General Politics Three: But what is left/right?

[EgonSpengler]

from the ruling:
The plaintiffs allege that the Center was obligated to keep the cryogenic nursery secured and monitored at all times. But, in December 2020, a patient at the Hospital managed to wander into the Center's fertility clinic through an unsecured doorway. The patient then entered SC-2022-0515; SC-2022-05795the cryogenic nursery and removed several embryos. The subzero temperatures at which the embryos had been stored freeze-burned the patient's hand, causing the patient to drop the embryos on the floor, killing them. The plaintiffs brought two lawsuits against the Center

I'm a little confused just reading this alone. So some unauthorized person "wanders" in (or breaks in, more accurately; I'm not sure what really happened here) and either purposefully or intentionally destroys the embryos and the Center is to blame (?). That does not make sense.

I imagine the claim is that the facility's security measures were less than industry-standard.

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

If that's the case, perhaps a very cynical take on this is that IVF facilities wanting to avoid wrongful death suits will need to charge exorbitant fees to keep on operating and hire tons more security. Perhaps that avenue was the only way this particular facility could be held to account for what happened. Making the judge's pontificating a bunch of smokescreen to that end...
Because I honestly don't know why anyone wouldn't think this decision could also extend to miscarriages: an unborn child is dead and therefore that must be someone's "fault", i.e. someone who "killed" it

I don't know how many other states agree with this judge's sentiments, but I think it's only more indicative of a very sue-happy culture we in the US live in for this ruling to go through.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Because I honestly don't know why anyone wouldn't think this decision could also extend to miscarriages: an unborn child is dead and therefore that must be someone's "fault", i.e. someone who "killed" it

US women are being jailed for having miscarriages​

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59214544

 

[Core Imposter]

Of trees, the bigger they are the harder they fall. So they say. I say, the bigger the flaw the longer it takes for the consequences to strip the guts out of the system. We saw the Chinese property bubble years ahead of time with the ghost cities. Remember? People thought this would cause a crisis and it didn't, it didn't, and it didn't until it did.

Likewise with the US debt. We've heard the doomsayers forever and ever and ever and it never caused a problem, but it will. Likewise, the sanctions we've used and used and used and never got good results from, but it will bind together the opposing nations against the west and destroy the dollar as the reserve currency, in the end.

It just takes a long time for things to change because of all the friction in the systems but it always takes an event to start things moving and then it will seem like things happen overnight. It took covid to move the ball on some things and we haven't seen the final echos of that at all but there is another event out there with the impact to move us further out over the edge. Two things we know is that we will be in freefall, and we can't mark the time until we are.

We might already be.

 

[Core Imposter]

I am not sure that a frozen embryo is a viable fetus.

As for charging a mother for some offense or lack of care that leads to the loss of a child, well, ...

There will be a lot of questionable decisions in the States as these matters are addressed and it is important that we avoid the temptation to federalize the questions.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Of trees, the bigger they are the harder they fall. So they say. I say, the bigger the flaw the longer it takes for the consequences to strip the guts out of the system. We saw the Chinese property bubble years ahead of time with the ghost cities. Remember? People thought this would cause a crisis and it didn't, it didn't, and it didn't until it did.

The Chinese housing crisis happened in China over 20 or so years. We had our housing meltdown in the Great Recession and as a result folks had low interest rates for a decade.

Likewise with the US debt. We've heard the doomsayers forever and ever and ever and it never caused a problem, but it will.

Yes, I've heard that the debt ax was going to fall for 60 years. Over those years we have had more Republicans in charge than Dems and even a few recessions. No drop into freefall yet. What would that freefall actually look like? "Collapse" is a word often thrown around frequently but no one ever explains what that actually means. The "collapse" is kinda like the second coming: there are people who are ever hopeful for it happen in their life. The end of life as we know it.

Likewise, the sanctions we've used and used and used and never got good results from, but it will bind together the opposing nations against the west and destroy the dollar as the reserve currency, in the end.

Which countries have united in opposition to us because of which sanctions? What has happened to the dollar in the past 20 years? Which currency is going to replace the dollar?

 

[Lexicus]

The more likely path of evolution would seem to be the emergence of blocs using different currencies as reserve currencies, not one currency to replace the dollar as the globally dominant reserve currency.

 

[Core Imposter]

The Chinese housing crisis happened in China over 20 or so years. We had our housing meltdown in the Great Recession and as a result folks had low interest rates for a decade.

Yes, I've heard that the debt ax was going to fall for 60 years. Over those years we have had more Republicans in charge than Dems and even a few recessions. No drop into freefall yet. What would that freefall actually look like? "Collapse" is a word often thrown around frequently but no one ever explains what that actually means. The "collapse" is kinda like the second coming: there are people who are ever hopeful for it happen in their life. The end of life as we know it.


Which countries have united in opposition to us because of which sanctions? What has happened to the dollar in the past 20 years? Which currency is going to replace the dollar?

The BRICS bloc, which has recently welcomed new members including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran, and Ethiopia, is at the forefront of this transition.

MSN

 

[Birdjaguar]

 

[Core Imposter]

The more likely path of evolution would seem to be the emergence of blocs using different currencies as reserve currencies, not one currency to replace the dollar as the globally dominant reserve currency.

Yes, it would seem so. But historically it has not been so. Hard to know. Of course in the time of the antichrist there will only one world currency, essentially.

Revelation 13:16-18: "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

So eventually it looks like a demonic digital currency. But you don't have to believe in biblical things to see the shifting of the reserve currency as this has happened many times in world history.

Yes, I've heard that the debt ax was going to fall for 60 years. Over those years we have had more Republicans in charge than Dems and even a few recessions. No drop into freefall yet. What would that freefall actually look like? "Collapse" is a word often thrown around frequently but no one ever explains what that actually means. The "collapse" is kinda like the second coming: there are people who are ever hopeful for it happen in their life. The end of life as we know it.

Just look at what happened to Brittish Empire, ruling a quarter of the earth's surface and a quarter of it's people just a little over a hundred years ago. That's what collapse looks like, though the US is not so nearly that significant in historic terms.

People fall into logical fallacies all the time, one of which is recency bias.

The people showing up at CPAC appear to be everything that the liberals here condemn. Somewhat correctly. There is little conservatism left.

 

[Farm Boy]

The bigger the tree the harder the fall is sort of silly. A medium sized tree will crush you to death just fine, as will a moderately sized branch that lands on your dome. The smaller ones are more likely not to have choked out the competition around them as well, to bounce off as they come down, altering where you thought it was safe to cut from.

The big old honkers take longer, but you might actually take the proper time to felling wedge and tie them*?

The worst thing about the debt is who we write it to. But you're right, it does matter that it's there. The people who argue that more is better are nuts. Having potential energy is a lot more lively than to have laid it all out in a pile. If you want to keep the tree analogy. Then, to get more energy out, you have to light the thing on fire.

*though the best answer is to dice them up and drop them in chunks from the top.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Just look at what happened to Brittish Empire, ruling a quarter of the earth's surface and a quarter of it's people just a little over a hundred years ago. That's what collapse looks like, though the US is not so nearly that significant in historic terms.

The Empire Collapsed after WW2 and the impact on its pieces varied from place to place. But that collapse was part of the resetting of the world order after the war. Five years of war in Europe wrecked a lot of things. That is a pretty poor example. The obvious one is the Depression of the 1930s that folks attribute to the stock market crash in 1929. But I suspect the causes are broader. Bank failures in 1930-31 were part of the problem as well as the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. But many attribute the spread of the US recession worldwide on the gold standard. Countries that stuck with it longer fared worse.

Predicting the end of the US dominance in the world is a fine thing and it will happen, someday. Fast or slow we don't know. To say it will be because debt is mere speculation. With equal certainty I could say that the collapse of the rule of law in this country is because of Donald Trump. As you said, there are triggers that can bring about big changes more quickly. What those are are mostly seen in hindsight. Something happens and then people make bad decisions to make things worse and dominoes fall. I am far more worried about the Christian right + Trump + boot licking GOP than about US debt.

As of May 2023:

"First, the US debt held by the US public stands at more than $24.64 trillion. This represents debt securities, like Treasury bonds and notes, bought by banks, insurance companies, state and local governments, foreign governments and private investors.

The remaining debt, which totals about $6.83 trillion, can be classified as intragovernmental holdings. This is basically debt the government owes itself. “For example, some federal trust funds invest in Treasury securities, thereby lending money to [the] Treasury,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The Social Security Administration, the Department of Defense and the United States Postal Service all have investment holdings in federal debt.

In total, other territories hold about $7.4 trillion in U.S. debt. Japan owns the most at $1.1 trillion, followed by China, with $859 billion, and the United Kingdom at $668 billion."

 

[Broken_Erika]

West Bengal: Indian zoo ordered to change lions’ 'blasphemous' names​

An Indian court has ordered a zoo in West Bengal state to change the names of two lions after a hardline Hindu group complained it hurt their religious sentiments.

The lioness was named after Hindu deity Sita while the lion was called Akbar, after the 16th Century Mughal ruler.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) challenged this, saying that naming the lioness after a goddess was blasphemous.

It also objected to keeping the lions in the same wildlife park.

The two big cats currently live in the North Bengal Wild Animals Park in Siliguri district.

On Thursday, the court said that animals should not be named after "Hindu gods, Muslim Prophets, [revered] Christian figures, Nobel laureates and freedom fighters".

"You could have named it Bijli [lightning] or something like that. But why give names such as Akbar and Sita?" Justice Saugata Bhattacharya asked.

The court also asked if it would be prudent to name pets, including dogs, after people. "You could've avoided a controversy," the judge said.

• The unusual lion sightings on India's beaches
• Man-eater lions to live in captivity

In its complaint, the VHP - which has ties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - alleged that it had received complaints from all parts of the country over the lions' names.

"She [Sita] is the consort of [Hindu god] Lord Ram and herself is a sacred deity to all Hindus across the world," it said. "Such act amounts to blasphemy and is a direct assault on the religious beliefs of all Hindus."

The organisation accused authorities in West Bengal, which is ruled by an opposition party, of doing this on purpose and threatened to hold protests if they didn't change the names and location of the big cats.

"Sita and Akbar cannot be allowed to live together," VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68378060

 

[Gori the Grey]

Just look at what happened to Brittish Empire, ruling a quarter of the earth's surface and a quarter of it's people just a little over a hundred years ago. That's what collapse looks like

If you go by the chart on this page, the UK right now has a higher standard of living than the US:

Standard of Living by Country 2025

Discover population, economy, health, and more with the most comprehensive global statistics at your fingertips.

worldpopulationreview.com

So . . .

 

[Gorbles]

If you go by the chart on this page, the UK right now has a higher standard of living than the US:

Standard of Living by Country | Quality of Life by Country 2024
So . . .

I'm pretty sure picking the number on the left and ignoring the number in the middle column (for which the US' is higher) doesn't really give us much concrete evidence either way.

Not that this has much to do with the Empire either, consequences there tend to manifest in different ways.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I understood the chart to take four different rankings (in which UK beats US in three of four) and then make its own compounded ranking, in which UK edges US. If UK were 2 slots below US, the point would still stand: that one can "collapse" and it's not a free-fall of the sort CI fears.

 

[Farm Boy]

First, the US debt held by the US public stands at more than $24.64 trillion. This represents debt securities, like Treasury bonds and notes, bought by banks, insurance companies, state and local governments, foreign governments and private investors.

This is, of course, what I'm talking about.

 

[Core Imposter]

I have no tools to fall back on when confronted with minds who dismiss the consequences of a national debt that is growing faster than the national economy. You will have to discover this on your own hook. I suspect that liberals might view the consequences differently, one of which will possibly be the seizure of all private wealth. That might actually be a plus in some minds.

 

[Farm Boy]

Have you looked at functional tax rates as a ratio of total income and total expenditures? Conservative and liberal regressive policies are excellent at that already. Look for things like "fees."

 

[Lexicus]

I have no tools to fall back on when confronted with minds who dismiss the consequences of a national debt that is growing faster than the national economy. You will have to discover this on your own hook. I suspect that liberals might view the consequences differently, one of which will possibly be the seizure of all private wealth. That might actually be a plus in some minds.

You have no tools to fall back on because you're just repeating vaguely what you've been told about the national debt, which is that it is bad for [reasons].

You should consider the possibility that those who tell you the debt is bad are wrong.