Let me tell you about a man who was moderate in his political views, cared about democracy, proposed breaking up old medieval estates so the former peasants could own their land for the first time in history, and believed strongly in compromise. Read the section on Hindenburg’s second presidency from Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg#Second_presidency Hindenburg was not …
Author Archives: stidmatt
Yes, it’s a big deal
https://apnews.com/article/biden-cancer-prostate-be18c98abe341cd91277e1d3b75d5cd5?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us So apparently Biden has prostate cancer which has metastasized to his bones. Not only that, but this bombshell hit today too: https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/may/18/biden-book-health-original-sin So not only does Biden have rapidly advancing prostate cancer which I’m guessing he had while he was president and kept a secret from the public while running for president, but many …
Russia running out of weapons
I think this summer is going to be marked by Ukrainian victories, as long as the calls for ceasefires from Moscow end. Ever since Ukraine took the Kursk region Moscow has been calling for ceasefire after ceasefire, which they consistently break. Moscow does not want a ceasefire, they want Ukraine to cease firing. But this …
Balkanization of Russia
Start by reading this article: https://www.eurointegration.com.ua/experts/2022/04/7/7137272/ History of the North Caucasus Eras: • Pre-historic Iranian and Turkic cultures • Scythians: 900 BC – 300 BC • Sarmations: 600 BC – 500 AD • Huns: 370s-469 • Khazars: 650-969 • Cumania: 900 – 1241 • Mongols: 1238 – 1502 • Ottoman Empire: 1476 – 1774 • …
How this madness will end
42 percent of American farm workers have no work authorization, because they cannot get it. The United States sets quotas on how many people can get work visas, far below the number needed to fill the available jobs. This leads not to American workers working on farms but to poorly educated migrant laborers filling the …
World political regions
I’m thinking about why I focus so much on Europe, since there are so many other parts of the world to explore, but I always come back to reading about the politics of Europe. But why? Why not Africa? Why not South America? Let’s explore the world by looking at regions. I will use the …
A trillion dollar budget cut
Congressional Republicans are saying they want to extend the Trump tax cuts at the cost of $5 trillion over 4 years or $1.25 trillion per year. How can they offset these tax cuts with spending cuts? They also want to increase military expenditure. Using the Fiscal Year 2024 as our baseline… how could they cut …
Portland – Vancouver transit
People have debated spending a billion dollars on extending Max to Vancouver, Washington, for decades. The problem is that the existing buses from Portland to Vancouver are faster than Max will be, because it is a streetcar. It doesn’t make sense to spend a billion dollars on a slower mode of transport when you could …
Defenses of democracy
I’m listing all the mechanisms and policies that can defend democracy. I want to analyze how well they work, how they work, and how hard it would be to eradicate them. Here are the policies I can come up with: Voting in free and fair elections Separation of powers Independent Legislature Independent court system Jury …
Full Brexit was impossible
The main point of Schengen is not so much about boosting tourism, though it is about that and does a great job at it… It is to ensure that if any member state starts to fall to fascism, there will be minimal barriers for citizens of member states to relocate. The ability to quickly move …