I think it depends on your legal system. Appointed judges that can overturn legislation are a problem, but if the judges don’t have that power and all they’re doing is running a courtroom then a judge representative of the community would be an asset.

The solution is obvious. Install urinals in women’s bathrooms, and issue every person without a penis one of these.

Motorcycles have a maximum volume

They already do, at least where I live. The problem is that they sell aftermarket exhausts that bring the volume to an illegal level, and cops don’t care.

See: Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea…

Actually sanctions don’t work at all, what’s happening here is the result of a war of attrition.

Music from 2004-2010 is the best and all other music is for old people or stupid kids.

Women are hey you you’re finally awake you were trying to cross the border right walked right into that imperial ambush same as us and that thief over there

Your best option for a sidecar is to find something used that’s already set up. Before I bought my current bike I test rode a Triumph that had an Indian-made sidecar (the country, not the motorcycle brand) attached to it, and that bike was pretty nice but I couldn’t afford it at the time.

But if you’re in Europe, then Chang Jiang has new bikes in the EU. It’s got a modern engine too, not just an updated old engine like Ural has. It’s a Taiwanese company AFAIK, so it’s separate from the Chang Jiangs that come out of mainland China, which I believe are all still refurbished military bikes from the 60s. Dunno if they’re in your country or not, but I was really disappointed to learn that they don’t sell them in America because it would have been my preferred choice.

It’s actually a brand new Kazakhstan-made 2024. Its got the 2WD gear, but you only engage that when off roading because it makes turning even harder than it already is.

I’ve always been attracted to “third options”. Cars are boring, sidecars are interesting. I prefer to ride my regular motorcycle when it’s just me, but I go with the sidecar when I need to take my dog or carry a bunch of stuff and my regular car when I need A/C or heat.

Bought a Ural motorcycle. Planned to sell my car to afford it - but then nobody bought my car, but then I managed to increase my income and afford it anyway.

It’s the most dangerous thing I’ve ever ridden. It’s great.

Personally I think the biggest reason is just how polarized people are right now. I mean, if Biden had been shot at, maybe there would have been a larger outpouring of sympathy - but I don’t think anyone would have changed their votes because of it. The number of people who are deciding who to vote for right before they do it is at the smallest its ever been, virtually nobody is interested in changing their vote out of sympathy for the candidate anymore.

I mean we’ll never know for sure but I think the fear that Trump had just won the election was a big part of why the push for Biden to step aside lasted as long as it did and got as loud as it did.

She could end all hunger in the UK and she chooses to do this. idk if you need to have a broken brain to become rich, or if becoming rich breaks your brain, but I can’t imagine having all those resources available to me and not trying to put them to good use.

There’s a part of me that still resides in Hogwarts too, but damn revisiting those books as an adult and seeing all of the things I just accepted as fine when I was a kid really sucked.

The only way to cut through propaganda is research. But 90% of people do zero research and simply assume that the things they see on movies and tv are a reflection of reality.

Some of us actually grew up in them.

So were you part of the majority that wanted to keep the Soviet Union? The majority that opposed German reunification? The majority that voted in a single socialist Korean government or the majority that supported the Vietnamese one? Because every time a socialist government is formed the same pattern plays out - the majority prosper, the majority support it, but the wealthy deposed ruling class cries about how they aren’t allowed to be in charge anymore until the US gives them the backing they need to overthrow the people and reinstate their own dictatorship.

While I cite that source for its wide ranging polls of Chinese citizen opinion, I think that a lot of the analysis is bunk because they start from the assumption that Xi is a dictator and base all of their conclusions off of that without first proving it. If you ask the Chinese people whether or not their system is democratic, the overwhelming majority say that it is.

When asked whether they believe their country is democratic, those in China topped the list, with some 83% saying the communist-led People’s Republic was a democracy. A resounding 91% said that democracy is important to them.

Now, this isn’t a great poll to base an entire political viewpoint on, because it’s actually pretty hard to define what a democracy is and what it needs to do to be considered a democracy. I think that the gold standard would be some kind of long term survey to see if government policy consistently reflects the opinions and desires of the electorate, like was done in this study of the US Government (I’m not aware of an equivalent to this study being performed in China).

Propaganda from the bourgeois: Taxing us is bad, actually.

Propaganda from socialist governments: We should all work together to build a better future!

These things are not the same.

we know what these countries are/were like

No you don’t! That’s my point! You believe a century of propaganda, and the only way that will change is if it is pushed back against at every opportunity!

One of their favorite strings of words to say while being almost indistinguishable from the worst fascists in history is “I’m a moderate”.