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1201
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: Toilet paper hoarding
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on: March 12, 2020, 01:24:08 AM
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Heh, big fan of baby wipes to be honest. But don't pay more for the baby wipes that are flushable (if you don't have a costco near you) As all you're doing is buying something that also can't flush anyway. I'm not a scientist or anything, but I'm not sure how a company can say flushable if it's not something that can flush anyway. This is going to get pretty crazy pretty quickly -- I'd hoard as much stuff as you can now as this is going to get interesting quick. NYS is shutting down their colleges (and going to fully online) I wouldn't be surprised if other states followed suit. Maybe try to check Amazon for Grocery section. |
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1202
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: Don't buy facemasks for the coronavirus!
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on: March 11, 2020, 10:52:10 PM
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Thanks for that factual post Jack.
As I have said many rimes, the current Corona Virus doesn't spread by aerosols, but by droplets. So masks aren't much use unless a person is only a couple of feet in front of you, and coughs directly into your face. The problem comes when the droplets fall onto a surface, and you pick them up and move them to your eyes or mouth. Don't wash face masks either, and this expands the holes in them. You realise the stupidity of people when you see them wearing face masks, but not wearing gloves.
Your best protection is not to smoke or vape. Smoking increase ACE-2 receptors, and the virus uses those to bind to your cells. Strengthen your immune system with a healthy diet, and the avoidance of all vaccinations. Don't take any pharmaceutical or recreational drugs, as they weaken your immune system. Maintain an active sex life to stimulate blood flow and restful sleep.
I mean it does help a little bit. But yes, it's not going to protect you for like 95 percent of circumstances. So if you want to stop that 5 percent (I've made up this number) then go ahead and do so, but don't freak out that everyone else around you isn't using one. When a large deal of people in the US (especially the young population that live on college campuses) smoke and vape, they're going to be the ones that carry this to the older generation which have a VERY high chance of death from this. If the younger population would just learn to care a little bit more about others there wouldn't be an issue -- but with schools cancelling all they're going to do is party a ton and everyone is going to get sick. This is a HORRIBLE SITUATION. |
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1203
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: Italy quarantines 16 million people due to Coronavirus
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on: March 11, 2020, 10:16:17 PM
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COVID coin uses a Proof of virus mining algorithm and someone in Italy developed an ASIC because they are getting the highest total hashrate which has shifted a chunk of the marketshare away from China.
This would be pretty funny if people were not dying from the disease. I do wonder if Itlay is telling the truth about the disease and most other countries are lying about it. My logic is as follows USA flu death rates yearly flux between 20,000-70,000 This leaves a lot of space to call a corona-v death a simple flu death. Since Trump's people placed the bet that this would be a non-event they would be inclined to do very little corona-v testing and the numbers would be under reported. Italy has really bad death rate more then 5% China has a low death rate under 3% that is a big variation in death rate. all info below is from here https://coronavirus-map.com/world wide is 121,564 caught it 4,373 total dead 66,239 Recovered 80,969 china ............................ 3152 10,149 italy ..............................631 9,000 iran ..............................354 7,755 korea 2,174 spain 1,784 france 1,629 germany 1,050 USA .............................. 29 The Italian death rate is really high 6.21% the USA death rate is 2.76% the Chinese death rate is 3.89% So who is reporting correctly. I know USA wants to underreport Maybe Italy is over reporting to get some fiat printed who knows. I don't think that the US wants to underreport, I think that the US wasn't really prepared for this sort of thing and are not getting hit pretty hard now. No one was really ready for this, and there isn't even a proper amount of tests already ready to test everyone. They're using the current amount of test scarcely -- they're only using these (IN THE US) on people who were in contact with a confirmed person who have come back from a place that has a good deal of people that have the virus (China, Italy, etc) No country wants to underreport, but if you dont have the resources to handle this then there's really not much you can do. Though I do think that the Trump administration does have to do more to show that they're combating this. People want to see people from the Trump administration in the media talking about this and talking about their plans. |
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1204
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Other / Politics & Society / Most New York Private Colleges Shutdown, Public Colleges follow suit
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on: March 11, 2020, 10:03:20 PM
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Breaking News out of New York (which has the highest rate of coronavirus infections in the country). The State Universities of New York (SUNY) and City Universities of New York (CUNY) are going to be going to online learning on March 19th. Private Schools did this first, and the public school system followed suit.
Pretty crazy news, though this is going to be a good thing. Limiting human contact is the best way to stop the spread of this disease, and to ensure that the older population has a limited chance to get this (as it is like 3 percent lethal for the older pop, much more lethal then the flu)
What do ya guys think?
Source:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/nyregion/coronavirus-new-york-update.html
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1205
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: 2020 Democrats
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on: March 11, 2020, 08:18:26 PM
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A few stays at Trump's hotels will surely make him rich..
That's why he wanted to become president.. So he could force some people to stay at his hotels from time to time..
Genius!
I mean I'm not saying that this is the reason that Trump wanted to become President, though I am saying that during his presidency this is something that is currently happening under his presidency. Though I'm not saying that SIMPLY because people are staying at Trump hotels that Trump is a corrupt -- I'm saying that the administration should make clear how they're ensuring that there is no issues in picking the hotel. We should see that Trump hotels are seen to be the cheapest -- not that they're picked for a reason such as -- Trump likes them more. So yeah. |
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1206
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: Tax rebates to reflate the economy.
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on: March 11, 2020, 01:25:29 AM
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This is the theory that instead of having massive bureaucracies to handle welfare (on the federal, state, and local level) that you'd just be able to have a negative income tax, right? This actually does sound like a MUCH better idea then having the government have a massive bureacracy to handle the program. Removes a lot of the issues when people think about the amount of time, paperwork, and other bullshit they go through when applying for benefits.\
My biggest thing is wanting to incentivize work alongside welfare programs. I know I've said this before on this board, but I think that the current welfare system is like a cliff, see example below:
If you make something like $25,000 a year as a single person, you're entitled to $15,000 in benefits. But if you make a dollar over $25,000 a year, then you're entititled to nothing. So if someone doesn't think they can make more then $40,000 a year there's no incentive for them to want to work any harder.
Right, things like the EITC and UBI do welfare with much less government overhead and better incentives for the recipients. EITC is basically like increasing the wages of low-income people, so it doesn't disincentivize work. Under the current rules, if you have 2 children and your income is in the best range for EITC, the government gives you a refundable tax credit (ie. it's identical to the government just writing you a check) equal to 40% of your earned income. So if you earn $8/hr, after EITC it's like you earned $11.20/hr. The income limits are phased, so it's never rational to avoid earning more income. In addition to being a welfare system, this is also a subsidy for businesses, since they can pay lower wages while having their employees receive a higher effective wage; due to this, EITC is the most popular type of welfare among Republicans. The payout rates and income limits for the current US EITC weirdly depends entirely on how many children you have. It has pretty low income limits across the board, and for childless people it has especially low rates and limits. Yep, I know I did that whole post on UBI on here maybe a year ago or so now. Talking about how using that instead of using all the other welfare systems would not only save the country money, but would incentivize people to work. Not as easy as just 'FREEDOM DIVIDEND' but, it'd be more effective then the current system. I'd have to go read into EITC and increasing it a bit. Not a big fan of it being tied to your amount of children -- seems like that could cause a pretty large issue as kids are expensive and the government is practically telling people to have more kids if they want more benefits. Sounds like a way to get dumb people to keep making more kids and to not give them the best shot at life. As I think the 1st or 2nd reason for financial issues are children. Any thoughts on the children part of this thing Theymos? |
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1207
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: 2020 Democrats
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on: March 11, 2020, 01:21:20 AM
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Does Pence actually beleive stuff like this?
Apparently. There's a book about this, Piety and Power: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House. (I didn't read the book, but I watched a long interview with the author.) Well this is something that I'm going to have to watch. Watched like the first 10 mins of it and it sounds pretty interesting. Just as some initial thoughts it seems like Karen Pence is much more politically involved then other political wives (I doubt Melania does much of anything in the WH) But I'm not surprised of Karen being a very involved wife, I remember her saying that (when the Hollywood Access tape came out) she wasn't going to be in public with Pence anymore. I'll watch the rest of this and edit this. Thanks for the link Theymos! |
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1208
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: 2020 Democrats
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on: March 11, 2020, 12:23:35 AM
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doing so just to "cash-in."
I don't know if he's doing it just to cash in but he certainly doesn't mind billing taxpayers double or triple the going rate. I can't think of any good reason to do so other than... you know... being corrupt AF. But you're right, it's pointless to argue. I don't think I can convince you nor do I really need to. It's not uncommon for the likes of a POTUS to rent an entire floor (or more) of a hotel for security reasons, but at the moment we should be getting bargain rates. Given the coronavirus scare, right now the Rio in Vegas is $21. Not every night of the week, but a lot of times. So why can't we get a big discount on those Air Force One flights, too? See this is one of the things about Trump that really annoys me, but the people don't talk about that much. There's a scandal or two about this every few months or so, but nothing ever comes out of it. Remember the time that Pence went to Ireland and stayed at a Trump hotel 180 miles from his destination for safety reasons - https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/3/20847247/mike-pence-ireland-doonbeg-trip-180-miles-away-trump-hotelOr William Barr throwing a 30k Christmas Party (for the DOJ) at Trumps hotel in Washington DC - https://www.vox.com/2019/8/28/20836544/william-barr-trump-hotel-party-emoluments-corruptionand on and so. I assume that the rest of government doesn't care about this sort of stuff because this sort of corruption is very common in Washington. I mean there may be some legitimacy to the fact that the secret service does already know some of their places better, and maybe it does save them on training time, but I'd love to see their actual research and stuff on the matter instead of them just making bold claims and then the media letting the whole story go away. |
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1209
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: Italy quarantines 16 million people due to Coronavirus
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on: March 11, 2020, 12:01:28 AM
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The big problem here is not the quarantine itself, but the fact that someone leaked the plans to the press before they could be put into place. This caused thousands of people to panic and try to evacuate from the north - the exact opposite of the intended effect of the plan.
This sort of flagrant disregard for human safety just for the purpose of selling a story is appalling. I hope the perpetrator is prosecuted.
I'm going to assume that even with the proper precautions in place, thousands of people were going to escape from the country anyway. I highly doubt anyone is going to want to be forced into quarantine -- even if they know that it is probably best for those around them, people are kinda selfish. But yes, I do still think this is a horrible thing to do (leaking) which caused major issue. Crazy to think an entire country is quarantined right now.... Forced. |
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1210
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: 2020 Democrats
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on: March 10, 2020, 11:32:26 PM
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Given that 2020 is toast, and that I'm rooting for Ivanka 2024...
It'll be interesting to see who the 2024 Republican nominee will be now that Trump has changed the party. Pence literally believes that he has been chosen by God to be president someday, so he'll eventually go for it, though he's a Mitt Romney Republican, not a Trump Republican. It's unclear if he could win the nomination or the general even if he had Trump's endorsement. I would expect Trump to favor endorsing a family member over Pence, if any of them actually want it. The Trump children are more likable than Pence, and could more easily claim to be continuations on Trump's legacy, though with different "flavors": Ivanka would be a more Dem-leaning candidate, Eric Trump and Jared Kushner are more stable, and Trump Jr. is even more extreme. And of course we'll probably have people like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz running again. Does Pence actually beleive stuff like this? He's literally just a guy that Trump picked to be VP so he could have some more contacts in the insiders of politics. Nothing more and nothing less. Pence is literally more unfavorable among Americans then Trump is (by like 3 points). This guy literally would never be able to win the nomination. He's too old world and establishment for this new wave of the party. Trump will probably be the one with the following to decide who the new nominee is. Doubt it's going to be a family member, would seem too much like a King. If he endorsed his son or some shit the entire country would just be like -- come on man, endorse someone with a real vision. I expect Ted Cruz to run again, Rand Paul, etc. Whoever gets Trump endorsement (given that he wins this time around) will be the nominee of the party. Biden will probably be winning mini Tuesday by the way. Seems like it as of right now. |
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1211
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: Tax rebates to reflate the economy.
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on: March 10, 2020, 09:54:23 PM
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In general, if welfare is inevitable, then things like the earned income tax credit are the best ways to do it. IMO it makes sense for libertarians to be willing to to trade expanding EITC for reducing regulations and other forms of welfare.
EITC expansion wouldn't address the current problem causing the economy/market to freak out, though: people are "cocooning" because they're afraid of getting coronavirus. If the government just gives people money through EITC, tax reductions, bailouts, etc., then people will probably just put the money under their mattresses. If the government's goal is to pump up the stock market, they should borrow a ton of money with low-rate 100-year bonds and use it to give everyone a special sort of insurance where if you get coronavirus, then 100% of your medical expenses and lost income related to this (up to a cap) are covered, and you also get some fixed life insurance coverage. (I don't support this, but I think it'd be most effective way to artificially prop up the economy.)
This is the theory that instead of having massive bureaucracies to handle welfare (on the federal, state, and local level) that you'd just be able to have a negative income tax, right? This actually does sound like a MUCH better idea then having the government have a massive bureacracy to handle the program. Removes a lot of the issues when people think about the amount of time, paperwork, and other bullshit they go through when applying for benefits.\ My biggest thing is wanting to incentivize work alongside welfare programs. I know I've said this before on this board, but I think that the current welfare system is like a cliff, see example below: If you make something like $25,000 a year as a single person, you're entitled to $15,000 in benefits. But if you make a dollar over $25,000 a year, then you're entititled to nothing. So if someone doesn't think they can make more then $40,000 a year there's no incentive for them to want to work any harder. So yeah, that's my two cents on this. |
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1214
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: 2020 Democrats
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on: March 10, 2020, 01:45:29 AM
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2 things I think Bernie could've done differently to still be in a close race:
1 - Push back against all the communism/nazi talk. Give a shit about what label people choose to use on him, and educate them on the difference between Communism and all the different flavors of Socialism. He made it too easy for the knuckle draggers to cry Communist and imply that he had a secret plan to become some sort of dictator.
2 - Make sure every black person in SC is aware that he was fighting for them back when school integration was a radical progressive idea in the early 60s. Use these pictures to tell a story about someone who has always fought for them.
snip
Not sure I agree too much with the first one, as I do think Bernie does try to make this difference clear. Problem with even calling yourself a socialist (anything close to that) is that the largest part of the voting group (I'm assuming this is those that are 40 and over) are those that associate Socialism with the soviet union and the horrible things that caused. But yes, I do TRULY agree with #2. Bernie has to continue to retweet that picture over and over.I don't think he talks about it enough. He was and has kept to his ideals for his entire life. He fought for the things that people say they would fight for today, but did it 40 years ago. Isn't that something? |
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1215
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: 2020 Democrats
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on: March 09, 2020, 03:26:52 PM
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We'll see where that radical minority goes though, as they're not going to be very happy now.
Aside from my usual snarky remarks about lazy kids yapping on the internet instead of voting, I'm starting to think they're actually better off being losers. Imagine electing Bernie and still having to pay off college debts (very likely given that the president can't just gift trillions of dollars) - THAT would be really non-happy. Yeah this is right, the President of the United States REALLY wouldn't be able to do something like this. Even if you had all three chambers of government -- I highly doubt the more moderate members of the Dems would be willing to do all of the things Bernie wants to do. Kinda tough to do that when you know if you do you may lose your seat. I have many friends who support Bernie and I'll tell them that most of the things he want to do won't happen even if he's president. They'll bitch and moan and say that he'll use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to force them to do things, cut state funding, etc. I was like -- you could literally say the same of every single president before them. It just doesn't happen. |
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1216
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: 2020 Democrats
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on: March 09, 2020, 03:02:15 PM
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....
Bernie Sandbag is doing his job, just like he did in 2016. Suck up as many populist votes as possible then deferring to the establishment candidate.
It's a thankless, dirty job. I couldn't think of a better guy suited to it. At least in 2020, the excuse was that Bernie lost because the DNC was rigging it against him from the inside. They were feeding the debate questions to Clinton before hand, they were literally giving Clinton money from the DNC fundraising effort (for down the ballot races), and so on and so forth. The deck truly was stacked against him. That wasn't fair in the least. But now they're stealing the primary from Bernie. They're literally doing it in democratic fashion. Biden will most likely LEGITIMATETLY end up with more delegates and more popular votes then Bernie. People may argue that some of this came from backdoor deals and stuff, but while backdoor deals may be unethical -- nothing about them makes this process undemocratic. I don't think Bernies job is to just be a token fighter. I think he truly wants to win. He just can't get the young people to vote, tough thing to do. There's one very good reason Bernie Sanders just can't get the young people to vote. It's Bernie Sanders. And that's just the young people. What the recent shakeout in the Demo clown car shows, to anyone who has eyes to see it, is that Democratic voters, Democratic establishment players, and companies that donate largely prefer a middle of the line candidate, even if it be one as blemished as Biden. The radical minority did not take over the Democratic Party. I felt like Bernie Sanders was also the best shot among the Democratic Party at increasing voter turnout among the young people. But at the end of the day, it's not an easy thing. I think some analysts were saying that Bernie would need to increase voter turnout among young people (at the primary process) by 11 percent. For comparison, Obama increased African American/Black voter turnout by 5 percent and that was deemed a VERY LARGE WIN. But yes, the radical minority did not take over the party. We'll see where that radical minority goes though, as they're not going to be very happy now. |
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1217
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: If you could change one thing about America, what would you change?
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on: March 09, 2020, 02:55:20 PM
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have america where states have more individuality and not the puppets of the fed
by this i mean let states really have there laws and the fed is just there to support state laws that are universal across all states
take examples of immigration. if some states allow it. then the fed cant enforce or control or pressure immigration resistance. because its not a UNITED state law.
however murder rape, massacre are UNITED state laws which every state agree's need support.
treat the fed as a uncle people call in when they need an extra hand. not the nanny/parent that controls and teaches the house rules
this can help reduce wasted budgets on needless things. stop cross state bickering due to fed agency interventions. and actually bring the power back to the people
I think this can't be fixed through some legislation, as the federal government has always found a way to get around this and to exert their influence in other ways. This is literally the way that the federal government forces a large amount of changes -- think of education. The federal government isn't just able to force the states into their education initiatives. Though the federal government can provide large federal grants for following their initiatives. This is how no child left behind and every student succeeds was always to get states to join the educational initiative. So not sure how you'd change that.... |
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1218
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: Coronavirus Hits CPAC - Ted Cruz puts himself under self quarnatine
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on: March 09, 2020, 02:37:20 PM
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14 Day quarantine is now underway for him.
My reading of his statement is that it will actually be something closer to a 4 day quarantine. He had contact with the person infected with coronavirus 10 days ago, and the statement read that he will remain in self quarantine until 14 days has passed from when he had contact with the person. You're without a doubt right, I kinda skimmed through his statement so that's what happened. But the other lawmaker that is under quarantine is Rep Gosar from Arizona. He's said that he had sustained contact with the infected person as cpac, so I assume he meets the criteria to be put under quarantine. Hopefully some science pours in, cause the media is really running away with this one (as they usually do) |
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1219
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Other / Politics & Society / Re: Bernie Sanders is the Frontrunner for the Dems
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on: March 09, 2020, 03:15:10 AM
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Bernie said "$30 trillion just for medicare for all" in that video you didn't bother watching. Which is it? I suppose you know more about his platform than he does?
$30-$40 trillion over 10 years, not just for 1 year. From the 60 Minutes interview: There's profound skepticism in Congress about Sanders' ability to get his agenda passed. Two-thirds of Democrats in the Senate have not signed on to "Medicare for All," which would cost an estimated $30 trillion to $40 trillion over ten years. And that's just one of Bernie Sanders' many proposals. There's also free public college, cancellation of all student debt, a federal job guarantee, and a Green New Deal to rapidly reduce carbon emissions. The reason why Obama's ACA didn't really work is because he let the Public Option go out of a "compromise." However, the Public Option was the one part that really would have kept a degree of competitiveness in the healthcare industry, forcing health insurers to stop charging ridiculous rates knowing they would lose customers to those enrolling in the Public Option. Having said that, $30 to $40 trillion over 10 years still seems unreasonably high. Healthcare shouldn't cost $10k a year. The whole system is still a disgusting racket. At the tail end of all that, at the good extreme, you have a system perhaps like Australia, and pay 60-70% taxes each year. Plus a VAT. It's not so terribly wonderful and it's certainly not superior. At the bad extreme, you have a system like South Africa. Free health care, but.... you never go to it, you go to private clinics and pay your own way. Reality in the US, what comes down the pike for the "free health care tab" is what the lobbyists for the insurance companies dictate. They aren't on your side.  I'm largely pessimistic on any reduction of the height of either of the two parts of that USA line. I think that there will be huge attempts to stall Trump's executive order requiring open posting of pricing by hospitals and doctors. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20190625.974595/full/Why wouldn't the medical industry try to stall on this executive order? They know that if they just allow this to happen willy nilly, it may be exposed that they're charging people so much fucking money for things that are outside of their control. Like in theory, I SHOULD be able to call up 15 different doctors of varying prestige and skill levels and ask them for their prices of doing a knee replacement in the US right now. But that's not the case in the least and that's not fair. At least a ballpark figure within like 5-10 percent either way after a consultation and some brief testing. People always talk about how competition in the medical world can't work -- they say that for somethings it's impossible to ensure that you're getting the best deal. I partially agree with this. If you pass out and someone has to call 911, I don't want to have to be arguing about the price when I'm knocked out and need immediate medical care. But if it's something like a knee replacement that's going to take months to do anything, why not have competition present? It's something that I'm going to take weeks on anyway, and it's a decision of mine. There's my rant on healthcare. |
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1220
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Economy / Trading Discussion / Re: TradingView SCAM
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on: March 09, 2020, 03:02:05 AM
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It seems there are many Bitcointalk members who use TradingView. So I think the problem is the tradingview system detected that you are using fake debit/credit card or you are using prepaid cards(Visa/Mastercard) or maybe they detected that you made multiple accounts.
And actually the weird thing is they only offering 14 days trial, not 30 days. How did you know that they have 30 days free pro trial?
But if you are using real debit/credit card try to contact them instead tradingview.com/contacts/
Maybe the issue is from their system that detected your PC or card as multiple accounts which are not allowed to abuse the free trial.
+1 to all of this. I think it's fair to assume that something like TradingView is probably going to be getting a lot of traffic from economically depressed areas, and people are going to use fake debit cards on their website (or cards with only $1 on them to avoid the next charge if they forget) The biggest way for these companies to make money is to get people to forget that they're on their free trial, and to charge them. But when you're using something that stops that from happening they're not going to be happy. But yeah, don't abuse the free trial on there. Not notice and I assume thats what they think you're doing. |
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