Sure, because a theory stating that the Chinese government foresaw the result of the 2016 US presidential election and genetically engineered a virus pandemic that triggered a world wide depression that tanked the Chinese economy just like everybody else's but they still did it just to victimise Donald Trump and all of red hat wearing MAGAmerica. That's so much more probable than that the Covid pandemic started like so many other pandemics have done since at least the late Stone Age when a bunch of East Asian gourmets got peckish and decided put some weird critters like bats or raccoon dogs on the menu.

The vast majority of Americans who cite the second amendment to me can't even tell me what it says word for word , they can't even convey the general gist of it which is douby funny, firstly, because the 2nd amendment is only one sentence, and secondly because I can recite it word for word and I'm not even an American citizen. What they usually regurgitate is something that boils down to this:

"It being of paramount importance that all citizens of the United States including robbers, pirates, dealers of addictive narcotics, other members of the criminal class and the nations various types of bat shit crazy lunatic have full and unrestricted access to guns there shall be no attempt by the government to control gun ownership or to monitor it in any way. Furthermore the government shall also be forbidden to mandate that gun owners show that they are well trained and disciplined users of firearms as a precondition for owning a firearm."

What the second amendment actually says is:

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

What that means is that the constitution guarantees the right of US citizens to own a gun for the purpose of forming a 'well regulated', meaning well disciplined and trained, militia. That's all the 2nd amendment says. Today the largest examples of the kind of militias that the writers of the second amendment had in mind is commonly known as the 'United States National Guard' although the second amendment does arguably also allow states to operate their own militias as long as they are 'well regulated'. The most interesting aspect of this is that the US government could under the second amendment mandate that all aspiring gun owners undergo a training course in fire arms operation prior to acquiring their first gun since the second amendment does say 'well regulated' which effectively means as I pointed out before 'well trained and disciplined'. Furthermore the 2nd amendment might also allow the government to reject people who it deems to be insufficiently disciplined to be part of any 'well regulated' militia.

With every day that passes and every pessimistic article like this that I read, doomsday peppers look and sound progressively less crazy.

I have never been in favour of inheritance taxes. They lead to massive injustices like people inheriting their grandfather's old house in the city centre which the family has owned since the 19th century and which he inherited just after WWII. Only now that the real-estate prices have risen astronomically and you have to pay an inheritance tax calculated on the basis of ridiculously inflated land values resulting in tax payments that are beyond the means of any normal family. Plus, taxing people for the fact that their mother/father/aunt/uncle had the temerity to die is somehow creepy to say the least. Then there is the issue of double taxation and the fact that the aforementioned phenomenon has led to people of normal means being force do sell off any property they have in high land value areas to finance the death duties. Inheritance taxes are just a vile idea on every level.

Their rich donors? Much as I dislike them let's palace blame where blame is due. This is what the GOP base wants, for the GOP to choke the life out of the 'intellectual elite. I'm talking about those red cap wearing yahoos who think evil emperor and Sith Lord Barack "Palpatine" Obama, Darth Hillary and a whole legion of Zionist Occupied Government storm troopers are coming to take away their rights and it does not seem to disturb their fantasies that neither Obama nor Hillary are in office anymore. It's congress and the GOP dominated SCOTUS that are taking away American's rights. The level of indoctrination is simply astonishing. I just watched an American news crew ask random Americans in the street if Obama and Hillary should be impeached. Only one guy out of the lot realised that they could not be impeached because neither Obama nor Hillary are in office, the rest were all for it because, according to one of them: "Hillary is more dangerous than ISIS".

That must require a really impressive degree of gymnastic talent.

I don't even get how this is possible. Not only is the UK one of the wealthiest nations on earth, it is one of a few, if not the only one among NATO nations that spends the recommended 2% on defence. Yet their legendary Royal Navy can't even afford ship to ship missiles while nations in the 1-1.5% category seem to be able to afford such missiles.

In other words you are confirming that I did hit a Fuckface Von Nervestick by pointing out he won even though he was the runner up ... note to self: poke that nerve in every future conversations with Trump supporters.

Kicking the alt-right off sites like Twitter is stupid because it allows them to stand on a soap box with a bullhorn and scream 'I'M A MARTYR TO FREE SPEECH!!' and that war cry will simply attract more recruits to their cause for the same reason that forbidding teenagers to do something is the best way to ensure they'll do it. Free speech guarantees your ability to say whatever fucking pile of half truths, lies and conspiracy theories you want but it does not guarantee your right to call it news. What would be much more effective is to filter any fake news stories their propagandists are trying to spread out of the news section and into the conspiracy theory section on sites like Google, Facebook, et al as well as fact checking and confronting people like Trump over their lies at every possible opportunity. If Facebook really chickened out of their effort to filter out of their news feeds totally fake stories spread by the likes of Breitbart for fear of hurting the feelings of the alt-right then there is something seriously wrong with Facebook.

Ok, ok, if you want to pick knits, he didn't win the largest block of popular votes.

AWWW.... did I hit a Fuckface von Nervestick? Trump didn't win the largest block of popular votes, which, in a functioning democracy is usually what qualifies you as the winner. Lucky for Trump the fucked up and throughly rigged US electoral college system allows the runner up to win.

.. which covers Donald Trump since he lost the popular vote.

Well, if they cancel The Expanse, I hope Netflix picks it up.

I'll claim the repair on my home insurance policy which covers my laptop among other things. Having said that I have yet to have an Apple SSD crap out on me or for that matter the SSD chips on any mobile device I own. What's normally crapped out on my mobile devices every single time so far was the charging circuit when I was dumb enough to plug the device into a USB socket or cigarette lighter socket on a motorcar and on the Laptops it was usually the battery when it neared the end of its lifespan. As to why I'd buy an ultra compact laptop (either Apple or some other brand) ?? ... because it is ultra compact, I like ultra compact and I accept that that comes with a price and soldered components are part of that price. If you don't mind carrying a concrete pavement slab of a laptop around with you because you can swap out every single individual component then go right ahead and do that. I won't crap all over you for buying one or using one and I hope it brings you much joy. Just for god sake try to scrounge together the good manners to stop crapping all over those of us who like ultra compact portables Apple or some other brand. There are good reasons to buy an ultra compact laptop even if you can't understand them.

That is one piss-poorly constructed headline.