright people, and Ukrainians might be too although they have been indoctrinated in some shaky western sports of things I would guess. Even so, it should be possible to get some sort of peace deal involving swapping land for Ukrainians and Russians.
Ukrainians could be given title to 2 acres of land in Russia- even Siberia, and vice versa, for free to start with. Citizens of each nation would own some real estate and could build a geodesic dome there if they choose. The border region would be made like a chessboard of agriculture and wilderness reserve lands owned by each nation, and Russia would keep 70% of its present occupied areas in return for which Ukraine would be given a 100 year lease on select areas of Russia of equal area to develop as they wish non-militarily with an assured direct travel corridor to the land.
The administration wants to win things through war rather than negotiation with creative thinking. Force is an effective tool in a mindless sort of way on occassion. Withn lots of weapons and proxy soldiers that's an easy chpoice to make.
When Ukraine was set up during the interregnum when the Soviet Union died and before Russia could be fully re-established lands were taken that Russia would forever regard as its own with a right to own, Unfortunately that circumstance led to the present conflict. To settle that conflict short of nuclear war and return the world to a more normal political state of affairs asap (get on with reducing global warming already) some very intelligent and innovative leadership will be required to make a land adjustment.
All those former communists really should have some land of their own to worry over; ending Cold War 1.0 did not assure that all people would have an equal start with some property in their possession. Obviously some oligarchs and mafioso globally had an advantage at taking things in the vacuum of power. Too bad Henry Kissinger isn’t available to sort things out.
President Biden has declared the second amendment to be less than absolute (whatever that means). It is good when a President can declare the constituion and its amendment maleable and subject to his personal political will. Lucky he isn't for the return of slavery or he could declare the 13th amendment isn't absolute either.
Apparently Presidents can declare elements of the constition less than absolute after deeming an offending amendment so. If it doesn't say that in the constitution its proobably because it isn't 'absolute'.
As the U.S. government prosecutes its war against Russia in the Ukraine the administration requires a continuing narrative of support for its version of events and causality of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. This morning National Public Radio broadcast a tale of two statues of Vladmir- the founder of Kievan Rus, as a way to convey the impression the Russians are pretenders to be leaders of the Slavic world and Ukraine was always an independent country not part of Russia or the Rus. People that have read history know that is largely in error.
Vladimir- a Viking whom had ventured down the Dnepr River in the era of Vikings traveling European rivers for exploration and war in the 9th century onward a few hundred years, consolidated the river settlement of the Slavic people at Kiev and the Russian nation formed. Russians increased in population and eventually expanded north and east to areas sparsely populated for hundreds of years. Eventually the capital of Russia became Moscow- a convenient location especially as Russia eastward expansion took them over the Urals and to the Pacific. NPR gave the false impression that Ukraine was always an independent country and wasn’t part of Russia, and that is propaganda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rus%27_people
The history of the Varangian-Vikings and their heirs that expanded Russia is fascinating and of course jostles within themselves and with other people around them for land. That process is what is continuing today. President Biden and the Democrats decided to get involved and take some land for the Catholic-Polish and German-British side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUgzqkCW6A4
If the United States last another century or two it is possible the capital may be moved to Missouri and that wouldn’t mean that Washington D.C. is no longer part of the U.S.A. The capital at Moscow does not mean that the Ukraine isn’t part of the historical Russia. Moscow can rightly claim to be the lineal successor of the Rurik dynasty and the nation of the Rus founded by Grand Prince Vladimir at Kiev. It should be noted that Vladimir was not the first leader of the Rurik dynasty- that would be Rurik. Vikings were leaders and Slavs and Finns the people for some time, although I would guess that the bloodlines merged eventually.
Power compensates for the need to be accurate or truthful; for administration that is very helpful for providing rationale to support supplying multiple launch rockets to Ukrainians so associates can send missiles flying about Ukraine at Russians. When taking a country- Ukraine, from Russia, it would be better to be honest about the historical facts, than disingenuous.
The better version would be that President Clinton levered Ukrainian independence from Russia while warring on Serbia during the interregnum following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. After a quarter century of rebuilding Russia the Russians are trying to take back the Ukraine.
Philosophers naturally enough pursue knowledge of what isn't known. Cosmology today obviously is incomplete. The expansion of the universe that is accelerating, the size of the Universe, dark energy, dark matter etc. those are a few of the problems. The idea of a multiverse is also something one can easily consider and compare to the ideas of what an infinite, eternal being of a Creator of Multiverse should be to be consistent in modal logic terms with what is known of creation. One would think philosophically, that a characteristic of God would be actualization of an infinite number of universes a priori, in His thought, as an omnipotent and omniscient being. One knows that the Higgs field slows down two-dimensional mass less particles in so they pick up the appearance of a third dimension- and hence mass can exist as an apparent phenomenon. Energy seems to be the basic substance, and what it is actually made of at the funamental level isn't certain. Leibnitz thought one-dimensional monads made of spirit comrprised what might be zero-dimensional points of string theory, I believe it is. None of this is deflection. It is simple philosophical interest in the theology of an infinite Being sustaining universes and multiverses. This isn't a "god of the gaps' approach though it would be unreasonable to expect God to be a material substance like a human or someone meaasurable to science i.m.o.
Social media is where Americans discuss politics. It is owned by the richest people. They determine what is hateful speech or what is fake news and delete it or bury it in search engine listings. Social media therefore is conditioned and permitted free speech warping democratic expression toward its own ends; it is not a neutral moderator or political speech or art. Social media is heavily biased and filtered by Democrats serving plutocrats.
The remedy probably is to have a public social media alongside privately owned social media. Reason dictates that privately owned Democratic expression venues will be biased and hate free expression of political opposition or even of taxing the rich more.
If the Congress wanted to be useful it would establish a public free speech social media system that would provide every citizen a web page of their own that is secure and available for all to read in cyberspace. If the Congress wants to protect democracy and free speech it would need to establish publicly owned social media right away while there are still Americans not conditioned by the plutocracy to follow along their narratives.
