https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/03/federal-funding-for-m...
> Federal support for mRNA vaccine research appears in jeopardy after KFF Health News reported Sunday that officials at the National Institutes of Health have directed scientists to remove all references to the lifesaving technology from their grant applications. All such research is now under direct scrutiny from health secretary and long-time anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
One of the great things in Ireland is the list-based voting that punishes extreme viewpoints and policies. OTOH, sometimes we need politicians willing to make unpopular choices, and our system makes that more difficult.
China, IIRC, has a different concept, one where a person can't be a candidate to a position more than one level higher than the highest one they were previously elected for. This prevents anomalies like Trump, and seems to be a very sensible approach (if coupled with a couple extra freedoms and multiple parties).
And Ireland politics got me pretty sad. It just seems to pingpong between two equally inept parties (fianna fail and fine gael) and nothing new ever happens. They just keep piling problem on problem without ever solving anything. I remember there being a lot of fuss about patients in hallways during mary harney's reign in the mid '00s and I don't think that was ever solved. Last time I ended up in hospital there I ended up in exactly that situation. The post-2007 housing crisis is another one. Does anyone actually expect that to be ever solved? And the strange thing is, this country has no shortage of land whatsoever.
What happens is that one party blames their predecessor and wins the election and then next term things switch back again through exactly the same mechanism.
I think something more left like sinn fein would be good for the country but they have too much image baggage due to their past. And labour seems to really just sit at the sidelines forever.
One of them being "whether it's left- or right-aligned, let's not engage in your social agenda on the federal level for a while"
>where a person can't be a candidate to a position more than one level higher than the highest one they were previously elected for
For much of the time in the Roman Republic they also had this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_service_of_the_People%27...
Functionally, the US mostly works the same way - people start in small local roles and move to county, state, and national levels over time. It's just not enforced as a hard rule, just a practical thing.
You don't have to choose between oligarchy and communism. There's normal countries out there.
>in mice
as the top comment.