Well I was not even focused on the USA in my reasoning of why in Mexico it is a bad thing to extend the democratic process to the election judicial branch of government or generally every decision to the public.

The USA has issues in their democratic elections, gerrymandering in certain states being one, the electoral college giving most or all the electoral votes to the winner and not a portion in relation to votes, propaganda being openly discussed on “entertainment” news channels. Then there is even lobbying that is allowed, politicians being able to buy and sell stock based on insider information, paid speaking events.

And the ruling by elites will in any system be an issue, even oppression by the majority can be an issue, that is usually why you have a good constitution, that lays the foundation of how government should work, the different spheres and how it should protect the most vulnerable in society. It has mechanisms to protect against an interest group gaining power to basically twist the system to their will and finally the last resort is the democratic vote of the people to ensure accountability.

After these mechanisms have failed there is no pretty answer on how to easily get back to a fair system. In my country South Africa, where we had a system that disenfranchised the majority of the population, I am glad that we had a bloodless coup d’etat and now we have one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, but even that wasn’t enough again from a connected small majority from almost ruling the country. Luckily in our last election, in the first time in 30 years the ruling party lost their majority and now we have a 10+ party coalition ruling majority government, and in my opinion things are going good, but we know how fragile our democracy is and try to be as engaged as citizens can be.

This example was exactly the issue Socrates had with democracy actually, saying that a demagogue would be elected as a president or leaders of government the majority of the time. His solution was just as vague, so let’s just say there is no perfect system yet. All have their benefits and drawbacks.

Look it is messy, my feeling is you vote or don’t vote for a party based on their policy and track record, but after elections they have the will of the people to act, so they should then focus on the technical issues of government by being guided by their election promises, policy and the country’s constitution to ensure that minorities aren’t discriminated against for example.

My opinion is, not based on Mexico, that the public is uninformed in the majority of decisions. Basically delegating power to the common person, especially technical decisions to the public will mean the most popular choice will win mostly, not the best choice. That is basically populism in a nutshell. Imagine you had to choose in this example a food policymaker, the one is the charismatic Willy Wonka that will say he wants everyone to eat sweets all the time, he wants you to eat whatever you want to eat, give you choices by subsidising all the sweets, worse he will attack Dr. Grouch, because he wants to tell you what to eat, force additional taxes on sweets to try and guide people to eat more gross vegetables, in fact basically force you, the poorest to have no choice but to eat these “healthy” foods. And unfortunately Dr. Grouch will agree, he wants you to eat "healthy food because in a couple of years you and your children will reap the benefits.

Well it’s too far for Netanyahu to turn around now. He is being rewarded politically and I feel like he has already put all his chips into the destroy Hamas and Hezbollah, no matter the collateral. The sad truth is that October the 7th basically was a golden ticket for Netanyahu politically.

I think it is the crash of Tesla, its evaluation is based on being a silicon tech startup, not as an automobile company. So when the shares finally fall in line with other car manufacturers valuation, shit is going to hit the fan. And I think he knows he needs a government bailout and sanctions on foreign EVs specifically to price the competition out of the market. His entire empire is basically being propped up by the Tesla share price. He needs to go all in, it is survival mode for him right now

Remember Trump is only there because almost half of voting Americans support him

Well America and the EU are probably Ukraine’s biggest backers, economically and military aid wise. Thus we have a proxy war again and it is East vs West.

I understand that Epic funded their project to be an Epic exclusive, but was that a financially sound decision excluding the major market place. Could they not have worked in like a two year or three year exclusive period

Yeah I feel there is a weird history between steam and remedy media. Like I remember when you could one day buy Alan Wake like really cheap since it was being taken off steam. Then the Epic deal making Alan Wake 2 exclusive basically meant they excluded a lot of customers immediately on steam.

I literally feel there is a Hollywood exec that has done a line of cocaine and said exactly that

Fuck I hope Hollywood finally realises that they have really hit the the bottom of the barrel regarding remakes. Also, some sequels or whatever-quels have been hit and miss.

They need to focus on new fresh ideas, something new. Unfortunately they have to do something that is much harder now and that is not playing safe with proven IP. Make new IP, what ever gets the right team to be consistent with new movie ideas, maybe like Studio A24, will be in blue waters not fighting over the nostalgia against each other.

If you want to look at a country that solved their power problem with solar, I heard that is exactly what Vietnam did by incentivising the private generation of power, basically buying extra power from people’s solar. But do your own research, not entirely sure of the whole story

Bullshit, South African here. Yes solar has helped, mostly the affluent who can afford to install their own private home/business solar power.

But The huge problem what caused it was the ANC, which in May lost its majority in the elections for the first time since 1994.

The state run power company, Eskom, had been run into the ground by the ANC due to corruption and incompetence. In 1997 a white paper showed there would not be enough power by 2007. The only two power stations they build, the two largest in the world if I am not incorrect has been the subject of the state capture commission due to corruption.

In 2024 when it became clear they might lose majority, they exempted themselves from a government policy, which affects all medium to large businesses, which mandated they had to procure anything like maintenance or supplies through a BEE (black economic empowerment) partner. The idea is good but has been abused as rent seeking by the politically connected. So now they are exempt and the OEMs can directly work to fix and maintain the power stations.

Funny due to the loadshedding, or rolling blackouts, we did not have enough power stations working, and as far as I know we were one, if not the only country reaching our Paris accords targets.

But solar power is here to stay, heck even I want it on my own place, due to the cost of electricity becoming unaffordable, if you take a 10 year loan on a solar system, the cost savings will pay of the system itself. This has led to the affluent that can afford high tariffs prices from Eskom switch to Solar, saving them money, but they were used to subsidise electricity prices for the poor. So now the poor must pay more for electricity.

The government did finally approve the independent power producers bill, finally allowing people other than government to produce electricity, and solar looks like a solid option, since we have lots of Sun and the falling prices. So government is loosing grip on the generation market, allowing the free market to make changes.

But I will say it has been so nice to have had uninterrupted power when I come home, not needing to throw out my freezer food, having a hot shower, being able to prepare food on a hot stove under lights instead of a braai/BBQ.

No Park Chan Wook films? Is there a beef between them? I assumed since they are from the same country he would have mentioned on af Parks more obscure works, or at least something

As a South African, I was unaware of this marvelous train. I really hope change happens so that such a train is not necessary in the future.

But for now and the foreseeable future may this amazing initiative have a wonderful future

You are right actually, reform is better, and as a society we should be able to use prison time to make offenders better members of society.

But as an individual, for personal reasons, I despise any sexual acts of violence, so my previous message was written in anger. Even though I know the right answer is compassion and reason, I still wish them harm, unfortunately.

But I know I have hate I have to work on, but this is less about me and what I wish. It is about this poor lady getting justice however the French courts decides

Hope all of them get ousted as the guys gang raping an unconscious 70 year old lady. I really feel the other prisoners would really like to share their feelings on the matter

Fucking disgusting piece of shit, she only found out after police arrested him for spying on women in change rooms with a spy pen that has a camera. Once the searched their home were the photos of the multiple rapes on his wife discovered. He has been drugging her by mixing it in her food. Some of the 72 men, like ten of them have been doing this multiple times.

Throw the book at them, make an example out of each of them to send a message. One of the co accused even said along the lines of “she is his wife to do with as he please”.

Send them to the worst prisons, and for fuck sakes make sure this victim sues everything from all these fuckers so that she will be looked after and can recover and if possible heal from this horrible ordeal. I am not sure if it was a small favour that she does not remember those assaults.

https://youtu.be/E58CucUPCUw

This one was also about the multiverse: https://youtu.be/JfQUnMJw3pE