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1500 questions
60
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15 answers
Why is it a bad idea to hire a hitman to eliminate most corrupt politicians?
According to an article I read recently (I could not find it though), the easiest way to take down a big authority is by cutting the head - meaning the uppermost level of control of that authority - and causing enough chaos to be able to claim that…
Angel Venchev
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Can somebody explain Brexit in a few child-proof sentences?
I find the whole Brexit thing impenetrably difficult to understand. My main points of confusion:
What exactly does leaving the EU entail? Just writing some letter announcing that EU tariff agreements will no longer be honored?
If voters in the UK…
Tyler Durden
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60
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4 answers
Why is Cuba still leasing Guantanamo Bay to the US?
During the last decade and a half, the US has housed prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and has been leasing it from the Cuban government for 55 years. Cuba has never cashed the checks
Castro was very anti-imperialism and US. So why has the Cuban…
Noah
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59
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6 answers
Why do many countries ban the sale of one's own blood?
According to this article, (in Spanish) blood from people recovered from covid-19 is a millionaire's business, laboratories in the US were paying up to thousands of dollars for blood from people who had recovered from Covid-19.
According to this…
Pablo
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59
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5 answers
Can I (a random person in the world) be prosecuted under the new Hong Kong security law?
According to Amnesty International, the new Hong Kong security law "applies to everyone on the planet". I quote:
The wording of the Hong Kong national security law asserts jurisdiction over people who are not residents of Hong Kong and have never…
luchonacho
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59
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2 answers
Would the USA be eligible to join the European Union?
This question is motivated by the interesting answers given in a similar question on Russia. Let's imagine the USA leaders would want to join the European Union, would they be eligible?
There are two sub-questions:
Is it necessary that they are…
Mario Krenn
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59
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5 answers
What options would have been left, if the UK government couldn't have decided on how exactly to implement the referendum to leave the EU?
To my understanding, the lawful government of the United Kingdom has decided, following due process, that:
The United Kingdom shall leave the European Union at a set date (currently 29 Mar 2019)
The United Kingdom shall not accept the deal…
Guran
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59
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10 answers
What will happen if China stops loaning money to the U.S.?
US's external debt to china is a staggering 1.1 trillion US dollars and according to many economists, it's highly unlikely that U.S. will be able to pay back the entire external debt to China in the next 4-5 decades or so.
So what will happen if…
user17709
59
votes
7 answers
Why don't US presidents run in other elections after their term ends?
As an example, Barack Obama is quite young (15 years younger than his successor) and was extremely popular. So why doesn't he run for a seat in the Senate? This would theoretically allow him to become the Speaker of the Senate and therefore the…
JonathanReez
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58
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Why is the Muslim world focusing on Israel's conflict with the Palestinians, yet expresses virtually no interest in the Uighurs?
All over the world, we witness public marches in support of the Palestinians from Gaza. Yet the Muslim Uighurs (and Myanmar Rohingya) attract virtually no attention, in fact Muslim leaders explicitly endorse the Uighur genocide. Why is…
torahmike
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58
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7 answers
What does Texas gain from keeping its electrical grid independent?
A recent article by the Texas Tribune explains why Texas has its own electrical grid:
The Texas Interconnected System — which for a long time was actually operated by two discrete entities, one for northern Texas and one for southern Texas — had…
JonathanReez
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58
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11 answers
Why do right-wing parties generally oppose the legalization of marijuana?
In a general sense, it seems that proponents of marijuana legalization tend to come from left-wing political parties, or at least, from the left-leaning factions within right-wing parties.
I am thinking mostly about the Conservative party in the UK,…
CDJB
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58
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8 answers
Why is "president for life" in China such a big deal?
"Great Leap Backward" was the title announcing the term limit removal in China. This BBC article tells us more about this:
The constitution has been altered to allow Xi Jinping to remain as
president beyond two terms and they would not have gone…
Alexei
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58
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12 answers
Does the Electoral College system really favor low population areas?
I was reading some questions on this site, and I stumbled up this comment. I'll transcribe the relevant parts of it here in case it ever goes away:
You could throw in something about how Hillary actually won the national popular vote and how the…
DJMcMayhem
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15 answers
Why is Trump's omission of an explicit mention of Jews from the holocaust memorial a big deal?
So, I'm not a fan of President Trump, but I feel like it's a not a big deal when Trump didn't explicitly mention the Jews in his holocaust memorial. Per his statement, he didn't make light of it or try and lessen its impact. It was just a canned…
Sidney
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