65 karma · joined June 4, 2022
That’s odd, as I generally vote Democrat and the only post here I’ve submitted is to a math blog post I enjoy.
At any rate, let’s try to avoid having this website turn into yet another Reddit or Twitter in terms of quality of comments and obsession about anything seen as not left leaning enough.
I think we’ll just have to agree to disagree about the merits of Saddam Hussein, here. Have a good weekend.
I suppose genocide of the Kurds is acceptable on the internet as long as your suitably anti-American while you do it. Those darn American imperialists!
Does America represent the national security strategy of essentially all of Europe, most non-Chinese nations in Asia, and much of South America?
Absolutely, and to pretend otherwise is to be dreaming.
If you’re not in one of those areas then you are correct that your adversary is not our adversary. But it’s pretty statistically likely you are, and in that case the two are linked.
You’re welcome to return the trillions spent on your defense, of course, and set up your own naval strategy and naval supply chains to defend your trade routes.
Sure, as long as it’s accompanied by safe journalist practices (which it isn’t) and also calls out the shady shit of other, opposed, countries (which (which it doesn’t).
> It’s entirely possible that he just has better access to US sources than Russian ones.
That’s fine and possible, but even if that wasn’t the case - and he had access to Russian leaks but didn’t leak them - this is still exactly what he would say.
And it’s possible both are true - that he’s simply releasing what is given to him, and the Russian state saw this and took the opportunity to feed him information as a result. At that point, after he has continually irresponsibly released covert information from a hostile state, how is he any different in practice than an intentional hostile actor?
That’s just not true. Many leakers and whistle blowers aren’t prosecuted every year.
Julian Assange is a pretty transparent Russian asset and has been for a number of years. There’s a reason he never leaks anything that is negative of Putin. Meanwhile if it’s anti-American he leaks it in full without taking any standard journalist precautions.
Of course he can pull the “I’m just a journalist bro” card, but the act is over and his time is up.
We already do this. You have the right to bear arms - just not nuclear ones.
America has always had to place reasonable restrictions on rights to ensure the public good.
People online vastly overestimate the actual effect of money on political results, naturally disregarding all the donations made to candidates that lose and ignoring races where the lesser funded candidates win.
If Americans wanted a leftist government, they’d vote for it, simple as that. And yet even in the most left leaning states and cities in the nation , leftist principles have failed to gain much electoral ground.
Amazon has massive weekly turnover numbers so the real number of employees over that full year is likely well in excess of 5,000, putting it at least at 1.something per.
Then consider it’s almost certain a small number of employees rack up most of the notices, and I can see this happening.
Surge pricing can incentivize more drivers to come online. I don’t see how you can reduce the customers in a short timeframe.
EU vs US GDP growth over the past 15 years, and in fact vs most countries, would strongly suggest Europe is being left behind due to overregulation during an aging crisis.
But hey, why argue in the internet. Let’s let things play out and see where the cards fall
If those questions have real implications for human beings, you need to consider more than just the technicals.
Now is that a large portion of people? I have no clue, and my anecdotal evidence certainly isn’t qualified to answer the question.
I recognize that this is an important discussion to have to improve US healthcare, so I’m not outright disagreeing with you.
But I think this is a bit editorialized. Paying with cash is so rare in society. I don’t even have the cash to pay for my lunch - I just use a credit card. It shouldn’t be surprising.
Half of U.S. adults said they would pay it immediately.(30% using savings,20% using a credit card they pay off that month)
A further 21% said they would pay with a credit card and pay it off over time. (Anyone who is already in other forms of debt will probably take this option as they, by definition, don’t have the cash for other things.)
Another 5% said they would make a payment plan with a provider / pay overtime.
That’s 76% of the country that is knowledgeable about reasonable ways to pay for the services. Now, 24% using worse off options or not knowing - that’s not good at all. But it’s a far cry from the implication that “half of people can’t pay”
But still this isn’t really a metric on the U.S. healthcare system directly - that would be asking why we have unexpected $500 bills, not which payment method people are using. And alternatively, or even in tandem, why people are not saving and planning ahead.
“c. Any debt you owe to a bank, collection agency, or other lender that includes debt or loans used to pay medical or dental bills.
d. Any medical or dental bills that you have put on a credit card, and are paying off over time.”
Thus, by one interpretation, if you’re already in over $5,000 of credit card debt, and you charge a $10 prescription fill or $25 copay to that credit card, their methodology will now include you in the medical debt and medical debt amount statistics as having medical debt over $5,000. The specific wording of the “amount” question seemingly tries to prevent this, but considering the above was classified as medical debt prior in the polling, it’s not hard at all to imagine people answering in the affirmative.
Is this really true? I don’t know, that’s a complicated discussion. There are certainly people who are paying medical costs with credit cards. They deserve to be included. But it does seem possibly a bit too broad.
Reading? Yes, the intricacies of clause structure? No, no one uses that besides a few people.
Science? Almost no one I know uses chemistry or biology. I don’t even remember how to balance a chemical equation.
The same arguments against mathematics education can be used for almost anything.
If “Reading” is the example for English education, then “addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division” are the analogs in math, and they’re used by pretty much everyone in day to day life and in other classes. Hell, they’re even used when reading.
I certainly have NEVER used biology at work, and I didn’t do well in it in high school or college.
But you can take it off and write notes with it, pass it around, etc.
I get your sentiment, but I personally think you’re off base here.
You seem to be demonizing the other side a bit and implying they don’t want to help these people.
Is it so hard to believe that some members of society genuinely believe that welfare programs hurt this group rather than help them in the long run?
I’m not asking you to agree with that sentiment - I’m not even saying it’s correct - I’m simply pointing out that many of the people against socialism and communism do genuinely believe that their viewpoints will help these people in the long run.
> Did the government make the right decisions then? Are they making the right decisions now?
Government is allowed to occasionally make the wrong decision. Perfection is an imperfect standard.
Correcting it I would rephrase it to say that massive components of society are directly facilitated by the government as one example: (roads -> shipped goods, travel experiences, etc)
You implicitly agree to some measure when you participate in the society set up by government.
There is today a very common attitude that governments are intentionally only serving a small elite. This populist - perhaps even intuitive - rhetoric is exaggerated for most of the Western world.
If you’re living on your own out in the wilderness, I can see your argument. But this actually does exist to some degree in how uncontacted peoples[0] are generally not subject to the laws of the government whos jurisdiction they fall under. This isn’t a lifestyle most of us would choose but perhaps there is some merit to making this path easier to take for those who desire it.