Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
https://www.addictionpolicy.org/post/the-fentanyl-crisis-is-only-getting-worse
This is from just about when we went into COVID lockdown. US life expectancy reversed in 2018, and started trending down. COVID has accelerated this trend, but the real culprit is despair (and fentanyl). Suicide and fentanyl / opiod overdoses have increased for those under 55 by so much that it is lowering life expectancy. There will likely be a bump up after COVID is under control. I expect life expectancy to start trending downward again after that because 1) the diabetes / obesity wave; 2) if fentanyl / opiods continue flooding into the country, and cities keep pursuing ineffective homelessness policies, there will be more deaths; and 3) let’s keep passing neuroses and mental illness on our children.
https://nida.nih.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
The 2021 and 2022 numbers (so far) are astounding.
Teen numbers are really bad.
https://mobile.twitter.com/EWoodhouse7/status/1481491026556694528
Volker did what he had to, given the circumstances. Our Fed has not over the last decade. Keeping rates artificially low helped the housing market and the stock market, but didn’t help the average American. The pressures have been building, and now that there is an exogenous shock (high oil prices again, plus supply chain from China and incompetence), it’s got no where to go but up.
https://mobile.twitter.com/nickrmanes/status/1513847059216019457?cxt=HHwWgsC5jab4oYIqAAAA
Smarter people than myself have figured out what to do.
https://mobile.twitter.com/JesseLee46/status/1513874750875090957
Neo, pointing out how bad inflation is means you are lockstep with Putin.
Never forget that the Washington Post, showing a total lack of self-awareness, wrote an editorial saying that Elon Musk’s 10% stake in Twitter is a threat to free speech.
Gosh, what a massive coincidence that the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post thinks Elon Musk joining Twitter will be bad for Twitter. Shocked, shocked! https://t.co/GDaNG1NtfU
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) April 10, 2022
They even put “free speech” in scare quotes.
Largest shareholder/owner of:
Twitter: Elon Musk worth $260 billion
Washington Post: Jeff Bezos worth $180 billion
Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg worth $84 billion
Reuters: David Thomson worth $51 billion
Fox/WSJ: Rupert Murdoch worth $21 billionThis is what oligarchy looks like.
— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) April 10, 2022
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/americans-dont-agree-on-what-to-call-jan-6-attack
Reasonable minds differ, along partisan lines. Which tells me that the truth is somewhere in the middle, and likely not an insurrection, nor simply a riot. Certainly the cases tried so far seem to not back the “insurrection,” narrative, and the congressional kangaroo court (based on what they’ve subpoenaed and the lack of any real GOP participation) investigation is going nowhere. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are mental lightweights after jobs on MSNBC after they’re no longer in power. (Thank you to Adam Kinzinger for his service, but his Ukraine tweets, falling for hoax after hoax, show he’s unusually susceptible to propaganda). Liz Cheney just called a rocket attack on a rail station “genocide.” Quit throwing terms like that around for no reason.
Muh norms? From a party that wants to blow up the filibuster, pack the court, get rid of the Electoral College, federalize elections, use public health as a political weapon, delay the vaccine rollout for two months (killing more people) for political reasons, change all voting laws to eliminate voting standards to “protect democracy,” use the CDC to pass rent control / eviction moratoriums and OSHA to enact vaccine mandates, open our borders, and use the DOJ to silence parental rights groups? Not to mention a rolling foreign policy disaster predicated on weakness and “optics” rather than basic competence?
The Constitution was designed to prevent any one person or branch from aggregating too much power for a reason. Democrats don’t believe in this principle anymore.
Not to mention the most poisonous political dirty trick in history, exacerbating a foreign policy disaster dating back to at least 2014? A dirty trick that weaponized the intelligence community and federal law enforcement, in conjunction with the media to launder a political lie? That’s not a violation of norms? That gets a pass?
Oh, wait. Are you talking about talking about a stolen election?
Insurrectionist! https://t.co/E14YmuKv2O
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) April 10, 2022
Her lust for power, combined with using the levers of government (and a compliant media) to run a fraudulent political influence operation against the American people is okay? That’s not anti-democratic?
What did the Trump administration do that was ultimately found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court? Compare that to how many Biden administration policies that have already been found unconstitutional (OSHA vaccine mandate, CDC eviction moratorium, excluding white people from relief programs by race). You can buy into the media’s hatred of Trump as a person, but his administration did not willy-nilly violate the Constitution. The Biden administration has shown a willingness to KNOWINGLY violate the Constitution (OSHA and the CDC? Really?).
So think very carefully when you regurgitate the media narrative that Trump / the GOP is a danger to democracy. I’m not sure the “democracy” the Democrats are selling you is the same as what they’re envisioning.
https://mobile.twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1513177176941768707
Around 70% turnout. Also, an amusing quote about French elections.
https://mobile.twitter.com/DurhamWASP/status/1513185652019449861
I would disagree re: Chinese influence. Their economy is larger than Russia’s. They’ve already gotten all of Hollywood chasing their dollars. Have you heard of TikTok? Bytedance is a CCP influence campaign. They have invested heavily on Twitter bots and monitor Western media in a way that would astound most people.
[quote quote=5893]How about painting Chinese flags on some of our planes and bombing Russia?[/quote]
I advocated, tongue in cheek, for a “small incursion” to take Vladivostok and the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands when the Russians pulled some of their Eastern troops for deployment in Ukraine. We could easily say we were returning the Kuril Islands to Japan. Using their words against them is fair play….
Fiscal policy has always been prone to fraud. Large pools of other people’s money? What could go wrong?
That being said, there were some praiseworthy private efforts during the pandemic. The 30 day Virginia fund, created by Pete Snyder, and the Barstool Fund (modeled after the Virginia Fund) both raised money and distributed money to save small businesses during the pandemic. (Full disclosure, I donated to the Barstool Fund). Americans not only want to help, but we know how to help in effective ways. Government solutions aren’t always the best ones.
https://mobile.twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1508525310295351298?cxt=HHwWhIC57d7xre8pAAAA
Well, the President decided to come in over the top.
Huh. Facing disciplinary action for defending a teammate? That sounds… odd. Also, what a terrible reason for suicide (a quasi-judicial administrative proceeding).
