If the government wanted me to treat it as a civic duty and not something to get out of, they would pay me enough to live on. $40/day (in my state at least) for two weeks or more is something to go out of one's way to avoid if you're living paycheck to paycheck.

Rights come with responsibilities. If corporations can have the same rights as humans, they need the same responsibilities. This isn't just about the rights of people to freely assemble. It's also about protecting the rights of individuals. As James Madison wrote in Federalist no. 10, we cannot protect our freedoms unless we limit the power of factions.

When a human commits wrongdoing, they go to jail. When a corporation commits wrongdoing, they get a bailout. Until I see a corporation go to jail like a human, I don't want to hear about how they deserve free speech like a human.

It's no better here in the states. Here we have "secret holds," whereby a single senator can prevent a bill from being voted upon by anonymously witholding consent, thereby preventing the unanimous consent needed to bring the bill to the floor of the chamber. While in theory this was designed to allow legislators to have time to study a bill that directly affects his or her constituency, in practice it just allows one asshat to obstruct indefinitely. Thankfully the practice has been weakened in the current congress (replaced by the good ol' fashioned filibuster, which shows no sign of going anywhere anytime soon). More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_hold

But hey, at least it looks like democracy if you squint from a distance.

The main obvious difference between Freemont and Bangladesh in terms of sustainability is not solely population density, but also how much each consumes. If everyone consumed like Americans, we'd need six Earths.

Having seen how AI has affected the world of chess, I don't think it would be as clear-cut as this. Different top-level chess engines can have diverse overall playing styles and wildly different evaluations of any given position.

Facebook claims to take users' privacy "very seriously"

Ahahaha. Aha. Haha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.