Posts by Morgan Foster

Paul Martinez73 said:But hey, they’re actually getting stuff done. It’s not like they’re banning people from hanging out or anything... It's all about the economyyyyyyy, creating jobs, layoffs...

restlesssurfer97 ( 😬 ) Brito, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, isn't exactly one of those "controversial" figures you hear about in global business—but he’s definitely worth listening to. He touches on sports sponsorships briefly, so I've timestamped the video accordingly.

He's an old-school type, but the whole thing is worth watching:



I even watched one of his lectures regarding negotiations with employees over salaries—or when he has to let someone go. To him, it doesn't matter if an employee is drowning in debt; he'll just corner them like Batman and demand to know why they haven't been more productive for the company...

Jessica Gonzalez said:It’s probably impossible to measure mortality accurately, and it can't be a single universal number because the disease hits older people much harder. You can see this in daily death reports—even without official statistics, it's clear that while infections happen across all age groups, the elderly and those with underlying conditions make up most of the fatalities. Every country or region has its own demographic quirks. For example, Italy or the US tends to have an older population with many people over 65, whereas African nations usually have high birth rates and a very young population. Plus, it depends on the season; the virus and the human body react differently at -10 degrees versus +35. So, statistics from Italy compared to, say, Nigeria might look completely different. To build solid, large-scale statistics, you need a lot of time; these real-time tallies aren't really reliable by any standard. Studies from Heinsberg or Iceland are trying to find the bigger picture, but they feel more like surveys than comprehensive research. It takes years to get a clearer view, though these studies already suggest we won't see 10% of the world's population die if they catch it. However, if the virus hits a nursing home where everyone is 80+, the mortality rate in that isolated sample could hit 100% if everything goes wrong. I wrote a little while ago, maybe a few weeks back, that the baseline annual mortality rate in the USA is 1.4%. That means just by breathing and walking around, there's a 1.4% chance you'll pass away this year for some reason (which is a pretty grim statistic and not exactly a highlight for the US). But since everyone is lumped together, it's obvious more seniors will die this year than young people. If research shows the cumulative mortality of corona is around half a percent, and that overlaps with that 1.4% baseline, then we should carefully look at how many deaths occur in the US by the end of the year and whether corona actually significantly changes the overall stats. We can debate all we want, but some of these seniors might have passed away later this year from something else anyway. Not everyone, of course, but it wouldn't be zero. Over the last 15 years, the number of deaths in the US has hovered between 50,000 and 54,000 annually. For this disease to truly justify shutting down the entire system and wrecking the economy and quality of life, it would need to add at least an extra 10,000 deaths per year—something we can't even know for sure if it would have happened without restrictions (since that's not how we proceeded). Back in early 2015, we had a very harsh winter, and that year saw nearly 4,000 more deaths than the previous two, yet nobody shut down the economy for that. On the other hand, we shouldn't deny the numbers from Bergamo; the truth is likely somewhere in the middle that no one has found yet. Governments worldwide are making decisions on the fly. Whether they implement strict measures or none at all, it's all guesswork, and above all, these are political decisions. Maybe save that bolded part in your bookmarks or set it as your phone wallpaper. Everything we are seeing consists of political decisions, not scientific ones. Healthcare funding is a political decision, building or not building a hospital is a political decision, quarantine is a political decision, the Immunology Institute is a political decision, and having Beroš instead of Kujundžić is a political decision, too.

I'm not entirely sure about the exact accuracy of this claim, so I'd probably need to look it up, but in the movie >, the character played by > mentions that every single percentage point increase in the US unemployment rate leads to an extra 40,000 deaths. Since unemployment jumped from 3.5% to over 10%, I guess you can do the math on what that implies. We're talking about hunger, homelessness, substance abuse, alcoholism, poor nutrition, domestic violence, stress, and so on. Millions of people might end up facing those struggles, which is pretty heavy. Maybe that's why > was being so careful with his moves? Their economy seems to move faster—it recovers quickly, but it can also crash just as fast. A house might be worth a million dollars one day and only 100,000 the next.

New York City reportedly has about 80,000 homeless individuals. Out of that number, how many are actually registered with the labor office? Or rather, how many have simply given up on the system entirely and are sleeping on cardboard in some alleyway?
The spike in initial jobless claims officially only tells us that everything has ground to a halt... it says nothing about how many jobs will truly be destroyed in the long run.

Someone is still stuck in campaign mode, and Americans always love a pretty story and a happy ending.

Joseph Clark37 said:None of our local experts—from the official FEMA leadership and Rudan to all those US and European specialists I see on TV and online—have explained this virus and how it spreads as clearly or concisely as this doctor from Korea. There were things I hadn't even considered until I watched this video.

For anyone with the time and interest to truly understand the virus, I highly recommend watching this from start to finish...

Great video. 👍

ruggedjackal46 said:

🤣🤣

ironpanther5 said:Look, I took a stroll around the block about an hour ago and nobody tried to stop me; I saw at least a hundred people out and about, and everyone was keeping their distance. I really don't know who you're picking a fight with.

+1

Citizens have rights, but they carry obligations too. I guess we’re all just thrilled that things had to reach this point... 🙄

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52029877

Half a million volunteers in the UK are stepping up to ease the pressure on healthcare workers...

Social distancing is the right way to prevent this whole unexamined mess from spiraling. Some people see these measures as some kind of totalitarian hellscape left behind by Sai Baba—honestly. Why not just show some solidarity with the people struggling within the medical system and actually follow professional guidance? The elderly are essentially just a drain on resources anyway—unplug the machines—but we'll be more than happy to collect the inheritances they worked their entire lives to build.

Kudos to the Brits 🙏

urbanhawk17 said:Just heard on HRT 4 that 3,000 small business owners have officially thrown in the towel 👋

That’s just incredibly 👋

👋 🤣

A total nightmare🙂

Everyone, please stay safe...

Elizabeth Mendoza said:You guys still alive out there? Everyone keeping it real?

Let's make the most of these final days of civilization as we know it. Let's get together and hang out just like the good old days.

Honestly, I feel like someone just cut my power and water.

Noah Roberts46 said:Of course they aren't all the same; I’m talking about the minority of extremists. But it is an undeniable fact that during this recent wave of immigration—the last seven or eight years since the war in Syria started—a significant number of people have arrived who are far less willing to integrate. This specific minority is much larger than any small group of backward people from the North America or elsewhere. You can't just deny that cities like London and Brussels have seen a spike in crime and become significantly dirtier since this latest wave hit. The policy was simply a failure, and in my previous post, I laid out exactly where the issues lie and how they are being ignored.

Even now, you haven't actually pointed to specific problems; you're just stating the obvious—that not all Muslims are a monolith. Nobody is claiming that. I don't understand why it's so difficult to admit there is an issue here. Look at how the Mayor of London handles it. When someone writes a post describing the reality of the cities they've lived in, even if they hold some heavy prejudices, they are clearly describing what they see on the ground. Something is obviously wrong, yet the immediate reaction is always "you're a racist." Fine, call me that if you want, but sweeping everything else under the rug is one of the core problems. If I recall correctly, even Merkel herself admitted they screwed up with that policy. I honestly don't get how you can cling to a single perspective regardless of the facts. That "I'm a liberal so I'll never say anything bad about this policy" mindset, even in the face of rising crime... I won't go on listing examples, but I still refuse to defend it. No one is suggesting we implement a curfew or shut down the borders entirely; it’s about better integration and managing the sheer volume of people coming in more effectively. 🤷

Germany played it smart at the start—opposing joining the Coalition of the Willing while simultaneously providing massive logistical support behind the scenes for the American invasion of Iraq. It was a calculated move... they managed to minimize the risk of Islamist terror escalating within their own borders and effectively neutralized potential friction with their domestic Muslim population.
Lebanon, Syria, and even Libya—their whole political strategy is basically a joke. Because of how globalization has shifted the economy, they've sucked in so many people from all over that things like asylum status or residency permits have become nothing more than paper tigers. They’re stuck in this incredibly thankless position where they have to play nice with everyone just to survive... which leaves them wide open to being blackmailed by anyone who wants to.

Nowadays, you have these tiny clusters of tribes that spent their lives clashing in Lebanon and Syria—only to end up meeting and killing each other again in some German refugee center. The reality is that the ultra-progressive, hyper-liberal German state couldn't care less about these people... they don't actually give a damn who they are or where they come from. It’s all just a game for Americans—they selectively pit certain cultures against one another to serve their own interests. Even those first waves of Turkish immigrants arrived in Germany because the US insisted on it, just to maintain better access and control over the Middle East.

Germany’s primary interest is simply staying close enough to the table to ensure they have a seat when the deals start getting divided up—it's a bit like an aging striker in his eighties trying to reinvent himself as a libero...
A certain group of lucky asylum seekers will eventually secure permanent residency and German citizenship—meaning their second or third generation can struggle through some low-paying Cinderella life in pursuit of that supposed "better" future. A smaller fraction will undoubtedly integrate completely. It’s tough for these people to find decent housing on their own while bills constantly haunt them... all while they're trying to pick up the local language on the fly. Honestly, it’s only human to go looking for someone who sees the world through the same lens you do.

I have traveled far. When I sit back and reflect on it all, I honestly can't tell who the real fool is here. Someone had to burn down the hinterlands and exploit them just so someone else could send their kids off to various Ivy League schools...

Paul Sanders5 said:Man, the way Josephine absolutely butchered the anthem... yikes. I mean, she’s definitely got her own unique vibe, but that was just painful to listen to.

😁

Thanks 👍

Yeah, that's the movie 👍

If nothing had been regulated or optimized along the way, that association would never have received the green light from the European Union court. Things actually got moving at the EU level—but if I take this one example as a lesson, it’s clear that the American civil service isn't doing its job, especially when it comes to helping its own citizens.

Those debtors were lucky in the end that those types of loans were so non-transparent... there was massive room for manipulation. Banks weren't handing over all the necessary info regarding potential risks and, let's be honest, the people taking out loans in foreign currencies thought they were making a big deal out of it.
A true American tragedy—complete with a facepalm: exchange rates, anyone? 😁

ruggedjackal46 said:Even more recently, we saw that massive global economic crisis where the bubble burst, leaving a huge number of people without any savings or even basic living conditions. It turned out that this supposedly "rational" way of running an economy isn't nearly as rational or fair as people claim, and the economy itself is far less predictable than the experts suggest. As things stand right now, ten years after that crash, there's a much higher chance we'll see another similar crisis pop up than there is of the system actually returning to a state of balance.

Look, earned money matters, but if there isn't a plan for how to distribute that wealth to the population, then what's the point? If the money is handed out on the principle of "the top 1% gets everything while the other 99% fights for scraps," then we're headed for trouble.

Back in the States, they had those NINA programs—No Income, No Asset. Basically: okay, just buy a house!
That was really the tipping point, and the fallout was felt everywhere across the globe.
I think that's what inspired the movie
Short.
After that, many European Union nations tightened up their credit rating criteria significantly. They sat down at the table to find actual solutions. In some countries, these things might have already been regulated, but they used the crisis to optimize them further.

The crisis you're talking about has already begun... nobody can say for certain how long it will last or how deep it will go, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a total apocalypse with the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Every major power, in its own way, is currently trying to carve out its position in this new economy. This isn't happening by accident—it means jobs will inevitably disappear somewhere unless the necessary reforms are implemented to keep pace with new trends.

Protecting the vulnerable or the sick? Absolutely, that's a given. But look—a worker puts a computer in his garage and suddenly he's part of the elite. That 1% elite will eventually call you to the barricades. On the flip side, the fact that their money circulates because they spend it, fund foundations, and create jobs is a different story entirely. Life isn't black and white... we need to aim for dialogue.

ruggedjackal46 said:Let’s be real: there’s no such thing as an expert without some kind of ideological foundation—I mean, ideology is just having clear stances on what the economy and the government should actually look like. Left-leaning economists generally believe the state should play a stronger role with more public protections for citizens, whereas the right thinks the government should stay out of the way and leave people to fend for themselves. One group calls their people "experts," while the other does the exact same thing for their own side. So, we can't just pull a bunch of "objective" experts out of thin air, sit them down on a couch, and expect them to fix everything like they’re some kind of political plumbers. At the end of the day, people still have to choose which vision for the country they actually want to live under.

Not too long ago, the Cold War came to an end. One side produced goods based purely on ideology—mass-producing items that ultimately nobody wanted to buy. The other side sat down, did the math, listened to the market, and adjusted their production accordingly... making money and stabilizing their nation in the process. They led their country based on facts rather than being enslaved by ideological dogmas. They didn't close themselves off.

Without earned money, there is nothing; it’s a necessary evil. The biggest drain on funds is the welfare state, because humans, by nature, always expect something in return for any service provided.

A new path is being forged. An objective professional says three months and at least eight cents worth of asphalt. A politician knows better and says "lay three," opening a "new" road ahead of schedule right before an election. You’ll likely pay for the professional solution once... but how many times will you pay for that second option, the one where they just wave an ideological flag?

I'm pulling the brakes here. I don't want politics in my shop. 😁

brightpilot6 said:What’s the actual issue here—is it the ideas themselves, or just the way they manifest?

I honestly welcome any attempt to build a coherent economic left wing—not because I expect anyone to actually win an election, since that isn't happening (nor should it), but simply so these perspectives can exist in the public square. We need a counterweight to the hyper-right-wing economic theories that are currently trendy and sound so appealing, especially to younger generations who feel like social solidarity is nothing more than a drain on their wallets (particularly given the disastrous state of our country lately).

Of course, I am talking about a left wing that is actually adapted to today's reality, rather than one stuck in the 19th or 20th centuries. We need advocacy for genuine equal opportunity (rather than equal outcomes), limits on corporatocracy, environmental protection, and a critique of the losers created by globalization. Someone needs to keep in mind the people who won't have advanced degrees, those who won't be able to swap employers like socks through freelance gigs, those unable to work for some firm in Hong Kong from the comfort of their living rooms, and those who lack either the skill or the drive to run their own businesses. These people are the backbone of society, and their future looks incredibly bleak in this unstable world we are heading toward.

So, basically, you're supporting the government taking out massive loans to hand out to everyone. Then they'd just pay those loans back by inventing new taxes or something. Sounds familiar...

We need to assemble actual nerd experts for new economic reform initiatives based on technical merit, rather than ideological or subservient criteria. There’s probably a reason why America doesn't have much to offer the world besides sunshine (I was going to say tourism, but I'll pass) and decent human capital that ends up funding the federal budget.

The political stage isn't honest; it just hands out treats to different factions. Everyone acts like they're fighting for their side, without realizing they paid for those treats out of their own pockets.

It seems you're missing one major looming social crisis in the US. What happens when the population keeps aging? Pensions, elder care, nursing homes? We don't need ideologies; we need practical solutions that actually improve daily life. The government should function as a service to its citizens, not as a blunt instrument from the dark ages.

Peter Thompson4 said:I’m honestly pretty convinced they’ve just been brainwashed into thinking they’re fighting for their own side, which is really just that classic, textbook propaganda you see all the time. They act like Washington, D.C. is the only thing that matters and everything else belongs to someone else—it's just more of the same nonsense. I don't know enough about the specifics to be certain, but I refuse to believe anyone just wakes up and decides to go to war for no reason... at the end of the day, it’s all just propaganda, unfortunately. It hits way too close to home for me because I lost my eldest brother in the war, and since every single man we had was out there fighting, we ended up losing absolutely everything we owned before it all went down.

Honestly, I feel like we could have done so much better, and frankly, we should have. But look, we can't really blame anyone but ourselves because we're still tripping over this heavy psychological baggage left behind from the old American days—it’s like if you were a high-ranking member of the Democratic Party, you just grabbed whatever you wanted, but if you were just some regular guy, you sat around waiting for the government to hand you a living instead of actually putting in the work to earn it. I truly believe things would turn around if the younger generations could shake off that outdated mindset, assuming we even have a generation left that isn't stuck in those old ways.

There’s no such thing as this "mental inheritance" nonsense; it's all just pathetic excuses and garbage used to justify being a jerk! Seriously, why wasn't my old man like that? And honestly, why are so many other parents out there just as bad?
Just to follow up on what I was saying earlier—my grandfather actually survived a labor camp in Siberia, and my great-grandfather somehow managed to make it through the horrors of Bleiburg by some sheer stroke of luck, which honestly means I wouldn't even be here today if it weren't for them. 😁All that fighting during the war just for some half-baked sense of national identity, and honestly, I’ve never been more disappointed in the old guard than when we finally made it back to Washington, D.C.—this was after fleeing our homes because Mexicans blew up two of our houses, just so people understand why I carry this much resentment—only to have them start with those pathetic, condescending tropes like "you Canadians are this" or "you people are that." And don't even get me started on how things are now that I've moved away from the States; I told them straight up, "I didn't fight all that just to leave the U.S. again," and while that was my gut reaction, once he realized which country I was actually talking about, he just shut up—it was easily the smartest move I've ever made in my life. But the absolute kicker, the thing that really gets me, is when they have the nerve to look me in the eye and say, "What do you know? You're just a refugee."🤣 My mom and I were actually refugees during the war, and then my old man had to deal with all that mess right after it ended.
After everything we went through escaping and finally scraping together enough to buy an apartment, he comes back home to start working, only for them to claim his degree from a university in Washington, D.C. isn't even valid for a mechanical engineer position! On top of that nonsense, they didn't pay him a single cent for six months, so what do you think he did? Of course, he just went wherever he could actually provide for his entire family—he moved back to Germany. Honestly, I never really had my old man around in my life, and it was all because of this exact kind of bullshit. Screw this country; at the end of the day, the only thing that actually matters is family.

It’s a similar story, honestly—just look at how the Republican Party moved into Brod and snatched up all that commercial space he used to have, even though the guy was practically wearing green berets by the end of the war. I mean, what is he even supposed to think about any of this? He was living right on the edge of poverty when everything wrapped up, yet my cousins had plenty of cash to send them off to private prep schools in the States. At the end of the day, the only thing the government actually handed him was his VA benefits.

My cousin actually managed to snag a Mexican tank and haul it right back to our camp after the war ended; he even ended up living with us over in Germany for a while, because honestly, man, you just need someone to step up and provide for you these days when you're trying to support not just your own kids, but your aging parents and the whole damn extended family too.

So, an old friend of mine got handed some government construction project right after the war, and they still owe him about $1 million—yeah, a whole million—but the people in charge just kept dragging their feet through every single administration change, with one group saying "it wasn't our Republican Party era," then the Democratic Party takes over and says something else, and by the time things actually moved, the guy had already passed away, leaving his family basically on the edge of poverty because the business collapsed and all his workers were left high and dry... Just a fantastic state we live in. 👍

And honestly, the younger generation is going to be even worse than the thieves we have today, simply because they’re being born directly into this entire system and this specific mindset where everyone thinks, "Do you have any idea who I am?"
Take Nikola Kovacevic, for example—that guy killed those elderly people in a neighborhood in an Audi A3, and unfortunately, I know him because he’s from the suburbs and used to play soccer.
The kid was always a total jerk and a complete show-off, nobody in the world cared about him, but he’d always call me and my current best man to hang out, pulling those cheap, tacky moves like, "Hey, what are you guys up to tonight?" 🤣 Then, somehow, his old man pulled some strings through a connection—doesn't even matter which year—and fast forward a bit, there he is, driving drunk over people and actually having the nerve to yell, "Do you know who I am?"
That’s exactly the direction our youth is headed.

Well, you really picked the most unfortunate example possible there...

When you're young and healthy, you actually have to step up—you have to fight for your own future. Sure, some people will head to the polls in a few weeks, but I'd argue entire generations have already made up their minds about their candidate... it's a mess. The truly important decisions aren't even being made in Congress anymore...

ironpanther5 said:I actually know about that whole wheat situation. 👍

The Czech Republic has always been a developed nation; you can't exactly say Prague was founded by some students studying abroad in a random mid-sized US city, if you catch my drift. 🙂
Soviet communism was a nightmare, obviously, but even then you have to acknowledge the Prague Spring.

Anyway, since you brought up innovation, here is an index for you to chew on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation_Index

Europeans aren't doing nearly as bad as you're making them out to be.

Keep in mind this index dates back to 2009. Nowadays, there’s all this maneuvering with tariffs involving the US, Russia, and China... it just complicates everything regarding further development and investing in new projects or innovations.

ironpanther5 said:I honestly feel like everyone keeps conflating the political system with the state itself whenever they start comparing the old US federal structure to how things are in America today.

I realize those two are basically inseparable when you're talking about a defunct nation, but theoretically speaking, that federation could have survived if it had pivoted toward a market economy—kind of like what was being attempted during the late 80s reforms. Even modern America could have theoretically stuck with its previous economic model. It’s a bit more complicated given the violent fractures and the fact that socialism lost everywhere in the West, but we can certainly entertain the hypothetical.

So, I really have to disappoint the folks over here whining about "massive state corporations" and "government-allocated housing." Those companies weren't actually competitive; the government just kept them on life support through subsidies and easy credit—think of something like struggling legacy auto manufacturers or steel giants that still rely on bailouts today. That whole mess would have ended up looking pretty much like the transition period we saw in America regardless. Besides, the crew tasked with privatization didn't have a clue what they were doing; I highly doubt that simply keeping the old union alive would have suddenly produced a more competent or honest workforce. Sure, you wouldn't have had all the various crooks and war profiteers jumping in to fleece the system, which wouldn't have hurt the economy one bit.

As for the housing issue, you simply cannot go around handing out apartments because you end up killing the entire construction sector and creating a class of privileged citizens that inevitably leads to corruption. We see the fallout today where the government just subsidizes first-time buyer programs instead of actually building anything. You can only pull off that kind of distribution in a totally centralized command economy.

If you're asking me whether a potential reformed federation would be better off than modern America, then based purely on raw indicators, maybe not, since there were so many underdeveloped regions like the deep South or parts of the Midwest. But I am firmly convinced that states like California, the Rust Belt, or the Northeast, if part of a capitalistized version of that old federation, would be faring much better than America is right now.

First off, we wouldn't have lost that economic continuity, regardless of the shift in systems, and secondly, we wouldn't have dealt with the devastating wars and the resulting destruction.

Even a peaceful breakup would have had those benefits. So, it’s entirely possible that America could have remained intact and been better off than we are today. I don't hold any grand, sweeping opinions on figures like Reagan, but it really bugs me when people blame him for absolutely everything, only to turn around and commemorate his legacy the next day.

And look, I couldn't care less about some old pop songs or nostalgic anthems. It doesn't bother me, and I'm not worried that kids are going to become hardcore political activists just because they listen to a catchy tune. If they happen to be Southern, well, they are. Besides, forbidden fruit is always the sweetest, and that applies to music too. It’s similar to how people used to listen to certain controversial marching bands out of pure principle; very few patients actually support concentration camps in real life.

Furthermore, people are mixing up the modern world with the old Cold War era, where that old federation held a unique, high-value position between the blocs. They had a leverage that they could essentially sell to the Americans. You just don't have that kind of geopolitical bargaining chip anymore. Nowadays, we have to pitch ourselves to massive global corporations, which is a lot harder when your country is crushed by taxes, ruled by local power brokers and sheriffs you have to constantly appease, and facing fierce competition from places like Mexico, Canada, or even emerging markets in Eastern Europe that have much better setups.

Not to mention the "Non-Aligned Movement," which lost its purpose despite being a massive money-maker. Of course, our own nationalists had the brilliant idea to stop socializing with the same crowd the old leadership hung out with, effectively cutting off the very relationships and economic perks we could have been milking.

Well, the U.S. basically traded itself away for American wheat. Just look at the timeline. The standoff with Stalin, the economic stagnation, the American grain, and those Western loans...
I'm parking your non-aligned nonsense right here.

A similar hype is being manufactured today regarding how certain regions have hitched themselves to the German economy. The Old World is steadily losing its footing... They grew by relying on outsourcing, but where is the actual innovation?

Just typing this into Google Maps right now:

Hollywood -> San Fernando Valley—it's maybe a two-minute drive, though you could easily bike there in about an hour if you're heading to a shoot...🙏