LibertyBell

I wonder if we were in a stronger blocking regime back then, we didn't have that kind of blocking in the late 80s or late 90s/beginning of 2000s.

neutrals after la nina are some of our worst winters....1989-90, 2001-02, etc.

and dont forget the paper on the great January 2016 blizzard that gave us our first 30+ inch blizzard with true blizzard conditions for 12 hours straight!

Bud Selig should never have been allowed to be commish, the guy sucked. Golf is awesome, I live between two courses lol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index Democracy Index, the US ranks as a "flawed democracy" at number 30 1 Norway Full democracy 9.81 0.06 10.00 9.64 10.00 10.00 9.41 2 New Zealand Full democracy 9.61 0.14 10.00 9.29 10.00 8.75 10.00 3 2 Iceland Full democracy 9.52 0.34 10.00 9.64 8.89 9.38 9.71 4 Sweden Full democracy 9.39 0.13 9.58 9.64 8.33 10.00 9.41 5 2 Finland Full democracy 9.29 0.02 10.00 9.64 8.33 8.75 9.71 6 Denmark Full democracy 9.28 0.19 10.00 9.29 8.33 9.38 9.41 7 2 Switzerland Full democracy 9.14 0.24 9.58 9.29 8.33 9.38 9.12 8 1 Ireland Full democracy 9.13 0.13 10.00 8.21 8.33 10.00 9.12 9 2 Netherlands Full democracy 9.00 0.12 9.58 8.93 8.33 8.75 9.41 Flawed democracies 25 4 Czech Republic Flawed democracy 7.97 0.23 9.58 6.43 7.22 7.50 9.12 9 Greece Flawed democracy 7.97 0.41 10.00 7.14 6.67 7.50 8.53 27 Estonia Flawed democracy 7.96 0.12 9.58 7.86 6.67 6.88 8.82 28 Portugal Flawed democracy 7.95 0.13 9.58 7.50 6.67 6.88 9.12 29 6 Israel Flawed democracy 7.93 0.04 9.58 7.86 9.44 6.88 5.88 30 4 United States Flawed democracy 7.85 9.17 6.43 8.89 6.25 8.53 31 4 Slovenia Flawed democracy 7.75 0.21 9.58 7.14 7.22 6.25 8.53 32 2 Botswana Flawed democracy 7.73 9.17 6.79 6.67 7.50 8.53 33 Malta Flawed democracy 7.70 0.13 9.17 7.14 5.56 8.13 8.53 34 3 Italy Flawed democracy 7.69 0.01 9.58 6.79 7.22 7.50 7.35

Happiness index scores tell the tale, the big boys and girls at the front of the line....these nations also handled covid the best, have the highest democracy index scores, etc. https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/happiness/ It's like clockwork lol Finland 7.82 1 2013 - 2021 Denmark 7.64 2 2013 - 2021 Iceland 7.56 3 2013 - 2021 Switzerland 7.51 4 2013 - 2021 Netherlands 7.41 5 2013 - 2021 Luxembourg 7.4 6 2013 - 2021 Sweden 7.38 7 2013 - 2021 Norway 7.37 8 2013 - 2021 Countries Happiness index, 2021 Global rank Available data Finland 7.82 1 2013 - 2021 Denmark 7.64 2 2013 - 2021 Iceland 7.56 3 2013 - 2021 Switzerland 7.51 4 2013 - 2021 Netherlands 7.41 5 2013 - 2021 Luxembourg 7.4 6 2013 - 2021 Sweden 7.38 7 2013 - 2021 Norway 7.37 8 2013 - 2021 Israel 7.36 9 2013 - 2021 New Zealand 7.2 10 2013 - 2021 Australia 7.16 11 2013 - 2021 Austria 7.16 12 2013 - 2021 Ireland 7.04 13 2013 - 2021 Canada 7.03 14 2013 - 2021 Germany 7.03 15 2013 - 2021 USA 6.98 16 2013 - 2021 UK 6.94 17 2013 - 2021 Czechia 6.92 18 2013 - 2021 Belgium 6.8 19 2013 - 2021 France 6.69 20 2013 - 2021

The rich should be taxed at like 90 percent on both wealth and income. They get away with paying zilch. Nordic countries are far better off and their "happiness index" high scores show it, as well as they get a lot more for their money than we do. Finland ranks highest on a lot of metrics, like social mobility and lack of income disparity and I believe they also have UBI (universal basic income) which we have been testing out in parts of NY and NJ.

Yes these hidden taxes and subsidies (like subsidies to big pharma and the fossil fuel cartels) really need to go.

this new schedule is so weird lol, I hope we don't have any of these games with NL teams in September during the pennant race.

dessert for breakfast sounds absolutely awesome!

thats opening day....the snow season is over, we need to move on (to warm and dry weather hopefully)

So you're saying if these countries paid their fair share then the burden could be more equally distributed. I still think we could have the same social programs they do (if the burden was equally shared), since there is outlandish overspending by the defense sector that doesn't need to occur.

This isn't 1800 or 1900, and US intervention has led to horrible outcomes in MANY parts of the world-- so no I don't buy that cliched propaganda. Eisenhower knew better and warned of the military industrial complex-- and being the leader of it-- he knew better than anyone else. https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-military-expansion-50-years-later https://www.npr.org/2011/01/16/132935716/eisenhowers-warning-still-challenges-the-nation In an effort to control the expansion of the military-industrial complex, Eisenhower consistently sought to cut the Pentagon's budget. The former general wanted a budget the country could afford, Bowman says. He upset all the military services with his budget cuts, especially the Air Force. Citing another quote from Eisenhower -- this one from another speech on military spending -- Bowman says, "The jet plane that roars overhead costs three quarters of a million dollars. That’s more than a man will make in his lifetime. What world can afford this kind of thing for long?" In today's government, Eisenhower has a fan in his fellow Kansan Secretary of Defense Robert Gates -- who keeps a portrait of the former general in his office at the Pentagon, Bowman says. Speaking at the Eisenhower Library last year, Gates talked about America's insatiable appetite for more and more weapons: But, Bowman says, it has only become more difficult to control the size of the nation's military industry. First, "there are only a handful of defense giants," he says, "which means you can't shop around for a better price." And companies such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are also adept at both lobbying and marketing to promote their interests. Bowman says, "they also spread the jobs around the country, to lock in political support." Sponsor Message Gates has also discussed the difficulty of cutting military spending: Bowman says that some industry observers believe that "the one thing that could create that political will is the nation's huge deficit." Only that might force cuts in the overall defense budget.

did you see the one about Cigna using an automated program to reject lots of people for insurance benefits in a short amount of time? They didn't even open the applications, the program automatically rejects 50 people every minute lol private insurance sucks

and they are food deserts...many of our health conditions, like the diabetes epidemic are worse because of that...we have both urban and rural food deserts where fresh unprocessed food isn't commonly available.

As in the above post, the US spends/wastes WAYYYYY too much on the military industrial complex and could do much better if we spent that money on our own people right here.

This country spends/wastes WAYYYY too much money on the military industrial complex....if it didn't do that we could have the same social programs that other nations have. Notice how quickly they dole out billions for other nations and never do it for people who live right here.

I think thats how all nations to be, this nation is too big for its own good....most large nations eventually break up into smaller parts, because they are more manageable and easier to run.

Those Scandanavian nations are amazing and ranked at the top of all nations on most metrics. The US should be treated as 50 different nations rather than just 1 nation and we have many Nordic style programs in NY and other NE states.

AI = Shangri La? Only if it's AGI though and it's currently unknown if that's even possible. Look it up though, if AGI were possible, it opens up a whole new universe of possibilities.

Yes see the other post I made after that one, I have problems with it because no human is truly free of corruption, even if it's only corruption of thought, if given the power of control....that corrupt thought can easily turn into corrupt action. That's why I also added that government itself needs to be controlled....and the only way I see that being properly done is by AI, but altruistic science based AI, I'm not sure if the level of complexity we need and making altruism part of the self evolution process is entirely possible. As something gets more complex and more advanced, I intuitively believe that it becomes less altruistic and more ego driven (even AI). You end up with the Russian Doll (Matroshka) Effect....you always need to find a way to control the controller....talk about recursive function hell lol. I would always choose government over corporations because of the horrible things corporations have done ever since the first multinational corporations started up (the British and Dutch East India Companies), but I would choose academics over both. Unfortunately academics don't like being policy makers.

Yes the key to maintaining it is not realizing it. We get bombarded with so many ads every day and targeted advertizing and then there's the issue of mass surveillance (both by government and by companies.)

We're kind of joking around (at least I am lol).....but the real problem is eventually the "controller" even if they start out with good intentions also has the ability to do horrible things (remember J Edgar Hoover, FBI, etc.) That's why the only acceptable entity doing the controlling would be AI that would self evolve based on altruism, and I'm not even sure that's possible. Punishing corporations for their misdeeds (which current government doesn't properly do because they've been infiltrated by them and their lobbyists) and establishing benefit corporations that seek to preserve the environment and better society, is a real and realizable goal though....it should be done.

I wonder why it is that certain areas, like the northern Rockies have either remained steady or even cooling. Maybe the very high elevations of that region make them immune....for now.

100% concur 99% of people are stupid and need to be controlled....and that includes corporations. "average" people are stupid too, but are more dangerous because they can do much more harm than a below average person. But the government is corrupt too and needs to be controlled also-- I'd say by AI, since AI is best equipped to make rational scientific decisions than any human on this planet ever could. Freedom should not include the right to be ignorant, stupid or corrupt.