U.S. Politics

[konfab]

There are lots of stupid people who are also bigots, why encourage them just because you are attached to a silly term?

I agree, we should just call it the Commie cold and be done with it.

 

[daelm]

I didn't but, bruh, yes people do this. Have you never been in high school, especially an all-boys high school? This is exactly the sort of thing people said.
Do I think it's fine? Nope.

 

[STS]

I'm just wondering if these are also racist then?

German measles
Spanish Flu

A name isn't bad, it is the connotations with the name that make it bad.

HIV and AIDS is still perceived as a "gay virus" for example, which is harmless but means some people stigmatize homosexuals or think that they are safe because they are not gay. It is also not a problem using a slang word, but when the president is using a derogatory name freely it harms the view of politics

 

[Vorastra]

Apparently it isn't

 

[rietrot]

Where in the order does it ban "china virus"? I don't see a direct reference to it.

Im looking here:

Memorandum Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States | The White House

Advancing inclusion and belonging for people of all races, national origins, and ethnicities is critical to guaranteeing the safety and security of the

www.whitehouse.gov

The Federal Government must recognize that it has played a role in furthering these xenophobic sentiments through the actions of political leaders, including references to the COVID-19 pandemic by the geographic location of its origin. Such statements have stoked unfounded fears and perpetuated stigma about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and have contributed to increasing rates of bullying, harassment, and hate crimes against AAPI persons. These actions defied the best practices and guidelines of public health officials and have caused significant harm to AAPI families and communities that must be addressed.

It's pretty long winded, but it literally says referring to Covid by its geographical location of origin (China) is racist.

 

[2023]

Hunter Biden: Buys shares in private prisons

Thats a bad idea!

The Attorney General shall not renew Department of Justice contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities, as consistent with applicable law.

 

[tetrasect]

Just think how well the private prison industry is going to do with all these evil racist criminals getting locked up.

Hunter Biden: Buys shares in private prisons

Biden directs DOJ to phase out use of private prisons

President Biden on Tuesday ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to phase out its use of private prisons.The executive order, signed alongside three others as part of an effort to address racial …

thehill.com

 

[konfab]

In an EDD conference call, Julie Su, secretary for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency said, "Of the 114 billion dollars in unemployment paid by California since March, approximately 10% has been confirmed as fraudulent. An additional 17% of the paid claims have been identified as potentially fraudulent."


That's $11.4 billion confirmed and as much as $20 billion more in fraud.

https://abc7news.com/california-edd-unemployment-fraud-ca-scam-insurance/10011810/

But hey, lets get the same people to run the healthcare system. Nothing could ever go wrong there.

 

[Vorastra]

A country sabotaging the economies of other countries that buy so much of its own products doesn't really make a lot of sense to me.... Care to explain how the Chinese would benefit from wrecking the economies of its biggest trading partners?

OK, you're joking now, right?
Consolidation through perception of stability. By making yourself the largest, most unaffected economy during, or after, a great negative event can significantly boost your economy by having those decimated economies rely on you for their trade. The perception of stability is the greatest boon to any economy. Modern economies are built on nothing more than perceived confidence of stability.

We literally have an example of this. World War 2.
World War 2 is literally, yes, literally, the reason the US is the world dominant power today.
Europe was the US' biggest trading partner. Europe got decimated. The US rebuilds Europe and in turn puts in systems benefitting it's own economy to boost manufacturing and trade.
Those countries then almost-exclusively do trade with the US building confidence in the US' stability as an economy. The world follows.
The US was the world's 14th largest economy at the beginning of World War 2. After, they were number one and controlled 2/3rds of the world's gold stocks which they leveraged alongside their economic stability resulting in the dollar-standard.
World War 2 was the single best event in history for the US.

Now, WW2 is obviously a much more significant event than COVID, but the effect is the same just to a greater degree.

China is literally, right now, in a multi-decade initiative to gradually move the world from the dollar-standard to a yuan-backed standard. They're been doing so for the last decade, and will continue to do so for many more.

 

[daelm]

Thats a bad idea!

these contracts?

"Following the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January 2017, however, the administration immediately shifted course to robustly support private prisons. In February of that year, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked the Obama administration’s initiative,13 and by April 2017, the DOJ began requesting bids for contracts to house federal inmates in private prison facilities14 once again. That same month, the GEO Group won a $110 million15 contract to build the first detention center under the new administration."

How Private Prisons Are Profiting Under the Trump Administration

The private prison industry is benefiting from Trump administration policies to expand detention and increase profits.

www.americanprogress.org

yep. bad investment. Hunter, apparently, isn't the brightest.

 

[greg0205]

I'm just wondering if these are also racist then?

German measles
Spanish Flu

Rubella was identified in 1814. Slavery was still a thing.

In 1918, "Spanish" was more misunderstanding than anything else.

But by the standards of the day, no...

Then, tell me, netstrider... Do you think the world has moved on with regards to civil rights since then or nah?

 

[surface]

A name isn't bad, it is the connotations with the name that make it bad.

HIV and AIDS is still perceived as a "gay virus" for example, which is harmless but means some people stigmatize homosexuals or think that they are safe because they are not gay. It is also not a problem using a slang word, but when the president is using a derogatory name freely it harms the view of politics

I agree completely. Attacks on specific Asian communities increased as a result of this. I wonder if Mexicans suffered same after his 'rapists' comments.

Also, german measles term was coined by german scientists themselves. About spanish flu, I see there are many studies/articles that suggest that such linking is dangerous.

Four lessons the Spanish flu can teach us about coronavirus

Up to 100 million people died in 1918-19 in the world’s deadliest pandemic. What can we learn?

www.theguardian.com

 

[daelm]

https://abc7news.com/california-edd-unemployment-fraud-ca-scam-insurance/10011810/

But hey, lets get the same people to run the healthcare system. Nothing could ever go wrong there.

no, no. markets! that works!

The US was once a leader for healthcare and education — now it ranks 27th in the world

The United States ranked sixth in the world for healthcare and education in 1990, but has since fallen behind its peers. This is partly the result of reduced and poorly allocated funds for elementary and high schools, which may have produced lower levels of educational attainment.

www.businessinsider.com

"The US now ranks 27th in the world for its levels of healthcare and education, according to a new study."


edit: as i've been saying for a while, that persistent decline is a bipartisan project, btw. both parties cling to the "markets! markets!" nonsense and the giveaway to corporations proceeds apace. with utterly predictable consequences. Biden admin won't stop that. there'll be some necessary window dressing first, gesturing to social issues, and then slowly back to business as usual.

but keep squealing about "sharia law" and " muh guns!" and bathrooms. clearly, these are the salient issues.

 

[Temujin]

Hunter Biden: Buys shares in private prisons

He doesn't need it... Now that beijing biden has made it his mission to destroy the US energy independence, burisma will be getting some contracts in the near future, how convenient

 

[Grant]

Update: As it turns out, the headline is not as inaccurate as you would like it to be. The policy change does in fact mean that female soldiers may actually be forced to shower with transgender people who were born with biological male chromosomes. The sensitive topic of biological gender chromosomes vs chosen gender is not one that I have any interest in discussing, especially in this forum, so we will leave it at that.

The headline remains false.
Just like female soldiers "may be forced..", equally if our govt changed the constitution, I "may be forced" to get married, have 5 children, take up a career as a diesel mechanic, and spend my Saturday afternoons swilling klipdrift and coke while standing around a braai talking p0es and sparkplugs. My daily commute "may" be by means of an orange Ford XR6. I "may" find myself moving to Brakpan.

 

[netstrider]

Rubella was identified in 1814. Slavery was still a thing.

In 1918, "Spanish" was more misunderstanding than anything else.

But by the standards of the day, no...

Then, tell me, netstrider... Do you think the world has moved on with regards to civil rights since then or nah?

Of course it has.

So in your mind then, the Brazilian Covid strain and the South African strain is also wrong?

 

[2023]

no, no. markets! that works!

The US was once a leader for healthcare and education — now it ranks 27th in the world

The United States ranked sixth in the world for healthcare and education in 1990, but has since fallen behind its peers. This is partly the result of reduced and poorly allocated funds for elementary and high schools, which may have produced lower levels of educational attainment.

www.businessinsider.com

"The US now ranks 27th in the world for its levels of healthcare and education, according to a new study."


edit: as i've been saying for a while, that persistent decline is a bipartisan project, btw. both parties cling to the "markets! markets!" nonsense.

Just to be clear, this is not a step backwards for USA. There are countries that have caught up (and passed) the standard that USA has had since the 90s.

https://marlin-prod.literatumonline.com/cms/attachment/471f0e6d-da15-4a0c-b49c-96b85510bdad/gr2a.jpg

for giggles, here is SA at 129 and now 144:

https://marlin-prod.literatumonline.com/cms/attachment/ce7c29c6-2dbd-4235-a44a-aa114105c8aa/gr2d.jpg

 

[Cray]

We literally have an example of this. World War 2.
World War 2 is literally, yes, literally, the reason the US is the world dominant power today.
Europe was the US' biggest trading partner. Europe got decimated. The US rebuilds Europe and in terms puts in systems benefitting it's own economy to boost manufacturing and trade.
Those countries then almost-exclusively do trade with the US building confidence in the US' stability as an economy. The world follows.
The US was the world's 14th largest economy at the beginning of World War 2. After, they were number one and controlled 2/3rds of the world's gold stocks which they then leveraged alongside their economic stability.
World War 2 was the single best event in history for the US.

Now, WW2 is obviously a much more significant event than COVID, but the effect is the same just to a lesser degree.

China is literally, right now, in a multi-decade initiative to gradually move the world from the dollar-standard to a yuan-backed standard. They're been doing so for the last decade, and will continue to do so.

While I can appreciate your argument, the difference between WW2 is that the US was able to do that because it stayed out of the War for 2 years and even after Pearl Harbour it's domestic infrastructure wasn't touched by the war. Comparing that to a virus which has clearly affected China, as well as the rest of the world, is where the comparison falls down a bit..

The reason the US benefited so much from the war wasn't that all the European economies where destroyed, it was because it loaned weapons and equipment to the countries that were engaged in the war, loans which needed to be repaid after the war in terms that the US dictated.

Am not suggesting that China is not aiming to do what you have stated I just don't see the evidence that they are using this virus to do it

 

[konfab]

no, no. markets! that works!

The US was once a leader for healthcare and education — now it ranks 27th in the world

The United States ranked sixth in the world for healthcare and education in 1990, but has since fallen behind its peers. This is partly the result of reduced and poorly allocated funds for elementary and high schools, which may have produced lower levels of educational attainment.

www.businessinsider.com

"The US now ranks 27th in the world for its levels of healthcare and education, according to a new study."

Markets are not allowed to work, that is the problem with the US education and healthcare system.

Take this for example:

Although the nation still spends more per student than most of its peers, many countries that saw a rapid improvement in their rankings have instituted significant policy reforms in the last 30 years. These include providing equal funding for schools in different locations, expanding student testing, and tailoring curricula to students' abilities.

Charter schools are pretty much the exact thing that solves that problem. The schools receive money for education based on the number of children they have, and are subject to fewer rules and regulations, thus allowing for teachers to be in charge of the education rather than some government official sitting in an office 3000km away.
Of course, this is fought by tooth and claw by progressives and their teachers' unions as it would mean that a school that is garbage and loses pupils will no longer receive any of that delicious public funding.

And why lookie here, look who doesn't want standardised testing:

ABLANY, N.Y. (WWNY) - The New York State United Teachers Union is calling on the cancelation of federal testing for this school year.
NYSUT sent a letter this week to the interim state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, asking that she waive the requirement of standardized testing.
This was done last school year and the union says this year has presented the same struggles for students.
The union says if these tests are waived, it will take the stress off of students and allow teachers to spend more time on ensuring that students are learning, doing okay emotionally, and spending less time cramming for a test.

https://www.wwnytv.com/2021/01/21/teachers-union-wants-standardized-testing-canceled-students/

Same thing goes for healthcare as well. All the well-meaning attempts at "fixing" healthcare in the US have made it worse. The government picked insurance as the model for healthcare funding because the government knows that insurance is the best way to fund healthcare.

The best solution for the US's healthcare problems would be to change them into a voucher-based system, from which the people getting the care get to choose how they want to pay for it.

 

[daelm]

Just to be clear, this is not a step backwards for USA. There are countries that have caught up (and passed) the standard that USA has had since the 90s.

https://marlin-prod.literatumonline.com/cms/attachment/471f0e6d-da15-4a0c-b49c-96b85510bdad/gr2a.jpg

for giggles, here is SA at 129:

https://marlin-prod.literatumonline.com/cms/attachment/ce7c29c6-2dbd-4235-a44a-aa114105c8aa/gr2d.jpg

it's more complex than that, but assume that's the case - the cost of that stagnation is below.

Explaining the High Cost of US Health Care: No Skin in the Game

Costs are expensive because there is almost no skin in the game. Graft has taken over.

www.thestreet.com

making out like bandits. what happens when you assume that markets have to be the delivery arm. as long as you're wedded to that, you're stuck.

it's like marrying a really, really hot cannibal. the sex might be great for a few years, but sooner or later she eats you.