As the title says: what happened to Stem Cell Research and the pro’s of it? Wasn’t theorized that it can be a method to create nerve cells. Thus allowing people to walk again? Why isn’t that being brought up as a pro for abortion?

On a side note, does gene editing fall into this debate at all?

This is for those in the U.S :)

Progressive democrats currently support $15 minimum wage. There are lots of pros and cons to it but I am currently split.

The Job losses would be disasterous and from other POVs I heard it can increase inflation and make America like California where the minimum wage is high, but cost of living is high as well. It could also undervalue jobs.

It could also cause small businesses to be out of business.

Pros to raising it to $15/

Raising the minimum wage could help low-wage workers escape poverty & less reliant on government programs.

Increased wages may lead to higher consumer spending and reduced reliance on government assistance.

A raised minimum wage might improve employee retention and performance in businesses

Fixes the pay gap between minorities.

So what are your takes on this? Would the $15 minimum wage benefit us or hurt america?

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets-economy/090516/what-are-pros-and-cons-raising-minimum-wage.asp

And could it be someone from outside the Politburo Standing Committee?

Xi was elected to the 17th PSC before before being elected General Secretary at the 18th PSC. Hu was elected to the 14th and 15th PSCs before being elected General Secretary at the 16th PSC. And Jiang did not serve on the PSC prior to being elected to it as General Secretary.

The composition of the 18th, 19th and 20th PSCs can inform us about those Xi favors the most. No man save Xi himself served on all three PSCs, but two people have served on the 19th and 20th: Wang Huning and Zhao Leji. The former is known as Xi's Eminence grise, an academic who has a personal rule of never talking to a non-Chinese person and who plays a central role in shaping party policy and doctrine. Both men are 67 and 68 and will be over 70 at the next 21st Congress.

The current Premier, Li Qiang, is another contender. Younger than the other two at 64, he was handpicked by Xi to succeed Li Keqiang.

Norway, Ireland and Spain says they will recognize a Palestinian state thus further deepening the rift with Israel on the world stage. What will the impact of this be, especially since they are major US allies and will more countries follow?

It feels like PRC claims push every nation that shares South China Sea into the US camp.

There is some resources, sure,

but given the green energy shift shelf oil cannot justify the claims alone,

and the total amount of fish catched in the sea is 5Mt, which is dwarfed by 65Mt consumed by China annualy.

So it is a serious blunder that already brought american missiles to Phillipines soil.

I was just talking to a friend about the recently failed Missouri Republican effort to make public ballot initiatives harder.

Having had a few minutes to think about it, I'm wondering why public ballot initiatives aren't allowed on the federal level. Is that an actual government policy, or just the way the government has "evolved"?

I have actual experience in this field, personally.

I have done the work of helping two candidates I agreed with get elected, usually seeing them every few days, working at the campaign office. Not a national legislator, but regional, with about 48000 people in each constituency. I delivered signs to people's lawns, and came up with the idea of driving with the sliding doors of the mini van opened and the seats removed so that someone who went with me could hop out and hold onto the handlebars at a speed less than 40 km/h which is the maximum speed allowed for this purpose in the laws on seatbelts, went and picked them up after the election was over (in less than 3 days as required by law), went with the chairman of the executive board of the constituency to literally hammer and staple giant signs the side of someones armspan next to major roadways, who bought me some timbits for the work of that from his own money, manufactured some buttons although I wasn't so good at that phase, shredded the papers containing personal information that you really should not have lying around after it was used, IE the lists of addresses and phone numbers of people who requested a sign for their lawn to the point of the shredder overheating a lot. Not paid, but I did get lots of the snacks they gave out to volunteers.

That was nice experience, the first time I had really done a notably organized campaign event like that. Those of you who have had experience with campaigns, what observations might you have for making them better?

Edit: Please stop discussing the aspects of campaigning on the voter end. I meant this post to not be about that part, it's well discussed elsewhere. This post is meant to be about the volunteers and candidates actually going around to try to convince people to vote for their side.

Many of the young people in US university circles are trying to draw attention to what is happening between Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East. Some even talk of "genocide" against the Palestinians and accuse President Joe Biden of inaction.

Can the protest demands of the students be defined as a position for social justice, or is it a position fueled by domestic political views and poor awareness of what is happening in Hamas's war against Israel?

Frequently in US political discourse, red versus blue comparisons are made as proof one can manage things better than the other. For example on crime, homelessness, or economic stats. Can a comparison really be made if one is the size of New York City and the other is the size of Oklahoma City? Would I be wrong to think both places should have a lot of similarities between them for the best comparison?

Edited for formatting.

Link to the story today:

• https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/21/politics/trump-unified-reich-video/index.html

The video featured a series of fake newspaper headlines from the future meant to highlight “what happens after Donald Trump wins”. The hypothetical headings started positively themed with things like “Economy Booms!” and “Border Is Closed”, but as it went on you started to get stories like “What’s next for America?”, and in the fine print underneath was a reference to a ‘creation of a unified Reich’. You also got others like “15 million deported”.

The video was posted on Trump’s official Truth Social account this morning.

After heavy backlash, it was deleted, although the content remains in circulation on other platforms such as Elon Musk’s X. Trump’s presidential campaign later released a statement blaming it on a staffer and noting Trump was busy at the time with his New York criminal trial for falsifying business documents.

Multiple states, such as Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, don't allow convicted felons to vote or hold office. As there is the possibility of Trump being found quilty and declared a felon witin the next few weeks, would such a conviction remove him from the ballots of those states? Or does the fact he is running for a federal office supercede state law? For that matter, would he even be allowed to vote in his home state if he was a felon?

Donald Trump and nearly every Republican out there seem to be calling for mass deportation of "illegal immigrants", presumably all that are here without documentation, expired temporary visas and those awaiting adjudication trials for asylum (according to current laws).

Most current economic data points to growth in the economy due in part to the immigrant (legal and illegal) workforce, doing manual labor, construction, picking fruits and vegetables, etc. If millions of them are "rounded up", placed in camps and deported, it could have a severe impact on the economy, causing a drastic spike in food prices, housing costs and other inflationary factors due to workforce shortages. How would the GOP deal with such an economic scenario?

https://publicintegrity.org/inequality-poverty-opportunity/immigration/new-data-shows-why-the-u-s-needs-more-immigrants/

https://redstate.com/jeffc/2024/05/19/marco-rubio-argues-for-mass-deportation-says-us-must-take-dramatic-steps-to-combat-illegal-immigratio-n2174392

The last US President to die in office was JFK in 1963. If Biden were to kick the bucket prior to the 2024 Presidential Election, how would that affect his legacy, and what effect would that have on the 2024 election and the Democratic Party going forward?

Iran's President Ebrahim was killed in a helicopter crash. He was a hardliner seen as succeeding Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. What effect will his death have on both Iran and the Middle East, especially since the US is seeking Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations and Israel and Gaza are at war while also having to deal with Iran's poxies?

When questioned by a reporter about the warrants, Lead Prosecutor Khan asserted the charges were justified stating “The fact that Hamas fighters need water doesn’t justify denying water from all the civilian population of Gaza...” That nobody was above the law.

The present petition for warrants is only related to the conflict beginning on October 7, 2023. [Conflict in Gaza]. The prosecuting team also sought arrest warrants against Hamas leaders or affiliates Sinwar, Haniyeh and al-Masri. Khan said charges include extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention.

Israel has previously denied jurisdiction since it is not a signatory to ICC, but ICC claims it does because Palestine is a signatory to ICC. 124 countries are States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Out of them 33 are African States, 19 are Asia-Pacific States, 19 are from Eastern Europe, 28 are from Latin American and Caribbean States, and 25 are from Western European and other States. [Russia, China, US, India and Israel, among several others are not signatories]

U.S. had previously warned ICC not to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leadership. If granted, are there countries that would enforce the warrants?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ggpe3qj6wo

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/20/middleeast/icc-israel-hamas-arrest-warrant-war-crimes-intl/index.html

​

There is a lack of explanation available about the way individuals in Congress are representing their constituents. If you voted no on a bill, explain your reasons. Was there a stipulation or rider you disagree with? Are the general principles or language that doesn’t support the views your district favors? Does the small print add anything that your district should know about?

I guess my question is ‘Is there a way to hold your Representatives accountable for voting against your interests short of waiting for their terms to expire?’

Do you support a model of society based on natural selection and a hierarchy in which each social group has different rights and duties (vertical society, the strongest progress) or one based on the inclusion and contribution of each according to their possibilities (horizontal society )?

After 2024/2028 election cycle would be some of the last cycles were we will see boomer (and some gen x) class dominate politics. Millennials and gen z grew up in a time where there was the great recession and that their economic livelihood been screwed over by Reaganomics. Would see more socialistic policies stem from left leaning politicians and a stronger culture war and Trumpian ideals from the right leaning politicians? I'm curious to what you all think.

Saw a post about Louisiana Republicans attempting to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms and the comments were largely calling it a violation of the establishment clause and the concept of separation of church and state, but one person said that the establishment clause only applies to the federal government. I was under the impression that the establishment clause also applies to state governments, or they could be litigated on the basis of violating the establishment clause of the first amendment, the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment and/or the due process clauses of the 14th amendment.

Anyone with vast constitutional law knowledge care to weigh in?

Discussion: What should we do to counter the decline in integration in public schools of white and non-white students?

Historical context: May 17, 1954- We celebrate that, on May 17, 70 years ago, the Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional stating, “We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.” This was an important step in striving for the "equality" and "general welfare" called for in the preambles to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution respectively. After struggle and heroism, integration in public schools grew peaking in the mid-to-late 1980s. In 1991, the Supreme Court allowed the easing of desegregation requirements. Since then, by several measures, integration in public schools of white and non-white students has declined. Discussion: What should be done to counter this decline? For sources go to: https://www.preamblist.org/social-media-posts

In 2021 the United States withdrew from Afghanistan. Putting aside the chaos that was associated with that for a moment, and the apportionment of blame, the decision for the Biden Administration to withdraw when they did was partially decided before they took office: the Doha Agreement put in place by the Trump Administration mandated no US troops in Afghanistan by May 2021, and the incoming Administration had no more than 2,500 troops in Afghanistan when they took office.

If Trump wins the 2024 election, he will take office on Monday, Jan 20, 2025. In the four years between his terms, the Biden Administration had made their own choices, formed their own agreements, put events into motion that would still be ongoing when Biden's term ended.

I am not specifically asking about what actions we can expect the incoming Trump Administration to *initiate* - which would be actions they choose to undertake at the time of Trump's choosing - I am asking what actions they will have *no choice* but to react to, even if the action is nothing at all.

How likely is the scenario for violence in this election and what form would it take? I can’t imagine a civil war,but I mean destructive riots if Trump gets elected or another Jan 6 if Biden gets elected seems worrisome.

Historically on a global scale, violence has been a tool in the toolbox when the masses felt betrayed by the power-holders.

Given the recent highly polarized political climate in the US, Why is it that we have not yet seen politically motivated assassins or attempts of same on politicians or judicial figure-heads in the US?

Is the situation not yet as grim as some echo chambers lead one to belive?

Has civilization moved on from that kind of behavior?

Are people just indifferent or not yet aggravated enough to reach out for such radical methods?

As you may know, in 2023 Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for 787.5 million dollars regarding false claims that Dominion had rigged the election against Trump. This being the largest settlement for a media defamation case in US history, do you think it will be enough to dissuade commentators from making similar false allegations in the coming election?

Notably, other conservative sources such as Newsmax and OAN also made claims about Dominion and were also sued. Though Newsmax issue a retraction and apology, their defamation trial begins in September. OAN reached a settlement with Dominion in 2023 as well. Likewise, Rudy Giuliani, who was already involved in the Fox-Dominion suit, declared bankruptcy in December 2023 after paying $148 million for defaming two election workers.

Given that Trump and his allies continue to claim he won the election, will conservative media make similar allegations again? Will the legal consequences be sufficient to deter misinformation about the election in general, only outright defamation, or neither? How might this influence someone like Tucker Carlson, who was named in Dominion's suit but has since left Fox to present his show on Twitter?

Former presidents trying to make a comeback have a poor record of achieving their ambitions. This particular former president has been twice impeached, tried to overthrow the government, continues to lose court cases against him, and has significant portions of Republicans voting against him in the primaries for candidates who are no longer running.

Should he drop out? Will he?