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[MetalSlimeHunt]

I don't know if I see Puerto Rico ever becoming a US state. The majority still oppose statehood by about a 60/40 margin

Uh, no they don't. It hasn't been 60/40 for almost half a century, and last time, in 1998, it just barely avoided getting a majority for statehood.

O RLY? (or should I say żO RLMENTE?)

It is genuinely odd how much that doesn't match the election trends. I guess we'll see for sure come November.

[10ebbor10]

But will people pay twice or more the price for a windpowered plant, than for a cheaper alternative? Windmills and other green powers use much more conducters than concentrated power production, like coal or nuclear power

They will if they're paying through subsidies.

You can't subsidize everything. I mean, most of the EU countries are running on a deficit already, and quite a few are having a slight recesion. (Though Germany is the largest economy in the Union, they can't evade that.)

[alway]

-Egypt is nearing the end of a civil war due to the military's unwillingness to give up power to a civilian government. NATO does not intervene and the rebels are crushed.

Can't agree with this after recent events. From my understanding, the head of the civilian government pretty much took power from them recently with the dismissal ("retirement") of the head of the army. There could still be issues, as the head of the civilian government currently holds enough power to qualify him as dictator (they still need to get parliment up and running, he has legislative powers until then; and with control over the military he has a power base; and with the new constitution unwritten, he has the power to write a new one however he pleases at the moment), though as yet I'm not aware of that power being abused.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

You can't subsidize everything.

No, but you can subsidize renewable energy, much like oil and coal have been subsidized by the US for decades.

[10ebbor10]

You can't subsidize everything.

No, but you can subsidize renewable energy, much like oil and coal have been subsidized by the US for decades.

I doubt you'll be able to double(near triple) you're entire green energy production using subsidies in just 3 years.

[alway]

You can't subsidize everything.

No, but you can subsidize renewable energy, much like oil and coal have been subsidized by the US for decades.

I doubt you'll be able to double(near triple) you're entire green energy production using subsidies in just 3 years.

The US already did and has been for years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_States#Statistics
Generation capacity by year (GWh):
2011: 119,747
2010: 94,652
2009: 73,886
2008: 55,363
2007: 32,143
2006: 26,589
2005: 14,597

[lemon10]

-The GOP loses massive amounts of power as its far-right party leaders alienate moderates and center-right conservatives with their reactionary ideals. Obama coordinates the Democrats to a majority in both houses of Congress. Justices Scalia, Ginsburg, and Kennedy retire.

That would be nice, but it seems rather unlikely to me sadly, if they haven't alienated the country by yet, I don't think it will happen in the next few years when they won't control the presidency or the senate (and POSSIBLY the supreme court (assuming you are right about those justices retiring in the next few years (I could easily see Scalia for instance waiting till he is either dead or Obama's term is over to retire), only controlling the house won't be enough to alienate the population.
However, I could see an internal split withing the party between the semi-moderate and the currently crazy far right's currently in control (which THEN destroys their power), but even that is unlikely to happen in the near future (although I do see it coming somewhere down the road).

-Egypt is nearing the end of a civil war due to the military's unwillingness to give up power to a civilian government. NATO does not intervene and the rebels are crushed.

I have to disagree with this one, while it seems fairly obvious that there is a looming conflict (assuming that the millitary doesn't radically change its course of action), I see it being entirely possible that the rebels could win it, it will be long and brutal and bloody like the one in Syria is right now, but I don't know if they will manage to win when none of the other millitaries/dictators have succeeded thus far in stopping the popular rebellions (yes, they are in better shape and a better position, but that could change fast).

[10ebbor10]

The US has space, like lot's of space, which Germany hasn't. Also, power in the USA accounts for 3.7% now, and is envisioned to be 20% by 2030. They don't plan to, and also can't keep up this rate of growth. Got to be carefull with statistics.

Sure it is easy to double things when they are small, but going from 17% to 50% power in just 3 years seems ridiculous, especially when the governements own statistics say something way more pessimistic.

[RedKing]

-The GOP loses massive amounts of power as its far-right party leaders alienate moderates and center-right conservatives with their reactionary ideals. Obama coordinates the Democrats to a majority in both houses of Congress. Justices Scalia, Ginsburg, and Kennedy retire.

That would be nice, but it seems rather unlikely to me sadly, if they haven't alienated the country by yet, I don't think it will happen in the next few years when they won't control the presidency or the senate (and POSSIBLY the supreme court (assuming you are right about those justices retiring in the next few years (I could easily see Scalia for instance waiting till he is either dead or Obama's term is over to retire), only controlling the house won't be enough to alienate the population.
However, I could see an internal split withing the party between the semi-moderate and the currently crazy far right's currently in control (which THEN destroys their power), but even that is unlikely to happen in the near future (although I do see it coming somewhere down the road).

That's kinda my view as well, although US politics does seem to be a homeostatic system to a large degree. When any one party begins to become very dominant, they're bound to make some colossally stupid mistake stemming from hubris, which eventually brings their rivals back from the brink of destruction. If the GOP schismed and the Dems established dominance, *somebody* in the Dem camp would do something so mind-bogglingly stupid that it would either split the Democratic party as well, or give the fragments of the GOP something to coalesce around. It's like a law of political thermodynamics.

[Scoops Novel]

Whats the most worrying near future advancement you know of?

[Guardian G.I.]

Whats the most worrying near future advancement you know of?

The corporations spying on everyone via adbots collecting private information?

...wait a second, that's not near future. That's is the worrying advancement of today.

[Moghjubar]

Whats the most worrying near future advancement you know of?

The corporations spying on everyone via adbots collecting private information?

...wait a second, that's not near future. That's is the worrying advancement of today.

You mean the worrying advancement of yesterday.  Today, its legislation/misc to have even more of it for the gov't/etc (ISPs watching your downloads and reporting you for piracy, as an example), so they can catch up.

[Guardian G.I.]

Whats the most worrying near future advancement you know of?

The corporations spying on everyone via adbots collecting private information?

...wait a second, that's not near future. That's is the worrying advancement of today.

You mean the worrying advancement of yesterday.  Today, its legislation/misc to have even more of it for the gov't/etc (ISPs watching your downloads and reporting you for piracy, as an example), so they can catch up.

I guess George Orwell is feeling rather uncomfortable in his grave.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Except that, at least in the US, the Supreme Court has been vigilant about striking down anti-internet freedom laws that actually pass and the public has been appropriately outraged whenever Congress tries to pass them in the first place. For as much as they try, anti-internet freedom movements don't do very well.

The anti-piracy groups would love nothing more than to regulate the internet's freedom away, but so far it actually hasn't been very successful for them. Hell, the case against Kim Dotcom and Megaupload is falling apart more and more every day, and the trial itself hasn't even started yet. At this rate they're just going to have to let him go if it gets any worse for them.

The ISP's don't want to spy on you. They don't give a shit. They have zero motivation to spy on you and deliver your piracy activities to the RIAA. None whatsoever. That's just going to turn consumers off of them and lead to the creation of even more pro-freedom ISPs like the one that is going to employ single-blind encryption to keep them from ever possessing a record of your activities in the first place.

[Guardian G.I.]

I'm afraid these countermeasures won't prevent the corporations from being able to censor the Internet sooner or later. The US Government, being corrupt as it is, will eventually pass such laws.

Well, at least it won't matter me, because I live far away from USA in a completely different country.