Forum Replies Created
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Mentch1
Your cherry picking. Is Russia crime free?
Besides, democracy and freedom of choice has consequences, people will make bad choices. But having a few decide for the many is bad.
Communism resulted in the death of millions.
mentch1
History is a bunch if lies agreed upon… but that also goes for the version of “truth” you put forth.
ujm,
Apparently, the world leaders are not listening to your advice, so the situation is escalating with the threat of Russia going nuclear.
interjection,
What compromise do you think Russia would be willing to accept in order to stop the war?
Reb E,
I share your concerns, and a clear declassification process should be established.
Reb E,
“ If declassified, it should be indicated on the document.”
Is that your assumption and practice or is that the set guidelines?
I have not seen or listened to Trump’s interview and the only information I have about this is from what the media is reporting. However, I don’t think there is a formal process of declassifying documents, nor does it require a declassification stamp. This is something that was never really clarified in the past. The President may at his own discretion declassify documents, but there is no actual process that he is required to follow. Can he simply tell his staff that it’s declassified? Can he simply tell himself that it is declassified? Does he need to make a note or mark it as declassified?
Another thing that is interesting is, I don’t believe that Trump actually packed his own boxes and schlepped all those boxes out of the WH, he is a man of means and probably had other staff do it. There are lawyers and protocol people on staff that participate in everything that happens in the WH. This does not make him innocent, but it may complicate the story. He may not even have had any knowledge about the specifics of what was removed from the WH.
CTL,
ERs tend to become busy later afternoon, when people are more available to check in.
Anonymous Jew,
If the hospital accepts medicare they are required by law to asses and stabilize every patient that presents themselves to the hospital for help.
GH,
“So now there is a story running in WaPo”
I would assume that most people by now know that any stories are just that, stories. At this point, we don’t have many facts one or another.
er,
“Again, the crux of disagreement seems to stem from your starting point that every governmental official is corrupt or biased that they can’t be trusted to do their duties. Thus the rush to assume conspiracies.”
I am not sure how you deduced that.
All I said is that until we learn more, everything is speculation and there is precedence with regards to creating illegitimate investigations against Trump with the sole purpose to contain his political future.
er,
“2cents: just because there were a couple of biased people who hated Trump working on the case, it doesn’t mean the investigation was politically motivated.”
Correct, but that was not the basis of the claim. We now have objective evidence that the origin of the investigation was politically motivated and not based on actual interference concerns.
This is why I stated, that the fact that warrants were obtained does not yet convince me that this was a legitimate investigation.
It seems that more information will be revealed, which will make us smarter.
er
“2cents: if your opinion of the search is colored by Mueller report, it is not true that the report was illegitimate. Please read the report yourself instead of Trump/Fox’s characterizations. Trump barely cooperated and also worked to derail the investigation, so Mueller was limited.”
I am not sure you understood what I wrote. We now know for certain, based on written communications that were at the time, (meaning at the onset of this investigation) that the Mueller investigation was a political hit job by people in the FBI.
If you are ok with that, you probably do not like our country.
Smerel kind of made my point already.
In short, that was done by the highest levels of authority in the FBI/DOJ, at the time I was also thinking if they are doing this, there has to be some legitimacy to this, but no, it was iligimate in terms of being instigated by political hacks and people in the DOJ that targeted Trump for reasons that had nothing to do with Russia or criminality.
So no, just because the FBI and a judge signed a warrant, does not mean we should just accept it as OK. We now know that this may very well be politically motivated.
I guess we will learn more with time.
While we are free to speculate, we should realize that we dont have any of the facts. This may likely be something minor that Trump is using to augment and promote himself by getting people upset about the system.
On the other hand, for those that are saying that this must be a very legitimate and serious concern if the FBI went through the hoops and was able to get a warrant. In the past, I would have thought the same.
However, the Mueller investigation, has completely changed my mind. No longer are serious investigations necessarily legitimate, even if they are conducted by the highest levels of authority.
We now know that the there was no legitimate basis for this investigation, the people that authorized it knew it as well. Yet, it held us all captive and at the time made us all think that Trump might be guilty of treason. The fact that other unrelated carious white collar crimes were uncovered, does not justify any of this.
Therefore, no longer is a warrant or the fact that there is an investigation any indication that there is a legitimate issue here.
Chaylev Halyah,
“big difference, though, a war cant be staged – an invisible spiritual fictional virus – who can know if it’s real????”
Are you claiming that all those people that allegedly died from the SARS Covid19 virus are really alive, they were just abducted and are living on some remote island?
mdd1,
“ Using your brains.”
If one chooses to he skeptical, brains can be fooled.
Musk is a fictional character created by twitter to get attention.
mdd1,
“ I agree that many corpses were found in Bucha, but how do you know those people were not just caught in crossfire?”
Why is it that you believe that corpses were actually found? Maybe this is a hoax. Why do you choose to believe this?
Y.W. Editor,
“In fact, there were no Chassidim living in Lakewood 15 years ago.”
This is a highly inaccurate statement. For starters, Satmar had a shull in Lakewood much more than 15 years ago, and I am sure there were many other Chassidishe shulls at time.
mdd1,
“My recommendation: think and don’t just swallow what you are being told.’
What not to do is simple, the question is what to yes believe. Is there a war now between Russia and Ukraine? Why believe that?
Or, will you just bring examples of statements that are inaccurate as a distraction to this discussion?
Mdd1
“ Modern and 2cents, Liz Cheney today said that the attack on the Kramatorsk train station shows that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine. Your take on her statement, please.”
Distraction.
You selectively choose what to believe and what to ignore. The consensus of all information, from multiple different flows, including rescue organizations, media, raw data from people on the grounds all point to Russia being a very bad actor. If you are selective in what you believe, why believe that there is a war to begin with? Have you seen it with your own eyes, or your simply believing what your being told?
Besides, I’ve not been able to follow the logic behind the entire invasion/special operation, as well as Russia telling the world prior to this that they are not planing to invade Ukraine.
It seems like a chain of lies and deceit by the Russians that not a single country, other than other communist allies, have not condemned and taken action to sanction Russia.
Mdd1, by1212,
Are you even sure there is a war between Russia and Ukraine? Maybe the media simply manufactured the entire war thing.
Maybe its not even Russia Thats fighting Ukraine, its the media that us feeding us this made up news.
mdd1,
It so seems that you have sided with the Russians on this matter and are have strong opinions about Ukraine.
While I don’t think that any of what was written here will change your mind, it seems odd that all the information coming out clearly point to Russian atrocities, they have no regard for civilian human life.
If this were not the fact, Russian PR would be at full speed providing acceptable information to refute this. In fact, all they have is some made-up stories that hold no water.
How is it that day after day, there is another atrocious story about a hospital, school, or civilians being killed by the Russians, and they are all consistent with photos and videos? If even just some of this were made up, there would have been many inconsistencies.
It’s clear that Russia is willing to reach its objectives by all means, with no regard for its consequences. That is not Ok.
Politics is about twisting logic and facts to fit a pre-set narrative.
The simple reality is, that people are being hurt and killed. These are civilians that just want to live, take care of their families and their selves, and contribute to society. These people have not instigated this war nor are they playing an active role in this war.
To justify an invasion, kill civilians, and flatten residential buildings, schools, and hospitals is an extreme level of evil and has no justification in a civilized society.
Russia started this, they need to eat the consequences that come along with their actions.
Putin may believe that killing so many people, including young Russian soldiers is justified as long as his objectives are met. The world does not have to subscribe to that belief.
While there are some overlapping similarities between a cult and a religion, they are not the same.
In simplistic terms, a cult is where people have extreme dedication and worship a leader, or are controlled by a leader.
Religion is a set of shared beliefs about a supernatural power and is consistent with basic mainstream standards for human dignity.
There are some overlapping characteristics which is why religions are sometimes brushed off as cults, but they are fundamentally different.
From the OU website:
“Rav Belsky, zt”l said that it is unclear whether pizza is a snack or meal food, but noted that the general custom is to say Mezonos when eating a small amount.
It should be noted that if the pizza dough is fully baked prior to adding the cheese (as is the case with some frozen Pizzas) the bracha would be Hamotzi. When the dough is baked alone, its status at that time is Hamotzi, and that does not change when a filling is added.”It seems, that one is allowed to make a Hamotzi if they wanted to, especially if they were to eat the pizza as a meal.
Personally, I try to wash and make an Hamotzi, its not a big deal and gives us an opportunity to Bentch and thank Hashem for all the good that he bestowed upon us.
RW,
“Also do you really mean it that the economy is better or even getting better with rising prices by the day?”
While we may be affected by increased prices for essential items, I am not sure that this is how the economy is measured.
CTL,
As you noted, the solution to grow one’s own food is for those living in suburban areas. It also only applies to those with the skills, capability, and availability of time.
Also, it is not just the potential shortages in food that are causing a price hike. Inflation and increased operational costs, such as increases in fuel prices, increases in shipping costs, and higher pay for operators is also a factor.
Would it really add an hour, or would our clocks read a different time than we would otherwise expect it to read?
It seems that the only things that will be affected are those that are tied to a time, such as normal 9-5 business hours. Otherwise, everything carries on.
Syag,
I think you should have written with no KNOWN exposure to Covid.
Shimon,
“All people are responsible for the sins and crimes of their ancestors so long as they have not taken any steps towards teshuva.”
Can you provide a source for this claim?
Avram,
“What I intended to point out was how coordinated, rapid, and policed this boycott was from the outset and at a point in time when information was more scarce.”
Rapid indeed. So was the Russian invasion and its killing of civilians. The Russians may have been counting on the fact that reaction, at least the reactions that would matter will take some time, and by that time all will be over.
For the reaction (sanction and boycotts) to be effective, they needed to be deployed rapidly.
Russia initially lied to the world when it announced that it has no intention of invading Ukraine and is moving its military away from the border. This was a lie, and likely to avoid any rapid reaction to their offensive.
Some companies are pulling away from the Russian market to avoid being hit with government-induced sanctions. Others to avoid negativity.
Russia is indeed being canceled and the way it APPEARS at this moment, for good reason. As you pointed out, I sure hope that this never gets utilized for other ideologies. But right now, this is not some ideology that people subscribe to, it’s a mass-murdering scenario and needs to be stopped. If these are the means to stop it, it may be worth it.
Lastly, I am sure that it took little convincing for most companies to divest and pull out of Russia, with the tanking and unstable economy, not much business is to be made in Russia at this point. They just run the risk of Russia finding alternative companies to work with, such as Chinese companies.
We cannot have it both ways, we cannot cancel companies for assisting or being contracted by Hitler and yet complain when companies are being pressured to cease doing business with or even in Russia.
There always is the risk that cancel culture may be extended for political and social causes, but that does not mean that using it for evil of such magnitude and extreme, such as killing civilians and hospitals is uncalled for.
Hill of beans,
“Should we also stop the Choson from breaking the glass under the Chupa since there are well documented instances, multiple times, where he cut himself and need to be taken from the chasuna?”
What the Choson chooses to do, especially if there is a minhag associated with his actions is not to compare to placing the Choson on a table throwing him off balance while elevated from the ground putting him at significant unnecessary risk.
“To Mentch:
Um, .5 and .50 are the same amount.”Yeah, that stood out when I was reading it. He probably meant .5 and 0.05 Which is a significant difference.
AAQ
“ But, seriously, let’s share information and think critically together. To your comparisons with smkoers, etc – they are already paying more: medical for smoking and life insurance for obesity, and all pay co-pays. People at fault of accidents – their insurance pays damages and their premiums go up.”
With regards to insurance, I do not think that premiums are linked to peoples behaviors or prior medical conditions. Especially when they are enrolled in company insurance policies.
Better would be, if people are given incentives to lead healthier lives and make better health decisions. Such as reductions in insurance policies for maintaining a good BMI or for being enrolled and actually showing up to gym a couple of times a week. Being fully vaccinated can also be considered, like this the insurance companies will have a healthier customer base, with less expenses.
Its not going to happen, its not how things are set up. But that would be a bit more solution oriented and beneficial to all parties.
AAQ,
Re “nudging”, who is providing guidance to this? Government officials or public health officials?
Syag,
“ wow, sounds like something i said rubbed you wrong”.
Not at all, I was just trying to explain myself, I didnt feel “rubbed” by your polite inquiry.
ubiq,
“I don’t have a solution since Autonomy is critical, and people are allowed to change their minds. But it isnt straightforward .”
-100%, it is very complex and as you mentioned poor decision-making strains the healthcare system and in return, it hurts others that need the system.
This is also a complicated halacha question, do we have autonomy in a religious sense or just in a secular sense? What if someone was diagnosed with a heart attack, the accepted standard of care would be to remove the occlusion, and in return, they are expected to lead an otherwise normal life. However, for some odd reason, the patient refuses further care, which may result in death or permanent complicated heart failure. I believe that such a patient is obligated, in a religious sense to seek the appropriate care.
Prophylactic care, such as acquired immunity (vaccines), has been accepted as a mainstay in medicine. But the Covid19 vaccine is still being worked out, we are not sure how it compares with regards to natural immunity, or those with elevated titers.
Furthermore, if the increased strain on the health care system (partially a consequence of the vaccine mandates, as the already understaffed facilities now had to fire valuable staff) is only temporary, such as until the current wave resides, if hospitalization levels were to fall to acceptable levels, will the mandates be re-evaluated?
Lastly, while I am a strong proponent of any efforts to fight this virus by all means, including vaccinations. Patient (human) autonomy is a very serious matter, I would shudder to think if my consent would not matter if I were to be a patient. This is why I tried making my point that medical-related mandates are dangerous, it’s like a slippery slope, good intentions but hard to draw the line once implemented.
Syag,
” I don’t remember if you mentioned what area of medicine you practice”
-Correct, I don’t believe that an anonymous online post should be based on assumed credentials, for all one knows I spent hours on a post to make it seem as if it was written by someone that deals with medical matters.
I would prefer that my posts should be accepted on the merits of their content, not as if they were written by an authority.
I do the same when I read posts written by other people, I accept the content as is, unless I know the author and respect them as an authority.Reb E,
“It is like children. If they don’t do it voluntarily, they must be forced.”
I am not sure what you are responding or referring to, I have also not read through most of the posts yet.
However, the basic concept of forcing people into a specific treatment goes against the basic individual rights of autonomy. While there has been some legislation in some states with regards to vaccines, in general, it goes against medicine.
Besides, medicine is and science, in general, is evolving, what was believed to be therapeutic in the past, at times after more understanding is now believed to be detrimental, different doctors may have different opinions, so it is understandable that the individual gets to decide on getting treatment or not treated, even when their decision goes against the standard of accepted care, there is no standard that is acceptable when there is no consent from the patient.
With the Covid vaccines, it was initially marketed as something that will make Covid disappear and life will get back to normal, as we knew it. With that pretense, mandates had some context and made sense, because the lack of widespread vaccination meant that the world would be stuck in this state and vaccinating everyone, was the answer to this.
This was a false premise, the vaccines, as it stands today is not capable of eradicating the virus, maybe something will change, a better vaccine or something else may happen, but right now, while the vaccinated in general are fairing better than the unvaccinated, that does not make it more Ok to force people into any specific treatment, even if it is a prophylactic treatment.
If we were to go back to the initial reasons for vaccinating the population, it would be deemed a failure, but its ok, data gets produced, science evolves and we act accordingly, but we need to understand that its still a work in progress, we don’t have all the answers, what we thought would happen, did not happen, so forcing people into something that we haven’t yet figured out, for the mere sake that these individuals will be less likely to have severe symptoms if and when they are infected with Covid, does not make a lot of sense.
-my 2 scents.
Abba_S
Are you implying that there still is some work to be done for EVs to eliminate the potential issues you noted or that we should accept the problems as is and not work ok solving them?
GH,
“ Studies by various public interest groups show that tax compliance among Republicans is much lower than Dems and that over 80 percent of IRS ordered tax refunds for violations of the code come from Republicans (as imputed from FEC reports) .”
-Maybe its due to more Republicans/Conservatives having jobs and businesses, so tax laws and tax crimes are more relevant and prevalent to this political group.
Unommim,
What are your qualifications that should make us dismiss what others are saying?
On a micro level, can install a solar roof or solar pannels with battery packs, this would essentially mean charging your EV off of the sun.
On a macro level, solar panel farms can be created. Some businesses with large open roofs are doing it and selling the solar generated power to energy companies.
There will be those that will focus on problems and those that would focus on creating solutions.
But to remain on topic, all major car companies have designated billions in R&D money for EVs. Because Tesla has shown them that its the way to go.
Phil,
“Producing electricity does not produce less pollution that using gas as an energy choice.”
– Solar energy is free and clean.“ The smartest way to go about burning less fuel is making better hybrid cars. Hybrid cars use about 30-40% less gas than regular cars”
– Hybrid is an old fad, car companies attempted to push it. However, people were not buying it. Unless you suggest forcing people to purchase Hybrid cars, allow the private sector to innovate and develop.The idea of hybrids in the day and age of EVs is silly, essentially installing two a combustion engine and a battery when the current batteries are comparable in range to gas engines is an unnecessary cost.
Abba_S
Your post is full of complaints, it seems that you get your information from random internet sites. I had a Tesla and was very happy with the performance.
There are so many issues with combustion cars, however, because we are used to it, we accept it as is. I know many people that have many issues with their combustion cars, engine and transmission issues. EPA estimates that are far from accurate, etc.
It seems that for some, to accept EVs as the future, or as the current would require a paradigm shift. It has better performance, less mechanical issues, significantly more comfortable ride, one can keep it plugged in overnight and start their day with a full battery, no need to visit the gas station. It can be plugged in while one is at the shopping mall, and full up their battery all while they run their errands. There is so much more.
Abba_S
“These models aren’t cheap a Model S starts at $90K and tops off at $150K while amodel 3 starts at $39k – $50K.”
– Model S is a luxury model, Model 3 base model is 38,690 which is that high. Cybertruck baseprice was said to be at 39k, very reasonable for that size vehicle.
Furthermore, these are the initial rollout cars, with additional competition and innovation prices will likely be even cheaper.” But after 100k miles they can start losing it’s ability to hold the charge so that you will have to charge more often”
– Batteries can be replaced with an estimated cost of 3-7k. If all that needs to be replaced every 100k miles is the battery, that’s not expensive.“A Telsa owner who needed a battery replacement decided to blow up the car rather than pay the $22K to replace it. Which you can google if you think I am making this up.”
– I am sure there are a lot of people that are not happy about any one thing, so finding a story online is not going to change much.“Another problem is how will all these EV battaries get recycled?
– Below is from the Tesla website.What happens to Tesla battery packs once they reach their end of life?
Unlike fossil fuels, which release harmful emissions into the atmosphere that are not recovered for reuse, materials in a Tesla lithium-ion battery are recoverable and recyclable. Battery materials are refined and put into a cell, and will still remain in the cell at the end of their life, when they can be recycled to recover its valuable materials for reuse over and over again.Extending the life of a battery pack is a superior option to recycling for both environmental and business reasons. For those reasons, before decommissioning a consumer battery pack and sending it for recycling, Tesla does everything it can to extend the useful life of each battery pack. Any battery that is no longer meeting a customer’s needs can be serviced by Tesla at one of our service centers around the world. None of our scrapped lithium-ion batteries go to landfilling, and 100% are recycled.
AAQ,
“Even if all of this makes sense, we need to know proportions and where to focus. ”
– Are you referring to the government? at this point, the innovation and acceleration of EVs including the EV charging network has largely been done by the private sector.The rate of acceleration is remarkable and its only going to increase with presence of the large auto makers that have EVs a priority.
AAQ
“that is not true. Powerlines outside of major cities are fragile.”
Solution a. Solar panels with battery packs.
Solution b. Gas powered backup generator.Some of the OPs arguments are based on incorrect facts.
– Currently, EVs have a marketed range of 358 miles, (source Tesla website, model 3).
– Increasing range per charge is not that difficult of a problem to overcome, its just that most people don’t need it.
– Tesla has marketed their upcoming Cybertruck at 500+ miles per charge and hinted at possibly 600+ miles capacity options. Hummer is marketing their upcoming SUVs at 350 miles per charge.
– Superchargers can get you 200 miles in 15 minutes. Hummer claims they will have the capabilities of rapid charging, adding 100 miles in just 10 minutes.
– Power outages, would affect gas stations, as it will affect EV charging stations. Either way, they can focus on solar coupled with battery pack storage.
EVs are here, there are fewer mechanics to break and fix than a combustion engine has. EVs also perform better and have been shown to be reliable.
Furthermore, technology constantly improves, especially if there are profits and competition. There are billions of dollars allocated for R&D, the current EV and charging capabilities by far exceed those of just a few years ago. Based on the rate of development it will only get better.
Its not the future, its the current.