This isn't a modern change of affairs. History is filled with the common man rising up against the corrupt noble/lord/king and his professional army. The only times the common man won was when the army was divided AND they had substantial support from some of the rich and powerful.

Molten salt (thermal) batteries handle the day/night/no wind problem effectively, we just need to build it. We should also build nuclear power plants to cover base load instead of coal (the dirtiest source of power in the world).

Germany is massively subsidizing solar. Given they are currently going broke I expect the massive subsidies will eventually go away, resulting in a huge price hike in solar and a long delay while they build cheaper coal or natural gas power plants.

Big money owns the politicians, and they run the whole government. So don't be surprised when the system lets the rich do as they please without consequences. It is impossible to fix this without taking the money out of politics, and no politician in the current system will allow that to happen, because then they would have to compete on a level playing field with honest men. And that would mean they wouldn't be in power and able to repay their rich benefactors or get their own piece of the pie.

The Police (and the NSA) need to follow the 99% rule. Follow the laws always, except in the 1% case where you have a greater need- like catching that terrorist who plants bombs in our cities. When (not if) the people find out about the 1% law breaking they will accept it, as a rare and justified measure to protect them. When the police systematically break the laws without good cause when the people find out they will lose all respect for all the laws. And once the people don't respect the laws they don't FOLLOW the laws, and the government loses their ability to rule.

Lowering the cost of food makes more people starve to death, not less. Poor people tend to make their money from selling food to the middle class. Lower the cost (as happens due to massive American agricultural subsidies) and the poor third world farmers starve because they can't afford to buy the cheap food. The best thing we could do for the third world is raise food prices.

Ethiopia exports food. It's one of their leading exports, and has been for the entire history of that country. Production of food has never been an issue in Ethiopia, it was always a distribution problem (mostly the government selling food to buy guns and bullets to fight their civil war).

Given how they are deliberately destroying other religious groups and their shrines I doubt hiding in churches is possible. They also appear to object to education and libraries, so I doubt they'll find enough of them to hide in. So now the question is what to do after ISIS disbands. I suggest a Sunni state called North Iraq, with the Bathists as the government. Any end state with the Shiites in charge will mean purges and they've already shown they don't get along.

I don't see how anything a police department does could count as a trade secret, given that everything they do is covered by FOIA laws. I don't see how admitting to spying on people without a warrant could violate their right to privacy.

An IMSI catcher is a cell tower that re-directs to another cell tower. So all traffic to and from your phone goes through it. Voice, meta data, data, email, text messages. Of course they are legally required to get a warrant before they tap your phone, but the rest is probably up for grabs. Assuming they follow the law.

Dictatorships trying to firewall the internet == under attack by well funded enemies, who are making progress at stealing their secrets and/or undermining their economy. Maybe the NSA isn't as incompetent as we thought.

And what about the space station? Boeing didn't pay for that, and there are real costs associated with visiting (scrubber modules for the life support, if nothing else).

That's why there is an entire occupation devoted to handling legal stuff. I'd tell you the name, but every time I think of it the phrase "first up against the wall" jumps into my mind.

When the oil runs out (or we stop buying) the money will run out as well (over there). At that point their economy will collapse, and the poor will end up on our borders as refugees. So make sure we build the walls and guard towers before we stop buying their oil.

Corn is only cheaper than cane sugar because of massive subsidies combined with import duties. The (right wing Democrat) government of the USA should get out of the way and let the free market deal with this issue.