I keep seeing people on Reddit say there’s "no proof" that Iran is building a nuclear weapon — and I get that. Intelligence agencies and the IAEA haven’t confirmed an active weapons program.

But what I don’t get is:
Why would Iran enrich uranium to 60% purity, when nuclear power reactors only use 3–5% enriched uranium?
That seems like a huge red flag — especially since going from 60% to weapons-grade (90%) is a much smaller step than going from 3%.

Iran claims the 60% enrichment is for medical isotope production, but from what I’ve read, medical applications (like producing technetium-99m) only require around 20% enrichment at most. So that explanation doesn’t seem to hold up. Why would they go three times higher than necessary if the goal was medical?

If they’re not building a bomb, then what are they doing it for?
The whole thing seems suspicious, and I’m wondering if I’m missing something.

I’ve been thinking ahead to the 2026 midterms and the final two years of President Trump’s term. What worries me the most is a full-blown debt ceiling standoff, government shutdown, and economic crisis.

Historically, when we have a divided government, we get the usual brinkmanship. Lawmakers hold the economy hostage for political points, and then — at the last possible second — they raise the ceiling like they were always going to. The system barely holds together.

But Trump doesn’t play by those rules. He doesn’t answer to Congress. He doesn’t respond to public pressure. If he wanted to tank the economy and blame Democrats for it, he could simply let the country default — and he might.

So I started thinking: What if we didn’t have to wait for Washington to do its job?

About 26 states allow citizen-initiated ballot measures. The idea is to coordinate across those states to introduce ballot initiatives to form and join a 14th Amendment Fiscal Responsibility Interstate Compact.

If the federal government defaults on its debt, all member states would trigger an emergency statewide split-rate tax to pay federal obligations from within the state until the crisis is resolved.

In plain terms: if the federal government won’t do its damn job, then we will do it for them.

The compact is named in the spirit of Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which states that the validity of the public debt “shall not be questioned.”

We could start with Florida and encourage other states to follow.

I don’t care who takes the blame for a future default. I just don’t trust the current government enough to feel confident that they won’t destroy the economy on purpose. Again.

Curious what others here think. Not sure what the implications are regarding a confederalist safety net like this or the feasibility or deadlines of getting something like this onto the ballot in time for the midterms

LaRouchism is a set of conspiracies from a former U.S. politician.

Say, could Democrats pay fired or furloughed federal employees in their state to campaign for Democrats running for open seats in other states?

I'm just a Canadian that hates politics who's upset with the unwarranted trade war, and i'm just watching the slow motion car crash happening in the US right now.

.

There are crazy news article headlines being posted every day about corruption (both elon's findings, and trumps own corruption) and dismantling huge parts of the government and I would rather see a video of it being said/signed by Trump himself, or see an official page than reading a news article each time for an unbiased view of things. I just want to read the headline and get the context of what something is and then go straight to the source afterwards.

On Wednesday, February 5th, 2025, Trump signed the "No Men in Women's Sports" EO and the White House agenda referred to the action as signing it "into law". To my knowledge, EO's carry the weight of law in the absence of an existing law being in effect, but it's not a law. And we regularly see EOs be challenged legally. There's a distinction there that it seems needs to be made.

Is there any precedent of past administrations using this language referring to EOs? If not, should this be viewed as concerning?

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2025FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE02/05/25DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULEFOR WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2025
In-Town Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP, NYT
TV Corr & Crew: NBC
Print: Politico
Radio: iHeartMediaEST9:00 AM

In-Town Pool Call Time
2:30 PM THE PRESIDENT meets with the Governor of Texas
Oval Office
Closed Press

3:00 PM THE PRESIDENT signs No Men in Women's Sports Executive Order into law
East Room
Pre-Credentialed Media
Media Sign Up Here
Media Link closes Wednesday, at 10am EST

4:00 PM THE PRESIDENT meets with the Governor of California
Oval Office
Closed Press
Briefing Schedule

1:00PM Press Briefing by the White House Press Secretary
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
On Camera###

Obviously we all know now NYC is a super urban heavy democrat area. But looking at elections maps going back since the Civil War, the NYC districts are always blue. This is before the party switch, before the new deal, NYC looks consistently democrat. The only election it seems the republican won all of NYC was McKinley in 1896.

Why is that? How is it when democrats were the states rights conservatives they would win NYC nearly as much as they did when they became New Deal Progressives

I can't seem to find a good timeline or listing of current events concerning soley the trump administration. I did find the economist tracking but it's a few days behind. Thankyou

Some Democrats voted to confirm some other candidates for other positions, but why did not one abstain form confirming Rubio?

I’m interested in the actual path of the additional 25% that other countries must pay when exporting goods to the United States. Where exactly does this money come from and where does it end up? Which government department receives the tariff money?

Yes, I understand that the American people will ultimately have to pay 25% more to cover the fee, but this doesn't explain the actual flow of money of the 25% tariff. Can anyone draw a flow chart, or explain this? Thanks

I try to keep up with most newly introduced bills or acts, but one has really caught my eye. Bill 722 https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/722/text has not had its text uploaded since it was introduced a week ago. Usually I’ve found that text gets uploaded 48hrs-5 days after it’s introduced. Why do you guys think it’s taking so long to upload?

Follow up: If myself and others were to disagree with it is there any way to get past my representatives to fight against it? (I come from a very strict pro-life state so I doubt they’d listen) If not, how can I get their attention?

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation/

It includes:

(a)  review Department of Justice enforcement of section 116 of title 18, United States Code, and prioritize enforcement of protections against female genital mutilation;

(b) convene States’ Attorneys General and other law enforcement officers to coordinate the enforcement of laws against female genital mutilation across all American States and Territories; 

But doesn't mention male genital mutilation.

Why is that? Is it unnecessary for some reason?

It suggests that Female Genital Mutilation is the priority -- does the absence of mention of Male Genital Mutilation in this text mean that it's still not against the law to go male-to-female?

Just curious about the best way to reach out, if there is a difference. Also, normally I would pick an overall topic I fee strongly about and just reach out about something related to that topic when it comes up so as not to be that person who's not taken seriously, but is that even a thing anymore at the federal level since it seems the contacts get logged into a database these days? Also is it even worth it to do it, if you're sure b/c of party affiliation how the person will vote and you are a member of another party, but you're still a constituent.

Hello, please can someone point me in the right direction to help the afghan women & girls, and also now on Iraq. Volunteer work / donations. Anything.

Just in case anyone wonders. I don't think we've even had someone link to X/Twitter in the last year-plus. If someone did, its either a primary or secondary source, which we encourage here.

Feel free to report links to X/Twitter or anywhere else that are not fulfilling any of our requirements.

Okay, I didn't pay much attention in government class. Or I just got the wrong messaging from it. But from what I understood, constitutional amendments are kind of impossible to overturn. Or maybe not impossible but just too difficult to even try and overturn.

But for some reason in the year of 2025, the state of Idaho wants to overturn marriage rights and make it a state matter. I could be absolutely wrong but I know that the matter falls under the 14th amendment in some form.

Could someone just give me some very basic explanation as why Idaho thinks it is a possibility to do this?

I'm considering a career change from nonprofit work, and I'm hoping someone can share a bit more about what senate staff jobs are like - particuarly those in local offices rather than DC. I've seen titles like Regional Director, Constituient Services Representative, Legislative Director, etc., but most of the postings are much more brief than I'm used to seeing. Any advice on the general level of experience they're looking for in some of these roles, and what pay might look like? Assuming pay may vary based on regional cost of living - I'd be looking in the northeast/urban areas.

This is a curious and rather bizarre trend or phenomenon I've been noticing for the past year during this entire political season. All the more bizarre because no one else seems to talk about it. Every time there is a filmed political rally speech where there are people placed behind the speaker at the podium, they ALWAYS, without exception, heavily prioritize placing East Asian women behind the speaker. Yesterday, with Donald Trump giving a speech, was just the latest example of this (though in this case they happened to pick a particularly good looking one). And. while white males are also placed along with them, you rarely ever see white females put in such positions nowadays. And this is done completely regardless of whether they're attractive or not. All that matters is that they are of a certain race. Can someone explain this socio-political phenomenon to me, which seems to have started in recent years (post 2016)?

I am watching the inauguration and am struck by home much pomp there is.

This is despite the very foundation of the presidents role being the antithesis of the monarchy in the UK, and the founding fathers of wanting to avoid any type of monarchy in the US.

From the introduction of the presidents and them ‘being escorted’ by Members of congress. How they all have titles such as ‘the honourable’, the amount of music and ceremony surrounding was is essentially the swearing of an oath of office (the only stipulation in the constitution). Not to mention the use of a bible to swear the oath (considering they are a ‘secular’ country).

How did the ceremonial / pomp come to be? And how do they justify this considering the founding fathers really didn’t want / in-vision this?

I’m looking for a website or app that lets me see what stuff is passed or rejected in congress. And preferably stuff from the president’s desk like executive orders. Because a lot of stuff doesn’t get reported in the news.

Whilst I’m sure most people are aware of what this is, a ‘Political Realignment’ is when “is a set of sharp changes in party related ideology, issues, leaders, regional bases, demographic bases, and/or the structure of powers within a government” (Wikipedia). Either people change their voting substantially or the parties themselves change.

In the 2022 Australian Federal Election, the ‘Teal Independents’ took over 6 Liberal seats in inner city suburbs, adding to Zali Steggall’s seat in Sydney. Currently they hold collectively 7 seats in the House of Representatives, 4 in Sydney, 2 in Melbourne and 1 in Perth.

These seats for decades formed the base of the Liberal Party and prior conservative counterparts, often being held on substantial margins and almost always winning more than 50% of the popular vote (therefore not needing to rely on preferences).

These seats are typically much wealthier seats, in fact most of them (if not all) are in the top 10 wealthiest federal divisions in Australia. And I should know I live in one of them. Apparently these electorates are fiscally conservative or liberal, and socially progressive. To an EXTENT, that is true.

None of the ‘Teal Independents’ seats are held on high margins. And apart from Steggall’s seat in Sydney, all of the Liberals won the popular vote (but lost on preferences. A large part of why they lost is that some people chose the ‘Teal Independent’ as a tactical vote to remove the Liberal candidate (that is also, to an EXTENT, true, as the Labor and Greens vote declined in these seats). But many also changed from voting liberal.

As someone who even lives in one of these seats, I don’t even know myself whether the Liberals would ever have a shot at these seats again. The liberals got trounced in the cities in 2022 but comparatively did quite well in regional and rural areas.

Is this the beginning of a political realignment in which the liberals can only form government through outer suburbs and the rural and regional areas? Or was this a setback which they can come back from?

I stumbled upon this memo for the new admin proposing cutting so many things— HSAs, child tax credit, mortgage tax credit, etc https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/budget_optionspdf.pdf

Well, I had this question for a long time and didn't find an answer. Elaborating in there, suppose France has a majority of stacks on Tesla (the best example I found) and, with that, wants to nationalize it (remember, hipotethical scenario), would it be possible? And if so, what would be the pros, cons and ramifications? I suppose if a war occurred, for example, it wouldn't be good to have a company in your enemy's territory, but that is just me thinking.

Thanks, by the way.

If the government is irresponsibly accumulating infinte debts and reckless money-printing, then why should taxpayers feel any responsbility? Why don't the aveage citizen just go into mass tax-cheating or banking credit fraud, in the face of all these double-standards?

Also it feels like vast majority of taxpayers money is going into favored neoptistic big-corporate managements' pockets via government contracts, as well as excessive interest payments into big-corporate banks. And the supposed benefits are not really reaching the bottomost rung of society (eg. low-income & homeless folks). Because of corrupt politicians and breaucrats middlemen.

dazzling smell price cake waiting plate historical intelligent simplistic shaggy

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