Possibly. Also, possibly, nobody gives a shit because every Russian and Chinaman (and everyone else) already knows their governments have bugged their assholes. "The corrupt commie governments are doing corrupt commie shit!" isn't exactly breaking news.

Agree

There is zero evidence WikiLeaks is compromised by Putin.

Agree

There is zero evidence Trump is compromised by Putin.

While I agree he is unlikely to be 'compromised' aka a Putin puppet, there are plenty of signals that he is at least influenced by Putin and the question remains why? All the pre-election contacts, public outcries of admiration, financial interests and lack of financial transparancy on behalf of mr Trump warrant an investigation. Especially considering the minor relevance of Russia for trade. Trump is the one who has been making public statements of support for Russia over and over again, why is his team so focused on it instead of China?

If anything the "Putin is super powerful and can haxx0r the whole planet and everyone's minds!!!" narrative is the Russian propaganda to make Putin seem far, far more powerful than he actually is. In reality, Russia is a paper tiger (bear?) with a GDP smaller than that of Spain.

Also agree

The left needs a boogeyman to distract from their failures and they're happy to buy right into Putin's propaganda and spread it for him.

This is where you completely derail into fantasy. The 'left' (if such a homogeneous thing exists) doesn't need Putin at all as a boogeyman and Putin has done plenty of stuff that anyone with some common sense views him as not just some regular democratically elected head of state but as a dictator that has shown to have no limits to remain in power.

Really no idea where you are getting that last part from but the fundamental difference between a government and a corporation is that the former is setup (usually) to serve its people and is held accountable by them, while the latter is setup to serve itself and its shareholders. That doesn't mean at all corporations are inherently evil, not at all (not a zero sum game), but there is a fundamental difference. Whether your local implementation of this is well functioning and desirable is a different story.

This system only works as long as the government can oversee and control the behaviour of corporations. The production of weapons by a company is not a problem because the gov has a standing army capable of taking that corporation out completely. With encryption a similar balance applies to function optimally, and a government having a braindrain and becoming incapable of properly overseeing related aspects like elections, security systems or nuceal launch codes can become a huge liability.

You want companies to be able to outperform governments? Holy crap, from bad to worse

Considering right across the channel, in that lil' country called 'The Netherlands' there are no problems at all with dredging rivers and channels while still being a full EU member, it seems you are good at inventing stories to blame the EU.

Because it is not that economically viable in the long term, the price of solar and wind has been dropping tremendously in the last few years and is expected to continue to do so. Nuclear has to deal both with a lot of regulations (and rightfully so) and is simply more expensive with the current trends. I have nothing in itself against nuclear, but its simply more expensive. This will hopefully change in the longer run with fusion.

Another point is why would you switch your country from being dependent on another foreign country with oil to replace it with uranium when you can become completely energy independent by using solar combined with the developing energy storage options, or fusion in the future.

There is no evidence that viewing child porn causes the consumer to commit more child abuse, and some evidence that it is preventative.

I'll invite you to name your sources. In 2006 a documentary aired on the Dutch national television that made the case that viewers of childporn have a tendency to view worse and worse forms of it as well as try to create their own as well

Not to mention the fact that often access to childporn on these sites is obtained by submitting your own original content, which was the main driver behind one of the recent largest abuses in The Netherlands

So I call bullshit on your claims to be honest

You don't actually understand science, scientific reasoning, or particularly the scientific method. What you do is simply what you are told. You're like a soulless golem, desperate to just prove your conformity by repeating mindless talking points.

Mate you need to have a long hard look in the mirror. Not even sure why you are on Slashdot if you cannot understand the basic science behind climate change

Yeah the only coal powered plant operated by Norway is on Spitsbergen, with locally mined coal

Well keep in mind that most borders are pretty artificial constructs often only decades or a few hundrerd years old where modern day humanity has been around for millenia. Ofcourse it makes some things a bit more manageable, but there is something inherently funny in thinking your responisiblity lies just with those 300 million people in the same zone while thinking 'Screw them' about that community a 100 k away just because they happen to be in a differently named zone. Humanity at its finest

As you could've read from my reply, irrespective of who is a presidential candidate running for an important office or irrespective of who's actually sitting in office making decisions about presidential pardons, there are basic common values to uphold: Disclose the numbers in the first case, tell the truth in the second. I'm able to see the hypocrisy of Obama saying he can't order a pardon for Snowden. Are you even able to do the same for the president elect's financial disclosure and tax payments considering his statements in the past?

Do you really find that type of commenting +5 Insightful?

His responsibility does not disappear though with just being able to say 'My lawyer doesnt want it', it doesn't work that way or at least everyone who desires transparent governments and reponsible politicians shouldn't

You're candidate for a public position representing over 300 million people
You decide to run for president fully knowing it is a custom to release these returns
You're aware that your tax returns have been under audit for the last 15 years

If you decide to run fine, but don't come with the I'm sorry theyre under audit excuse. You chose to go down the road, then be a man and own up to it.

It's not 'good schmuck bait', it is a perfectly valid point that people want to know the financial situation of a presidential candidate. Not that another hypocrisy would've mattered for most of his voters, it is healthy to worry about the financials of a man taking one of the most important government positions in the world in the same way it is perfectly healthy to weigh the words of your President on truthness (ergo the "can't pardon him" is a lie).

TPP: was already dead in the EU
More shale production: Holy crap if you see that as a good thing
Ethics reform: You have a at best discutable guy becoming president without knowing his financials, and you mention ethics reform? Again, holy crap.
Two regulations etc: Nice words, often leads to undesirable results. Not bad in principle, but only the actual implementation matters here.
Energy grid: Having a good energy grid is vital but its symptomatic that the right wingers sell it 'against attacks' where you simply want a good grid that is capable of dealing with outages etc. The warmongering sits deep in them though :-)

The overall tone of your post is hilarious, have you ever even travelled outside the US?

The biggest threats to nuclear power plants have been human errors and natural disasters, eco-terrorists don't even come close...