what’s the helmet situation in other countries, especially around ad-hoc rental scooters? I see scooters and bikes for rent here, but no buckets to wear, and I wonder the legality of that too.

Outside of Australia, helmets are not mandatory and data from there shows it has had a negative effect on not only the numbers of cyclists, reducing “safety in numbers” but also an increase in children with head injuries, because drivers are less risk adverse (“Mary Poppins effect” - drivers give more space & make less dangerous passes around cyclists in everyday clothing).

The most simple solution to increasing cyclist (and pedestrian) safety is to build better infrastructure. Design roads so that vehicles have to slow for junctions and roundabouts, especially where there’s mixed modal traffic. Prioritise active and public transport over inactive modes. Make cycle, walking & bus routes more direct and make driving routes more circuitous. Discourage driving into town centres and stop building out of town retail parks.

Back to the topic in hand:

If anyone wants to claim that “helmets save lives” then why aren’t they advocating them for vehicle passengers, who experience greater numbers and severity of head injuries than cyclists, or for pedestrians who have about the same number, possibly slightly more than cyclists?

Oh no! Won’t someone think of the children!

They really don’t see how their calling everyone an antisemite for opposing their genocide puts Jews outside Israel at risk

That’s their aim. It will then force those outside Israel to flee there as the only “sanctuary” safe for them, despite the numbers of Israelis bolting from the country and applying for citizenship elsewhere hitting new highs.

Also largest owner of arable farmland in the US

As well as emotional regulation from an early age (would massively reduce male violence)

It smacks of “we’ll get him to lean more left after the election!”

One of the comments on the video sums it up well:

“Kal-el no!” is up there with “I did not hit her” from The Room

As they say

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

When the killer of Yoshihiro Hattori was acquitted back in the early 90s, spectators cheered

It should also be that if attendance is mandatory then a free lunch should be provided.

The US is cooked.

It has been for quite a while.

It needs a completely new political system, full stop.

Absolutely!

The propaganda is so deep that it may take decades more deterioration before we even get to that point.

Nope. Just getting people to wake up from the dream state is not enough to facilitate change.

To get a new political system, the framework of a new one has to be ready to replace it. You cannot just stop capitalism and expect everyone to reach enlightenment and go forth into the future. You’ll just have collapse and the rise of warlords as seen in every country that the US has destabilised beyond a certain point.

As for seeing through the propaganda, all it takes is instability, a removed (<- they removed a word that is also seen as a slur for Chinese people but the my usage was “a small cleft, slit, or fissure”) in the armour of the establishment, for it all to come tumbling down and we are currently in a moment of instability.

Trumps regime is not fully in control, they are running around making contingency plans because the orange emperors health is failing and the daily revelations of things like Epstein emails is chipping away at the facade. Even republicans are calling for the full release of the files!

The party is not a united body.

The grass roots support is unstable as people can see that none of his promises have materialised: Prices are higher, so is unemployment, the economy is in recession and despite his blathering, nothing is trickling down to those red cap wearing poor folk but corporate profits are at a record high!

People can’t live on vapours and they’ll soon come down from the high.

ai can be good as long as you don’t let it think for you

Unfortunately, there’s too many people already doing that, with not so clever results!

If it increases accessibility for those with additional requirements then great but we know that’s not even in its top 10 reasons for being implemented

It’s beyond that. It’s surveillance software

Those wankers are always chanting “free movement of capital” but never “free movement of workers”.

They should take up drunkenly juggling chainsaws

Every Israeli is now a legitimate target

You forgot the Bill “now the largest owner of arable land in the US” Gates

The EU left are all neoliberals.

We can see it clearly in the UK. Labour, who are historically the political arm of the unions, have been indulging in anti-immigration rhetoric that is indistinguishable from the far right.

It’s easier to see that they are deliberate controlled opposition rather than former lefties that have been red scared into being centrists

One place I worked, a senior exec has in his email signature words to the effect of…

I work odd hours so if you receive this email out of office hours, I do not expect a reply until you’re next in the office

CEOs are getting too comfortable again. One needs to be pew-pewed in the streets to thin the herd and guarantee next year’s harvest!

There was that study that shows the more right leaning someone is, the less empathy they have for people, animals and things outside of their immediate few circles (friends of friends kind of thing).

Democrats are essentially just republicans as well but with a bit of pink/green washing/performative action going on so.

They can be summed up as:
Repub: I don’t care unless it affects me and mine then I’ll bleat asking why no-one is doing anything about it.
Dems: I’ll pretend to care but won’t actually do anything to tackle the underlying causes but will nod caringly with a bit of a sad face