Bye Bye Assad

[WyattEarp]

Yes.
Because the majority of the west has free and accessible healthcare.
The US doesn't.

I think that is a leap and faulty understanding of U.S. healthcare. First and foremost, the poor are and always covered by Medicaid. Medicare kicks for everyone regardless of income at 65.

The health issues from obesity don't get you deeply in need of the healthcare system until your later years.

You might remember I posted the study that low income Mexican-Americans fare much better than low income African-Americans with their health throughout their lives. It did not support the idea that the U.S. healthcare system or poverty were behind bad health outcomes.

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

I think that is a leap and faulty understanding of U.S. healthcare. First and foremost, the poor are and always covered by Medicaid. Medicare kicks for everyone regardless of income at 65.

The health issues from obesity don't get you deeply in need of the healthcare system until your later years.

You might remember I posted the study that low income Mexican-Americans fare much better than low income African-Americans with their health throughout their lives. It did not support the idea that the U.S. healthcare system or poverty were behind bad health outcomes.

Except the definition of poor is relegated to the dirt poor.
When in reality even someone with a 6 figure salary can quickly get bankrupted even while being insured.
What you say looks good on paper.
Not in practice.
My criticism stands.

 

[Insidious Von]

You wonder if he transferred his billions to Russia or he already had them in Switzerland. He'll be safe in Russia unless some guy from Chechnya will kill him.

Russia is 15% Muslim, someone will take him out.

Not sure how this thread moved to health but I'm glad to help. To eat/live better I've put a video with Jacques Pepin in the Food Thread.

 

[mandrill]

Anyone who’s been to a mall in buffalo does not need to go to a zoo to look at hippos anymore


• USA: The obesity rate among adults is approximately 42% (based on CDC data for 2017–2020). Severe obesity is also more common in the U.S. than in Canada.


• Canada: The adult obesity rate is lower, around 27%, according to the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS, 2021).

True. My sister lived in South Carolina for a few years - aka the Land of the Endless after Church Sunday Brunch Buffet. It was the Fatso Confederacy!

 

[WyattEarp]

Except the definition of poor is relegated to the dirt poor.
When in reality even someone with a 6 figure salary can quickly get bankrupted even while being insured.
What you say looks good on paper.
Not in practice.
My criticism stands.

Your criticism is merely an opinion. The well-worn hypothesis that U.S. obesity is linked to our healthcare system is very easy to test against various groups. Linking obesity to the healthcare system is merely propaganda for those who advocate for universal healthcare.

Childhood obesity is the problem and that goes back to diet, exercise and uncomfortably the subject of parenting. Chubby twelve year-olds don't need a lot of medical care. Fast forward fifty years and they do.

Now I actually know from a doctor friend who works part-time in an inner city clinic that doctors do consult with the parents and children on obesity to much avail. Go to an inner city 7-11, hang out for awhile and you will learn far more about obesity than you know now.

 

[mandrill]

Russia is 15% Muslim, someone will take him out.

Nyet. He's going to be assigned some protected dacha somewhere secluded and secret. The only person he has to be worried about in his new homeland is Vladimir.

 

[mandrill]

You wonder if he transferred his billions to Russia or he already had them in Switzerland. He'll be safe in Russia unless some guy from Chechnya will kill him.

They've always been in Switzerland, I would guess.

The sudden death rate among ME politicians is very, very high. A man needs to take precautions.

 

[mandrill]

It's possible but not necessary.

In any event, the Turks kind of play both sides in the region. I doubt they ever close off their airspace to Russian transport planes.

He was headed due north and not east via Iraq and Iran.

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

Your criticism is merely an opinion. The well-worn hypothesis that U.S. obesity is linked to our healthcare system is very easy to test against various groups. Linking obesity to the healthcare system is merely propaganda for those who advocate for universal healthcare.

Childhood obesity is the problem and that goes back to diet, exercise and uncomfortably the subject of parenting. Chubby twelve year-olds don't need a lot of medical care. Fast forward fifty years and they do.

Now I actually know from a doctor friend who works part-time in an inner city clinic that doctors do consult with the parents and children on obesity to much avail. Go to an inner city 7-11, hang out for awhile and you will learn far more about obesity than you know now.

The healthcare system does not cause obesity.
There are a variety of causes for obesity. Diet is just one of them.
And obesity is not the only health issue facing people today.
So disproportionately focusing on childhood obesity and diet while ignoring issues with healthcare affordability and accessibility is merely an attempt to distract from actual issues.

 

[Insidious Von]

In regards to what's been posted.
In a perfect world Charles Barkley would be President.

 

[WyattEarp]

I was wondering what the play was here… This is what I could figure out.



Regime change! It’s always about the theft of resources and control of power structures.
Who benefits???

Erdogan wants to resurrect the Turkish empire.

Israel wants the Golan Heights and greater Israel.

Qatar and the multinational companies operating there want a gas pipeline through Syria, and what the multinationals want they must get.(The US/NATO wants Qatar gas pipeline through Syria and Turkey for Europe.)

Assad was in their way!

What is happening in Syria is not a civil war. It is a regime change, similar to what occurred in Libya.

The ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists have been recycled and legitimized as the 'Syrian opposition'. Of course, like in any country, there is some genuine opposition in Syria, but it is significantly small...

...Its cause has been hijacked by the terrorists which are sponsored by the West, Israel, Turkey, and some Arab regimes aligned with the US.

The onslaught on Syria is being presented as a civil war pitting the Assad regime and the 'opposition'. There is no legitimate opposition to Assad, at least not that significant.

The most probably plot is all engineered by the CIA, Mossad, and other Western spy agencies in response to the crumbling of Western world order which is being challenged worldwide. In the ME it is being opposed by Iran and its allies, in Europe by Russia, and Asia by China and NK.

The primary goal of the US, Israel, Erdogan, and the Sunni regimes intervention in Syria:

1. Turkey wants to seize territory from Syria and use it as a buffer zone against Kurdish fighters. HTS has already started a war against the Kurds in the north. One could say that the Kurds are the big losers in this fight.
2. The Americans' strategy in the ME also includes the engineering of an alliance of Sunnis and Israel to form a NATO-like entity to protect American, Israeli, and Sunni regimes' interests in ME.
3. Turkey, NATO, and Israel want to divide Syria. They want to keep the areas that have oil and fertile lands. The oil and grain will be divided among US, Turks and Israelis
4. Turkey, the US, Israel, and Qatar want gas and oil pipelines to feed energy to Israel, Turkey, and Europe. The US will eliminate Russia as an energy supplier to Europe, permanently, with pipelines going through Syria and Turkey.
5. Israel wants to seize more land from Syria as a buffer against the new government in Syria as insurance in case the Jihadists won't turn against Israel, in the future. This is the excuse to be used. However, the land seizure from Syria is for the Greater Israel project.
6. The US/Israel also seek to erode the influence of Russia and China in the Middle East by striking a blow at the resistance in that region and forcing the Russians to leave. The US/NATO will try to use Syria as a bargaining chip to resolve the Ukraine crisis.
7. Another objective of the decapitation of the resistance is to weaken the BRICS too, stop its expansion, and reverse the de-dollarization.
8. By weakening the resistance to US/Israeli hegemony in the Middle East and subsequently weakening Iran's allies in the region and after these allies are rendered harmless, war against Iran will begin.
9. With the fall of Syria, Lebanon will fall. Iran will lose two valuable allies in the fight against Israel. Israel will regain security after having subdued the Palestinians, Lebanon (Hezbollah) and Syria. The transfer of weapons and manpower from Iran to Hezbollah will be affected.
10. Saudi Arabia and other ME countries will be forced to establish diplomatic relations with Israel and made to join a NATO-like entity, under the control of Israel, all under the US umbrella. Those Arab countries that joined the BRICS will be ordered to exit and must adopt the US dollar and their currency.

When the dust settles, the Americans will have total control of the energy in the ME to feed Europe.

This removes Russia permanently as an energy supplier. Such an outcome will also allow the US to blackmail other energy-dependent countries such as India, China, and others.

Once the ME is stable and secure, the US will pivot to Asia to do to China what has been done to Russia, using Taiwan.

The Losers in this crisis will be Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Russia, China, BRICS, Iraq, and to a certain extent Yemen.
.........
In a nutshell, this crisis is bigger than Syria. It has worldwide ramifications.

There are a more insightful takes here than more rambling geopolitical narratives. I would warn anyone against predicting the domino effect to such specificity. When Russia attacked the Ukraine in 2022 and Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 was anyone predicting this would lead to the fall of Assad.

I have no doubt the West and various regional powers have interests in Syria. It's however possible that a chaotic situation has merely reduced Russia and Iran's influence in Syria without immediate benefit to the West, Israel, Turkey and Qatar. Dominoes in geopolitics don't always fall in a straight, predictable line.

Now I have said that, I think you are trying to paint the fall of Assad in far too broad strokes. You are overstating its global importance and kind of digressed into an anti-Western rant.

First if Russia and Iran are losers, their power and influence has been sliding for some time regardless of what happened in Syria.

Syria is not a resource-rich country so the West and Israel divvying up the spoils is more imagination than reality. Grain production will struggle to feed the local population that could increase if Syrians return to their country. The West will likely be helping to feed Syria for quite some time.

BRICS really has absolutely nothing to do with Syria. Without going into a lot of economics, BRICS is another loose global entity with a a lack of cohesion and power to accomplish major goals. De-dollarization is merely a buzz phrase that is far more complicated than we want to conduct trade in this currency or that one. (It's not lost on many of us that BRICS was coined by a Goldman Sachs economist in New York City.)

Lastly, China plays very little into the developments in Syria and lost nothing unless you're trying to play the global game of Risk by Parker Brothers.

This comment deserves special attention because it makes no sense whatsoever. "This removes Russia permanently as an energy supplier. Such an outcome will also allow the US to blackmail other energy-dependent countries such as India, China, and others."

The Russian energy might suffer some, but it doesn't give the U.S. any leverage over China and India. Oil and gas are fungible. Russia will look to China and India to purchase more energy just as they have been since the Ukrainian War. The movement of the energy trade will just shift around presuming a Qatar-Turkey-Europe pipeline is brought onstream.

 

[WyattEarp]

The healthcare system does not cause obesity.
There are a variety of causes for obesity. Diet is just one of them.
And obesity is not the only health issue facing people today.
So disproportionately focusing on childhood obesity and diet while ignoring issues with healthcare affordability and accessibility is merely an attempt to distract from actual issues.

I am sure you are worried about childhood obesity because that is a convenient distraction from the real problem - the lack of access to and affordability of healthcare in the US.

I can only respond to people's posts. Perhaps we are in agreement that obesity and the healthcare system are not tightly correlated. However, the healthcare system ultimately deals with chronic illnesses related to obesity.

 

[mitchell76]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1865434273953509462

Opposition fighters in Syria, in an unprecedented move, have totally taken over numerous cities, in a highly coordinated offensive, and are now on the outskirts of Damascus, obviously preparing to make a very big move toward taking out Assad. Russia, because they are so tied up in Ukraine, and with the loss there of over 600,000 soldiers, seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years. This is where former President Obama refused to honor his commitment of protecting the RED LINE IN THE SAND, and all hell broke out, with Russia stepping in. But now they are, like possibly Assad himself, being forced out, and it may actually be the best thing that can happen to them. There was never much of a benefit in Syria for Russia, other than to make Obama look really stupid. In any event, Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!

 

[dirtydaveiii]

How exactly does that all work? I ask because to truly understand this topic you can't get it from a five minute read in a media piece.

It's pretty simple really, instead of giving trillions in tax cuts to the rich who don't need them, you spend money on health care. While it's not perfect, it does ensure a lower mortality rate and better standard of living for all people not just the rich

 

[Insidious Von]

It's pretty simple really, instead of giving trillions in tax cuts to the rich who don't need them, you spend money on health care. While it's not perfect, it does ensure a lower mortality rate and better standard of living for all people not just the rich

Not going to happen, oligarchs rule?!

This sucks, where's FoxNews?

 

[mandrill]

x.com

x.com

Syria: Major General Ali Mahmoud found shot dead in his home in Damascus countryside. He was the deputy commander to Bashar's younger brother Major General Maher Assad in the 4th Armored Division, responsible for chemical weapons war crimes against the Syrian people.

Dudes be gettin' snuffled.

 

[mandrill]

 

[Gators]

His father was very brutal and he would never let countries like Iran Russia determine the future of one of the oldest countries in the world. Good luck Syria chaos and mayhem will follow you for many generations

 

[dirtydaveiii]

I agree the U.S. has an obesity problem. I don't think it's as simple as blaming fast food, additives, etc.

Certain groups are prone to obesity. It's a lack of walking and exercise. It's a separation with our past food culture. There's a parenting aspect to this as well. Some of it is the relative affordability of certain unhealthy items that were a "treat" in an earlier time and now are common everyday consumption..

We weren't allowed to drink sugary drinks every day. We didn't have liter and a half sodas. We weren't given ice cream and dessert every day. It's not as complicated or diabolical from a societal neglect POV.

PS- RFK has some good points about our food supply. I just don't know if this will be popular with the people who stand to benefit the most.

Everything is so salty and sugary in the US its ridiculous. The portion sizes in North America are disgusting. It's virtually impossible not to consume a huge amount of carbs. I'm not sure why Canadians aren't lard asses like Americans but it could be our ethnic diversity and better education which teaches more about eating properly and physical education

 

[jsanchez]

There are a more insightful takes here than more rambling geopolitical narratives. I would warn anyone against predicting the domino effect to such specificity. When Russia attacked the Ukraine in 2022 and Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 was anyone predicting this would lead to the fall of Assad.

I have no doubt the West and various regional powers have interests in Syria. It's however possible that a chaotic situation has merely reduced Russia and Iran's influence in Syria without immediate benefit to the West, Israel, Turkey and Qatar. Dominoes in geopolitics don't always fall in a straight, predictable line.

Now I have said that, I think you are trying to paint the fall of Assad in far too broad strokes. You are overstating its global importance and kind of digressed into an anti-Western rant.

First if Russia and Iran are losers, their power and influence has been sliding for some time regardless of what happened in Syria.

Syria is not a resource-rich country so the West and Israel divvying up the spoils is more imagination than reality. Grain production will struggle to feed the local population that could increase if Syrians return to their country. The West will likely be helping to feed Syria for quite some time.

BRICS really has absolutely nothing to do with Syria. Without going into a lot of economics, BRICS is another loose global entity with a a lack of cohesion and power to accomplish major goals. De-dollarization is merely a buzz phrase that is far more complicated than we want to conduct trade in this currency or that one. (It's not lost on many of us that BRICS was coined by a Goldman Sachs economist in New York City.)

Lastly, China plays very little into the developments in Syria and lost nothing unless you're trying to play the global game of Risk by Parker Brothers.

This comment deserves special attention because it makes no sense whatsoever. "This removes Russia permanently as an energy supplier. Such an outcome will also allow the US to blackmail other energy-dependent countries such as India, China, and others."

The Russian energy might suffer some, but it doesn't give the U.S. any leverage over China and India. Oil and gas are fungible. Russia will look to China and India to purchase more energy just as they have been since the Ukrainian War. The movement of the energy trade will just shift around presuming a Qatar-Turkey-Europe pipeline is brought onstream.

You're giving too much credit to Addict2Putin, all he does is copy/paste from other sites without linking to the source.