Meine Hauptmotivation dieses Mal für Volt abzustimmen, war vor allem hoffentlich dabei zu helfen, eine zweite wählbare Alternative aufzubauen. Eigentlich habe ich mir vor jeder Wahl die Programme der verschiedenen Parteien angeschaut und für mich abgewogen. Zuletzt war bei mir aber der Eindruck gewachsen, dass von den im Bundestag vertretenen Parteien nur noch die Grünen wählbar sind.

Der Rest nimmt entweder den Klimawandel nicht erst oder die Bedrohung durch Putin und positiven Gestaltungswillen oder Zukunftsvisionen sehe ich derzeit leider auch nur noch bei den Grünen. Ich hoffe, dass Volt sich als echte liberale Partei etablieren kann (anders als unsere derzeitige “liberale” Klingelpartei für die oberen 1% mit liberalem Anstrich, weil man ja trotzdem über die 5% Hürde kommen muss).

Mit Putin will Sahra ständig reden, aber Selensky will sie nicht einmal zuhören…

Der Witz ist ja, Lindner finanziert sein Generationenkapital an der Schuldenbremse vorbei. Weil dafür ein buchhalterischer Gegenwert (Aktien) geschaffen wird, zählt es als finanzielle Transaktion und fällt damit nicht unter die Schuldenbremse.

Das gleiche gilt natürlich auch für staatlichen Wohnungsbau, aber der ist leider nicht gewollt scheinbar am wenigsten von der Bauministerin. Warum Lindner 20 Mrd. Neuverschuldung jährlich für Aktien (größtenteils im Ausland) ausgeben will, aber für Wohnungen in Deutschland nicht bereit ist einen Cent zu investieren, das müsste man ihn dringend fragen.

Die Antwort liegt wohl auf der Hand. Ersteres steigert nämlich im Zweifel den Depotwert der FDP Spender, während letzteres am Ende noch zu sinkende Mieten und Immobilienpreise führt und das ist natürlich überhaupt nicht im Interesse der Vermögenden.

I for one would like to look at a simple 2d map instead of having to scroll around frantically just to compare two countries.

Naja, FJS hat sich seinerzeit sehr für moderne Industrien wie Atomkraft oder PKW eingesetzt, weil diese Technologien damals für Zukunft standen. Von dieser auf moderne hightech Branchen ausgerichtete Industriepolitik profitiert Bayern noch immer. Heute setzen sich Merz oder Söder für Atomkraftwerke und Verbrennungsmotoren ein, um damit Zukunft zu verhindern.

Man kann viel an Strauss kritisieren, aber diesen populistischen Kulturkampf gegen E-Autos oder Windkraftanlagen hätte es mit ihm vermutlich nicht gegeben.

“Konservativ heißt nicht nach hinten blicken, konservativ heißt an der Spitze des Fortschritts marschieren.”

Muss man der Union jetzt wirklich schon Franz Josef Strauß Zitate entgegenhalten?

How come copyright owners are not legally required to distribute their work?

Copyright is supposedly a deal society strikes with creatives: They create art for society and in return the law ensures that they profit off of their original works. If they no longer uphold their end of the bargain how come the rest of us should still uphold their copyright? If they no longer make their works available their copyright should be forfeit automatically.

Any idea why they apparently reversed the orientation of all characters between 500 BC and 1 AD?

Either that, or, you know, they could have witty, thoughtfully handcrafted ingame ads adding to the atmosphere, parodying the real world.

Elon:

Guys, I think I’ve got it… What if we built another lane but, you know, under the ground, like a tunnel.

https://img.ifunny.co/images/a9ab9ed9c402310f5c2194da99cdd0e3aed38bf2b23f6579020158aa3870cdd3_1.webp

At this point I think Elon might know more about management than anyone currently alive on Earth!

It must have come as a real shock to the Israelis to learn that someone in the state department knows what international law is.

On a serious note, the problem with wind turbines is not the total number of birds they strike but the species. Larger birds of prey seem particularly susceptible. Tough this risk can be easily mitigated by not placing the wind turbines directly in their primary habitat or migration paths.

Can someone explain to me why Americans seem so hostile towards Biden over Gaza all of a sudden?

US support for Israel goes back decades. America has been in bed with all sorts of dictators commiting heinous crimes and still is. Not to forget the illegal invasion of Iraq with hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties or the long list of US war crimes revealed by WikiLeaks and largely indiscriminate drone strikes across the globe. Most of these seemed to elicit much harsher condemnation overseas while the US public appeared generally uninterested. So why does this conflict in Palestine in which the US isn’t even an active party suddenly evoke such an emotional response?

For now reddit seems fine (even though I feel a noticable deterioration of multiple communities). Though the important change is that alternatives have established themselves. Lemmy might not be big right now but from now on reddit has to be extra careful not to upset redditors. Every new step they take that worsens the experience will drive a new wave of users away from their site and now more of them will find communities elsewhere that have been established during the first exodus this year.

At the same time I’m unfortunately quite certain that the enshittification of reddit will continue as investors demand higher profits. So we will see more waves of redditors leaving. Such a migration in waves could also be observed with Twitter, after every new step that Elon took to ruin the site.

I mean this map/number is just straight up wrong. There might be a point about Mercator projections distorting apparent size away from the equator but in reality the line across Russia is well over 8000 km long not 6400 km.

Can we please stop this eternal debate about the EU becoming a state? I feel like it’s besides the point and only evokes harmful reflexes on all sides. The question should be how to streamline and organize decision making. Who decides on which level about what. As Draghi points out correctly, certain stategic decisions should be made at an EU level. That would be more efficient, more impactful and help Europeans as a whole but it’s not really about “turning the EU into a country”. I get that “the sovereign nation state” has been the single one all-encompassing, all-powerful entity at the heart of political thinking since at least the 17th century but I just feel like it’s no longer necessarily a helpful frame of reference for many developments in the 21st century.

This doesn’t look like a car nor a truck it’s a combat vehicle. Seriously, who’s impressed by Elon’s shooting and steel ball demonstrations? In what kind of failed state do these Tesla customers live? With a tank hull for a frame and sharp edges all around this looks like a serious safety hazard for passengers and especially pedestrians outside the car.

That’s exactly the point many people don’t seem to get. Yes, zoning more land for construction or lowering building cost might help but the key issue is that housing has become a major asset for the rich and especially institutional investors globally. There’s just so much money out there in search of investment opportunities but unlike stocks or Bitcoin housing is a core human need. Coupled with increasing wealth inequality and stagnant wages this is a major problem. When crypto or Nasdaq celebrate new records that’s nice for investors but when the property market goes up and up many people can no longer afford rent.

Privat property investors are part of the problem whether they like it or not. Given these circumstances I find it hard to imagine a solution that doesn’t include massive state intervention in the housing market.