Originally posted by rinselberg: So Bill Gates has a long list of honorary doctorates or other degrees from various colleges and universities around the world?
It is a wonder how giving money gets you an accolade.
[This message has been edited by cliffw (edited 08-16-2023).]
Originally posted by rinselberg: Take public health measures against a dangerous, highly transmissible, never-before-encountered respiratory virus... yep. I remember.
I remember too. The only gestapo opinion allowed was government intelligence. Conversations were shut down if they do not agree with government directive.
Government got it so wrong and caused great damage to our country. Government even was able to shut down churches. One guy was arrested for surfing off a deserted beach.
Originally posted by rinselberg: I found that article. I thought of a different way to search for it. I'm just going to post it in my usual format. Maybe I'll come back to this at some as yet undefined but not too distant future moment.
"St. Louis Is the Struggling Downtown You Haven’t Heard Of—and Right-Wing Policies Are Making Things Worse" Kevin McDermott for the New York Times; June 27, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/202...eturn-to-office.html
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Originally posted by cliffw: Really ? The New York Slimes ?
Buy me a subscription and I can see it.
What did the article say ? Who's opinion are they parroting ?
[This message has been edited by cliffw (edited 08-17-2023).]
Originally posted by rinselberg: I found that article. I thought of a different way to search for it. I'm just going to post it in my usual format. Maybe I'll come back to this at some as yet undefined but not too distant future moment.
"St. Louis Is the Struggling Downtown You Haven’t Heard Of—and Right-Wing Policies Are Making Things Worse" Kevin McDermott for the New York Times; June 27, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/202...eturn-to-office.html
I want to read this, but not willing to pay for a subscription to a newspaper that I'm generally not a fan of.
Can you tell me what it says? The title is very suspect... but also interesting.
They acknowledge that St. Louis is struggling, and then state Right-Wing policies are making it worse, thus indirectly admitting that it is left-leaning policies that made it bad in the first place. I only have the title to go on, so let me know if this is an incorrect assumption?
I want to read this, but not willing to pay for a subscription to a newspaper that I'm generally not a fan of.
Can you tell me what it says? The title is very suspect... but also interesting.
They acknowledge that St. Louis is struggling, and then state Right-Wing policies are making it worse, thus indirectly admitting that it is left-leaning policies that made it bad in the first place. I only have the title to go on, so let me know if this is an incorrect assumption?
I don't want to comment on the article until I have reviewed it again. I can't say when (or if) that happens.
Have you asked for it by activating the http link? I don't know if the New York Times provides "freebies" anymore to people who aren't subscribers. As in "you can have this article, but to have another one, you need to become a subscriber."
If it is blocking you because you are not a subscriber, there's a trick that might work. Activate the http link, and then do whatever you do to command your Internet browser to terminate the webpage before it has finished loading into your browser. If it works, you have the article, and the thing where it blocks you from seeing it because you are not a subscriber doesn't happen, because you stopped that from happening when you terminated the loading of the webpage.
I remember too. The only gestapo opinion allowed was government intelligence. Conversations were shut down if they do not agree with government directive..
You were obviously not on facebook or twitter or listening to any podcasts..
I saw all sorts of discussions of alternative treatment and/or arguments to not take the vaccine. They were literally EVERYWHERE.
Our President at the time even made some unusual suggestions.
[This message has been edited by fredtoast (edited 08-17-2023).]
Originally posted by rinselberg: I don't want to comment on the article until I have reviewed it again. I can't say when (or if) that happens.
Have you asked for it by activating the http link? I don't know if the New York Times provides "freebies" anymore to people who aren't subscribers. As in "you can have this article, but to have another one, you need to become a subscriber."
If it is blocking you because you are not a subscriber, there's a trick that might work. Activate the http link, and then do whatever you do to command your Internet browser to terminate the webpage before it has finished loading into your browser. If it works, you have the article, and the thing where it blocks you from seeing it because you are not a subscriber doesn't happen, because you stopped that from happening when you terminated the loading of the webpage.
Yes, going into debug and wiping out the panes that are blocking the article. That's a lot of effort to read an article that I have significantly limited interest in reading anyway.
I got it from a copy/paste in RayB's Reddit link. Which, Ray... my Googles work fine, haha... I just didn't bother to search for it. Again... limited interest to be talked at from an opinion piece.
Summarizing essentially what they've said:
Like San Francisco, St. Louis has had lots of crime, drug use, and homelessness... which they basically infer is as a result of the city being "deep blue." They reluctantly refer to the city's leadership as having cut more than 100 police positions (which they couldn't fill) and amidst police officers quitting, they re-assigned those funds to social services. They say Republicans claim St. Louis leadership is "soft on crime," which I think we kind of agree they are... but the editor doesn't outright agree with that.
But then they say that Republican pundits don't point to St. Louis' failure because it's in a red state. They then go on to list a few reasons why they (the editor) believes Republicans are exacerbating the problems in St. Louis. They list the following:
- The state's mandatory increase of minimum wage to $11, but restricting cities from increasing it further on their own. - The state's gun laws which they say increases the amount of gun violence (or just violence in general) - The state's tax-cut plan, which they say dramatically affects the ability for the city to get revenue from the state
So, that's that... I'd say about 2/3rds of the article talks about gun crime... which I think is a failed argument because the state of Florida has the most open gun laws in the country (as of July of this year), and Miami is one of the most prosperous cities in the country. Miami is currently undergoing a renaissance period. The entire Miami skyline is changing. Rinse... I could go on for hours talking about Miami. The amount of money pouring into Miami is unbelievable.
Which brings me to the third item... tax cuts... Miami instituted tax cuts, as have Florida in general (except Property taxes, which are county-based), and that's resulted in Florida being the #1 destination for people to move to over the past three years. So I think those last two arguments are tenuous at best.
I can't say how I feel about the first one. Using Miami as an example again, the state of Florida mandated that we would achieve a minimum wage of $15 dollars an hour by 2023... so... this year, everyone makes at least $15 an hour, and there's no provision that prevents cities or counties from mandating an even higher minimum wage. Miami is doing fine, but because so many people have moved in, it's truthfully resulted in a shortage of workers because the cost of living has gotten so high. Miami is trying to rectify this by mandating low-cost multi-unit apartment units throughout Miami-Dade county with improved public transit to and from them. So they're trying to fix that.
Also though, the cost of living is substantially different from St. Louis to Miami. - Taxes in St. Louis, MO are 25% higher in St. Louis than they are in Miami - General Cost of Living is 10% higher in Miami than it is in St. Louis
So looking at that comparison, it seems to me that St. Louis has a high tax problem in the city.
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Ray, we can blame Nixon if you want... but I think the USD should never have been taken off the gold standard. It's basically worthless... like, what makes it valuable? Because we print it?...
United Sates has the largest Gross Domestic product in the world by a very large margin. Almost 40% greater than second place China.
That is what backs the debt of the United States as well as our currency.
What determins the price of gold. If it is such a perfect pure standard then why does the price of gold fluctuate so much over time?
[This message has been edited by fredtoast (edited 08-17-2023).]
Anyone see the footage of the leftist who shot the cops in Fargo? Very disturbing. There is no excuse for that, although the left is celebrating the death and injury of police officers.
Anyone see the footage of the leftist who shot the cops in Fargo? Very disturbing. There is no excuse for that, although the left is celebrating the death and injury of police officers.
Leftist are not good people.
I just did some online searching. I saw nothing that provides any indication that the Fargo perpetrator Mohamad Barakat was a "leftist" or is known to have any particular political ideas or leanings. I saw nothing to suggest that anyone has connected him with any kind of Islamic-motivated fanaticism.
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Barakat [age 37] was a Syrian national who came to the U.S. on an asylum request in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2019, [North Dakota AG Drew] Wrigley said, adding that he didn’t appear to have any ties to the Muslim community in Fargo. He said Barakat had some family in the U.S., but not in the Fargo area, and that investigators are still looking into his history before he arrived in the country.
I'm open to seeing any evidence from Wichita (or anyone else) that would give credence to the idea that there's anything on record about this Mohamad Barakat that would categorize him as having been a "leftist."
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Originally posted by Wichita: the left is celebrating the death and injury of police officers.
Oh yeah. Was it Biden that was caught on an open mic, having a chuckle about the murder of the one Fargo police officer, and the injuries sustained by the two other police officers and a third person? Or was that Chuck Schumer? Or could it have been AOC ..? I thought I read something like that, but now I can't remember it very clearly.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 08-17-2023).]
Anyone see the footage of the leftist who shot the cops in Fargo? Very disturbing. There is no excuse for that, although the left is celebrating the death and injury of police officers.
Biden Harris Administration Provides $3.8 Million in Assistance for Hawaii Residents in Wake of Devastating Wildfires Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); August 17, 2023. https://www.fema.gov/press-...nce-hawaii-residents
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WASHINGTON -- One week since President Biden declared a major disaster declaration for the state of Hawaii in the wake of the devastating wildfires, the Biden-Harris Administration and voluntary agencies provided survivors with immediate needs such as food, water and shelter and approved millions of dollars in disaster relief. To date, FEMA has approved more than $3.8 million in assistance to 1,640 households including more than $1.57 million in initial rental assistance.
Yesterday, President Biden made additional disaster funding available to the state of Hawaii. This unlocks the federal government’s ability to cover all eligible expenses for debris removal and emergency protective measures in Maui County and assistance for emergency protective measures for Hawaii County for 30 days of the governor’s choosing within the first 120 days of the disaster.
FEMA also opened a joint Disaster Recovery Center yesterday at the University of Hawaii Maui College, located at 310 W. Ka’ahumanu Avenue, Kahului, Hawaii. Survivors can speak to FEMA specialists, get assistance registering for disaster assistance, get in touch with voluntary organizations and have access to other federal and state resources from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. HST seven days a week.
Agencies including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, the U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are all working in tandem to help support the communities impacted by this tragedy.
There's more after that. (Use the link.)
It's my opinion that this cartoon is essentially a bald-faced lie about the Biden administration's response to the deadly Maui fires that Wichita has copied and pasted from one of his favored social media platforms, with no more thought or knowledge on his (Wichita's) part, than a male fruit fly uses to mate with a female fruit fly.
Don't read this as a slur against fruit flies, however; scientists are reporting that fruit flies have more complex brain functions than we might (naively) imagine.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 08-18-2023).]
United Sates has the largest Gross Domestic product in the world by a very large margin. Almost 40% greater than second place China.
That is what backs the debt of the United States as well as our currency.
What determins the price of gold. If it is such a perfect pure standard then why does the price of gold fluctuate so much over time?
This is the current state of the United States, metaphorically explained as a human being:
A non-binary individual that works theys ass off doing multiple jobs, but with a heroine addiction, unshaven and unshowered for months, suffering from mental illness, and massively in debt with their home and car financially underwater, with over 250k in credit card bills and massive student loan debt.
Would anyone think this individual would be a responsible long-term business partner, based solely on the fact that they were reliable in the past?
GDP is great... but that is not the reason why the United States is economically powerful. The ONLY REASON why our national debt has yet to cause us to completely collapse, is because the United States is officially the "World Reserve Currency."
In the mid 1940s... nearing the end of WW2 if not immediately following it, the United States was the only industrialized nation that actively remained and that wasn't completely bombed to **** . There's a lot to this, and this is actually the reason why so many people look to the 50s and question why people could afford new houses, new cars, etc... but they can't now. They don't actually look at history and understand WHY things were the way they were. In the aftermath of WW2, every industrialized nation was essentially in ruins. The whole of Europe was destroyed. South America didn't really become fully industrialized for another 10 years, nor did most of Asia. Japan, which was industrialized, was also laid to waste.
Effectively, everything was being manufactured in the United States because nothing could be produced elsewhere, so money was flooding into the United States.
At this time, some 700 nations came together to declare the US Dollar the World Reserve Currency. We were viewed singularly as the most powerful nation in the world, and effectively the country that would be the most stable.
Our DEBT to GDP ratio was very high following WW2, but with the fact that the United States became so independently wealthy, we were able to pay down that debt and reduce our debt to GDP. There exists NOTHING like that today. Today, the entire world can build everything we do cheaper and faster due to less regulations (whether we agree with them or not is irrelevant).
The only thing the United States has going for it, is that we are still research leaders in some areas... but are quickly being overtaken. China for example, produces nearly 3x the number of research papers (on just AI) than the United States does. Incidentally, almost anything we do invent / create... it has to be manufactured overseas to make it cost effective, and the intellectual property is immediately stolen.
We are essentially accruing massive debt, with no long-term prospects for the kind of economic success we saw in WW2. Despite this, we continue to focus more and more on welfare entitlements, despite the fact that the country seems to be getting worse for it, with exponentially more people in homeless camps, with millions of dirt-poor illegals coming in every year.
There an actively number of countries who, under the leadership of China, are seeking to convert the world reserve currency to something OTHER than the US Dollar. While I agree with you (what you're thinking now) is that China is not a stable economy... yes... totally agree. But if we continue to piss off our allies, like Europe... most of whom don't like us (regardless of who the president is), we're on very very shaky ground.
I cannot emphasize how dangerous this is right now. Even if you or others believed we could return to an era of 75% tax rates for the wealthy... the only reason that worked in the 50s is because, yet again... the other nations were still rebuilding after WW2 and the United States essentially "acquired" the production for the entire world from the 1940s to the mid / late 1950s.
We are really, really screwed, and people need to understand this. Modern Monetary Theory is not actually a theory, it's an explanation about we've been able to spend like drunken sailors and not collapse yet.
LOL, there's some great stuff on there. Ray, last time I was on that forum, I had every person threatening to kill me, and trying to dox me... and I was super calm, very respectful. I think I'll watch that forum from afar if you know what I mean.
Anyone see the footage of the leftist who shot the cops in Fargo? Very disturbing. There is no excuse for that, although the left is celebrating the death and injury of police officers.
Leftist are not good people.
a godbothered nut with a gun ? the godbothered are rightwingers it does not matter what god or what belief cult they follow
Islamic terror is rightwing terror
maybe an atheist with a gun you can try to spin left maybe but a godbothered nut with a gun is YOURS 100% AND YOUR CLAIMS TO THE LEFT ARE LIES
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: LOL, there's some great stuff on there. Ray, last time I was on that forum, I had every person threatening to kill me, and trying to dox me... and I was super calm, very respectful. I think I'll watch that forum from afar if you know what I mean.
THEY ARE WORLD WIDE SAILORS not hide in fear types
LIBERAL WHO DO NOT LIKE THE Gop OR THE NUTS ON THE RIGHTWING as many have traveled or lived in fascist places world wide and seen your ways too often for their liking
most are far richer the avg and far smarter also and very good at what you call dox they will find out who you are in real life that limits some from pretending to be what they ain't
THEY ARE WORLD WIDE SAILORS not hide in fear types
LIBERAL WHO DO NOT LIKE THE Gop OR THE NUTS ON THE RIGHTWING as many have traveled or lived in fascist places world wide and seen your ways too often for their liking
most are far richer the avg and far smarter also and very good at what you call dox they will find out who you are in real life that limits some from pretending to be what they ain't
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: This is the current state of the United States, metaphorically explained as a human being:
A non-binary individual that works theys ass off doing multiple jobs, but with a heroine addiction, unshaven and unshowered for months, suffering from mental illness, and massively in debt with their home and car financially underwater, with over 250k in credit card bills and massive student loan debt.
You forgot to mention that this person was BY FAR the richest person on earth.
But I don't see our country that way. If a person has a mortgage that is greater than their yearly income does that mean that are a drug addict failure? If a doctor making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year has a hundred thousand in student loan debt does that mean he is suffering from a mental illness?
The same people who say that we should run our country "like a business" never want to admit that most businesses have much greater debt than assets. All corporate stocks and bonds are debt.
Anyone see the footage of the leftist who shot the cops in Fargo? Very disturbing. There is no excuse for that, although the left is celebrating the death and injury of police officers.
Leftist [sic] are not good people.
Mohamad Barakat, age 37, was the perpetrator of an ambush-like shooting episode in Fargo, North Dakota. He killed one police officer and injured two other police officers and a person described as a bystander, before being killed himself by the police who responded to the crime.
The "Sage of the Cenozoic", with the remarks that I just quoted, has categorized Mohamad Barakat as having been a leftist.
He's been on target before with remarks of this kind (once or twice), so let's see how the these new remarks from the Discerning Dinosaur stand up to the most up to date information available.
The Bismarck Tribune updated their reporting on this story as recently as yesterday:
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The shooting investigation remains active and is “proceeding to its logical conclusion,” Wrigley said. Investigators are awaiting information from FBI interviews as well as firearms testing to ensure Barakat's weapons aren't connected to other illegal activity, the attorney general said.
After the shooting, investigators found numerous guns, 1,800 rounds of ammunition, a homemade grenade and explosives in Barakat's vehicle.
However, authorities had no new information Thursday as to what was Barakat’s motive.
Authorities have said Barakat’s internet queries over the past five years included “kill fast,” “explosive ammo,” “incendiary rounds,” “mass shooting events,” and one for “area events where there are crowds,” which brought up a news article with the headline, ”Thousands enjoy first day of Downtown Fargo Street Fair,” a day before the shooting.
Police visited Barakat’s home and interviewed him at least twice in recent years due to concerns related to his guns, though authorities say he appeared to have acquired the weapons legally.
Barakat was a Syrian national who came to the U.S. on an asylum request in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2019, Wrigley has said.
In the other reports that I've seen, which came shortly after July 14 when the crime was perpetrated, Fargo and North Dakota authorities were quoted as saying that the evidence they had discovered did not point them towards any explanation of a motive behind the violence.
I don't know about you, but unless the investigation of motive moves farther beyond where it stood as of yesterday, and there's more reporting on it, I think it would be premature for any responsible media outlet to put this "Einstein" image front and center in their reporting, unless they were doing it with a wink and a nod (so to speak), as one of those intentionally humorous story lines or visuals that have become de rigueur for prime time cable TV programs like MSNB's "Alex Wagner Tonight."
The humor comes from irony, or punning. It's very common. So if Alex Wagner's program (for example), were going to report on this assertion that the Fargo perpetrator was motivated by a leftist political motivation, you might very well see that image, looking as if it's being projected onto the studio wall to the rear of Alex Wagner, as she begins her report. That would be "irony."
Take my word for it.
"Dramatic video footage shows shooting ambush in Fargo that killed an officer, wounded others" Jack Dura (AP) in the Bismarck Tribune; August 17, 2023. arcktribune.com/news/state-regional/crime-courts/fargo-police-video-shooting-evidence/article_f7a974d0-03d4-5fa2-98bb-2ca878951cce.html
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 08-18-2023).]
Predictably, and right on cue, the devotees of deception on social media crafted their newest lie.
The FEMA Critical Needs Assistance one-time payments of $700 per household are only part of the Biden administration's response to the Maui fires catastrophe.
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Why am I only approved for $700 after I apply for disaster assistance?
After you register with FEMA, you may be approved for a one-time immediate payment of $700 for Critical Needs Assistance, one of several types of federal assistance you may be eligible to receive.
Critical Needs Assistance is typically approved quickly because it is meant to help with immediate needs like water, food, and fuel.
Examples of other types of assistance include help with a temporary place to stay, funding home repairs, and emergency needs that insurance and other financial assistance sources may not cover. Learn more about the [various] types of FEMA assistance.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday said it's approved more than $5.6 million in aid for survivors of the wildfires in Maui, with the total expected to grow sharply as the scope of the disaster comes into focus. Making up that total is $1.6 million in rent assistance paid so far, costs of housing survivors in hotels, and a one-time payment of $700 per household for essentials like food and clothing
Wind-driven fires destroyed much of the town of Lahaina in Maui, consuming or damaging thousands of structures. The extent of the damage means FEMA's aid totals are likely to increase by a significant amount. For comparison, after fire destroyed the city of Paradise in California in 2018, FEMA paid $238 million in total assistance.
FEMA will open a recovery center in Maui to speed up its aid distribution. It says survivors will need to register to be eligible for most aid. Some 4,400 individuals had applied for critical need assistance by midweek. Longer-term aid will likely come with requirements for documentation. Officials say FEMA will continue rental assistance, and may offer repair or property reimbursement to help residents whose insurance may not cover it all.
Disaster risk modeling firm Karen Clark & Company projected that the Lahaina fire caused some $3.2 billion in insured losses, according to figures cited by The Associated Press. The Small Business Administration is offering businesses and nonprofits low-interest disaster loans. Renters and homeowners may also be eligible for loans of up to $100,000 to replace destroyed property, and up to $500,000 for damaged or destroyed real estate.
Originally posted by rinselberg: After you register with FEMA, you may be approved for a one-time immediate payment of $700 for Critical Needs Assistance ...
The Biden's administration wants $700.00 a household ? How dumb and stupid is that ? When you apply with FEMA, you "may" get $700 dollars.
How many have a claim ? More than the number of households in America ?
Give to the Red Cross. Government can not be trusted with more money.
Rumor: FEMA is only giving Hawaii wildfire survivors $700 per household.
This is not true. There is a range of federal disaster assistance available. Critical Needs Assistance provides a onetime payment of $700 to address immediate needs such as food, water and clothing. This is just one of several types of federal assistance you may be eligible to receive. As applications are reviewed, you can check your application status online or call 800-xxx-xxxx to find out what types of disaster assistance you are eligible to receive.
The text that's highlighted in green is an embedded https hyperlink on the FEMA page. (But not here.) The FEMA page has an actual 800 telephone number.
At the end of August, 2021, Gulf Coast Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana. That's when FEMA rolled out its Critical Needs Assistance program, offering a one-time $500 payment per household intended to cover food, water, prescriptions, medical supplies and other life-saving and life-sustaining items.
Obviously, it's been bumped to a current $700 one-time payment per household. I don't know when that happened, but it's a moot point, as far as calling out the obvious disinformation that appeared in this thread when this cartoon image was posted:
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 08-19-2023).]
Obviously, it's been bumped to a current $700 one-time payment per household. I don't know when that happened, but it's a moot point, as far as calling out the obvious disinformation that appeared in this thread when this cartoon image was posted
'Obviously' you have a hard time saying the truth: Bribenomics Bribenflation
Originally posted by cliffw: I remember too. The only gestapo opinion allowed was government intelligence. Conversations were shut down if they do not agree with government directive..
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Originally posted by fredtoast: You were obviously not on facebook or twitter or listening to any podcasts..
I saw all sorts of discussions of alternative treatment and/or arguments to not take the vaccine. They were literally EVERYWHERE.
Our President at the time even made some unusual suggestions.
Your right. I am not a Twit nor a FaceSpacer. A podcast is but one man's opinion. I do not even "X".
You obviously never get out of your box. Your view will always be the same. You would be a better attorney if you could see outside your box.
