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From The Mises Institute:
Financial statements of the US Federal Reserve, which consists of the board of governors in Washington and twelve district reserve banks across the country, indicate that the consolidated system has generated both capital and operating losses for the past couple of years. The Fed was created in 1913 to issue and circulate an “elastic currency” that could respond to consumers’ demand for cash, end bank runs known then as “money panics,” and serve as a “lender of last resort” to the nation’s commercial banks. How is it possible that the Fed could be losing money after one hundred years of operation?
The debate has raged in the banking and finance communities. Two investigators, Paul Kupiec at the American Enterprise Institute and Alex Pollock at the Mises Institute, have analyzed Fed financial statements and presented their findings about these Fed losses in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and on the websites of the American Enterprise Institute, the Mises Institute, the Federalist Society, and Law and Liberty. The Wall Street Journal has produced a nontechnical video explaining how the Fed makes (and loses) money.
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Economics
From American Thinker:
When the last PA counties finally posted information into the SURE registration system (at the end of January 2021), V.V. determined that there remained a voter deficit of 121,000. Using my audit experience, I extensively tested the V.V. analysis, and I found it to be logical and completely accurate. A voter deficit existed, and the election should not have been certified.
The exact amount is not entirely clear because, magically, 30,000 more voters materialized (without explanation) six months after the election. Yes, the number of voters had grown by the time PA issued its “2020 General Election Report” on May 14, 2021. That is the reason I reported a deficit of just 90,000 in my book, Debunked. Although I suspected that the 30,000 increase in voters was a “plug” entry, I generously assumed that it was some sort of legitimate error correction made by PA. Either way, however, the voter deficit exceeded Biden’s winning margin.
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Summary via Quillbot:
The New York Times reports that Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden without any evidence of financial wrongdoing or corruption. However, overwhelming proof of Biden's corruption and wrongdoing has been found, including written records and corroborated testimonies from first-hand witnesses. At least 12 sets of documented facts leave no reasonable doubt that Biden participated in his son's illicit businesses deals, bribed foreign officials, and obstructed justice. Three major defenses of Biden are demonstrably false: 1) "Don't Mention Joe": Joe Biden claimed he had nothing to do with his son Hunter's business dealings and never even spoke to Hunter about them; 2) "A Chairman's Role": In 2023, the business partner who was on the receiving end of the "Don't mention Joe" message stated that the American people don't fully appreciate yet the key role Joe Biden played in the Biden family global influence peddling; and 3) "The Big Guy": In May 2017, the same partner who wrote "Don't mention Joe" sent an email to Hunter and two of their other partners proposing how the "equity" of a joint venture with a Chinese energy company named CEFC would be distributed.
Joe Biden's involvement in the Ukraine bribery scandal is evident in emails he sent to Hunter and his partners. These emails contained cell phone numbers of 25 high-level officials, which were given to Hunter while he was being paid by Burisma to lobby U.S. officials to protect Zlochevskyi from the law. Biden attacked the "key targets" named by Burisma, including the highest level of decision-makers in Ukraine and the "Prosecutor General." He withheld a U.S. billion-dollar loan guarantee unless the state prosecutor was fired, and the replacement prosecutor agreed to "close down" all cases against Zlochevskyi's in exchange for paying back taxes and penalties. Some argue that Joe Biden had nothing to do with the emails, but the court order obtained by Shokin's office to seize Zlochevskyi's lands and houses two weeks before his forced resignation disproves this. The Biden camp's criticism of Shokin was triggered by Hunter and his company lobbying the State Department to protect Burisma, cloaking their actions with attorney-client privilege.
Read the full article (over 4,000 words long) with all the links and primary sources here:
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As promised, Nyxified, here is my rough draft for the debate:
TITLE:
IID: On Balance, It Makes More Sense To Classify Woman-Self-Identifying Transgenders as Women
STANCES:
PRO shall only argue that it makes more sense to classify woman-self-identifying transgenders as women
CON shall only argue that it does not make more sense to classify woman-self-identifying transgenders as women
* * *
DEFINITIONS:
TRANSGENDER: of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity differs from the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth
WOMAN: an adult female person
CLASSIFY: to consider someone as belonging to a particular group
* * *
RULES:
1. Burden of Proof is shared.
2. No Ignoratio Elenchis.
3. No trolls.
4. Forfeiting one round = auto-loss.
_____________________________
Schematics for debate:
- 25k characters
- 1 month for response
- Judged by Whiteflame, Sir.Lancelot, Savant, and whomever else we both agree upon by unanimous consent (and assuming they agree to it).
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Miscellaneous
From Freespoke News:
According to the Yahoo News Canada article, they don't believe the hackers were working for the Russian Government but, honestly, why don't they?
Russia is known for having NGO hacking groups that raise money for the government by selling and extorting botu personal data and government data. So why not even suspect it? As usual, the government didn't provide any evidence for their assertions oncwhat was even hacked, so we don't even know if it happened. But just figured this was worth bringing up.
Louisiana and Oregon are the only states that we know of so far that civilians were affected, so it might be a good idea to freeze your funds or get new cards and such.
The Department of Energy and several other federal agencies were compromised in a Russian cyber-extortion gang's global hack of a file-transfer program popular with corporations and governments, but the impact was not expected to be great, Homeland Security officials said Thursday. - Yahoo News Canada (middle)
The Cl0p ransomware syndicate behind the hack announced last week on its dark-web site that its victims, who it suggested numbered in the hundreds, had until Wednesday to get in touch to negotiate a ransom or risk having sensitive stolen data dumped online. - Los Angeles Times (left)
But for others among what could be hundreds of victims from industry to higher education — including patrons of at least two state motor vehicle agencies — the hack was beginning to show some serious impacts. - Fortune (right)
According to the Yahoo News Canada article, they don't believe the hackers were working for the Russian Government but, honestly, why don't they?
Russia is known for having NGO hacking groups that raise money for the government by selling and extorting botu personal data and government data. So why not even suspect it? As usual, the government didn't provide any evidence for their assertions oncwhat was even hacked, so we don't even know if it happened. But just figured this was worth bringing up.
Louisiana and Oregon are the only states that we know of so far that civilians were affected, so it might be a good idea to freeze your funds or get new cards and such.
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Howie Carr Show (Original Source):
Tefft, a graduate of Berklee College of Music in 2015, recently moved to Nashville to pursue her career in music. A Cape Cod native, Tefft still sees Massachusetts as her home. She’s been called a “phenomenon” by the Boston Globe and was also praised by Matty in the Morning on Kiss 108.But after singing the national anthem at an event hosted by a certain former president, Carly Tefft’s performances were cancelled at Harvest Gallery in Dennis, MA. Her presence was called “threatening” and her name on the live music schedule was likened to lewd art.
Daily Mail (Right Wing):
A restaurant in Cape Cod allegedly canceled performances from rising country music star Carly Teftt after she sang the national anthem at a Donald Trump rally in April.Earlier this week, Tefft spoke with radio host Howie Carr after she received a call from the owner of Harvest Gallery - a restaurant and bar in Dennis, Massachusetts that features art and music - who told her he was canceling her future appearances at the venue due to 'controversy.''He thought that his customer base would feel - he used a very specific word - threatened,' she said.
I couldn't find a left-wing source on this...
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No. I didn't permanently leave. Life just got super busy and I had to drop my debates mid-debate.
Anyways, just thought I'd announce my return in case anybody cares. I hope the same people that were active when I left are still active!
I see we have a much broader membership now and I heard we were invaded by ChatGPT at one point???
What did I miss in the last few months?
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[DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT LOOKING FOR CUSTOMIZING MY YOUTUBE HOMEPAGE. THAT DOESN'T WORK FOR ME FOR SOME REASON. I ALREADY TRIED THIS MULTIPLE TIMES.]
I really love the idea of YouTube, but the content on there is mostly bullshit clickbait lists, pop culture drama, liberal news, and stupid marketing pitches for movies and products.
I was wondering if there was a website that is just like YouTube that only has intellectually enriching content.
I know about JoVE and Osmosis, which are cool, bur I'm looking for a catch-all. Not just visuals of science experiments on fringe topics or just stuff related to the human body. I am looking for a YouTube that is only educational, informative, and intellectually stimulating content for adults.
I also know there's documentary websites, but I am looking for more than documentaries. I literally am looking for a YouTube for educational and thought-provoking content.
I don't even care if it is just a special feed of YouTube videos or content in general, I just want something where educational, informative, and intellectually stimulating content is recommended for me.
Any ideas? I've scoured the internet and all I could find was stuff for children and preschoolers. So any help would be appreciated 👍.
Thanks in advance!
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I would like to be CON.
STANCES:
STANCES:
PRO Shall Only Argue That Four Doses Of The Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine DOES Provide Better Immunity From COVID-19 Than Natural Immunity Over The Course Of A Healthy Human Being With No Comorbities's Lifetime.
CON Shall Only Argue That Four Doses Of The Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine DOES NOT Provide Better Immunity From COVID-19 Than Natural Immunity Over The Course Of A Healthy Human Being With No Comorbities's Lifetime.
* * *
DEFINITIONS:
All terms shall first be defined from Merriam Webster's Medical Dictionary available here:
And if Merriam Webster's Medical Dictionary cannot provide a definition, then Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary available at merriam-webster.com will be used for all other words.
Specific definitions for debate:
COVID-19: SARS-Coronavirus-2019 and all variants.
Natural Immunity: immunity from COVID-19 that does NOT come from vaccines. Does NOT include "partially-vaccinated" individuals. Only those with no COVID mRNA vaccine of ANY kind.
Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine: Only the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine that was approved by the FDA for Emergency Use (e.g. the one given EUA authorization by the FDA).
mRNA vaccine: Only the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine that was approved by the FDA for Emergency Use (e.g. the one given EUA authorization by the FDA).
* * *
RULES:
1. Burden of Proof is shared.
2. No Ignoratio Elenchis.
3. No trolls.
4. Forfeiting one round = auto-loss.
I would like you to set up the debate so I am properly the contender and not going first. Since you disagreed with me on my original debate with Intelligence_06, I would like you to state your case first.
If you think your case is completely airtight, then you have nothing to worry about by going first. After all, you do have a degree microbiology and are a medical researcher.
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Society
Merry Christmas DebateArt!
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DebateArt.com
TRUTH COPS
Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation
By Ken Klippenstein, Lee Fang
The Intercept
...In retrospect, the New York Post reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 election provides an elucidating case study of how this works in an increasingly partisan environment.
Much of the public ignored the reporting or assumed it was false, as over 50 former intelligence officials charged that the laptop story was a creation of a “Russian disinformation” campaign. The mainstream media was primed by allegations of election interference in 2016 — and, to be sure, Trump did attempt to use the laptop to disrupt the Biden campaign. Twitter ended up banning links to the New York Post’s report on the contents of the laptop during the crucial weeks leading up to the election. Facebook also throttled users’ ability to view the story.
In recent months, a clearer picture of the government’s influence has emerged.
In an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in August, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook had limited sharing of the New York Post’s reporting after a conversation with the FBI. “The background here is that the FBI came to us — some folks on our team — and was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election,’” Zuckerberg told Rogan. The FBI told them, Zuckerberg said, that “‘We have it on notice that basically there’s about to be some kind of dump.’” When the Post’s story came out in October 2020, Facebook thought it “fit that pattern” the FBI had told them to look out for.
Zuckerberg said he regretted the decision, as did Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter at the time. Despite claims that the laptop’s contents were forged, the Washington Post confirmed that at least some of the emails on the laptop were authentic. The New York Times authenticated emails from the laptop — many of which were cited in the original New York Post reporting from October 2020 — that prosecutors have examined as part of the Justice Department’s probe into whether the president’s son violated the law on a range of issues, including money laundering, tax-related offenses, and foreign lobbying registration.
Documents filed in federal court as part of a lawsuit by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana add a layer of new detail to Zuckerberg’s anecdote, revealing that officials leading the push to expand the government’s reach into disinformation also played a quiet role in shaping the decisions of social media giants around the New York Post story.
According to records filed in federal court, two previously unnamed FBI agents — Elvis Chan, an FBI special agent in the San Francisco field office, and Dehmlow, the section chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force — were involved in high-level communications that allegedly “led to Facebook’s suppression” of the Post’s reporting.
The Hunter Biden laptop story was only the most high-profile example of law enforcement agencies pressuring technology firms. In many cases, the Facebook and Twitter accounts flagged by DHS or its partners as dangerous forms of disinformation or potential foreign influence were clearly parody accounts or accounts with virtually no followers or influence
In May, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt took the lead in filing a lawsuit to combat what he views as sweeping efforts by the Biden administration to pressure social media companies to moderate certain forms of content appearing on their platforms.
The suit alleges governmentwide efforts to censor certain stories, especially ones related to the pandemic. It also names multiple agencies across the government that have participated in efforts to monitor speech and “open collusion” between the administration and social media companies. It identifies, for example, emails between officials from the National Institutes of Health, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Zuckerberg at the beginning of the pandemic, and reveals ongoing discussions between senior Biden administration officials with Meta executives on developing content moderation policies on a range of issues, including issues related to elections and vaccines.
Attorneys for the Biden administration have responded in court by claiming that the plaintiffs lack standing and that social media firms pursued content moderation policies on their own volition, without any “coercive” influence from the government. On October 21, the judge presiding over the case granted the attorneys general permission to depose Fauci, CISA officials, and communication specialists from the White House.
While the lawsuit has a definite partisan slant, pointing the finger at the Biden administration for allegedly seeking to control private speech, many of the subpoenas request information that spans into the Trump era and provides a window into the absurdity of the ongoing effort.
“There is growing evidence that the legislative and executive branch officials are using social media companies to engage in censorship by surrogate,” said Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, who has written about the lawsuit. “It is axiomatic that the government cannot do indirectly what it is prohibited from doing directly. If government officials are directing or facilitating such censorship, it raises serious First Amendment questions.”
During the 2020 election, the Department of Homeland Security, in an email to an official at Twitter, forwarded information about a potential threat to critical U.S. infrastructure, citing FBI warnings, in this case about an account that could imperil election system integrity.
The Twitter user in question had 56 followers, along with a bio that read “dm us your weed store locations (hoes be mad, but this is a parody account),” under a banner image of Blucifer, the 32-foot-tall demonic horse sculpture featured at the entrance of the Denver International Airport.
“We are not sure if there’s any action that can be taken, but we wanted to flag them for consideration,” wrote a state official on the email thread, forwarding on other examples of accounts that could be confused with official government entities. The Twitter representative responded: “We will escalate. Thank you.”
Each email in the chain carried a disclaimer that the agency “neither has nor seeks the ability to remove or edit what information is made available on social media platforms.”
That tagline, however, concerns free speech advocates, who note that the agency is attempting to make an end run around the First Amendment by exerting continual pressure on private sector social media firms. “When the government suggests things, it’s not too hard to pull off the velvet glove, and you get the mail fist,” said Adam Candeub, a professor of law at Michigan State University. “And I would consider such actions, especially when it’s bureaucratized, as essentially state action and government collusion with the platforms.”
“If a foreign authoritarian government sent these messages,” noted Nadine Strossen, the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union, “there is no doubt we would call it censorship.”
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Georgia GOP Poll Worker and Her Son Allegedly Kicked out of Polling Location After They Look Up Her Social Media
By: Jack Davis
The Western Journal
One unabashedly conservative Georgian’s exercise of her freedom of speech appears to have been too much to take for the Fulton County Board of elections.
Laura Kronen of Johns Creek fired off irate Twitter messages saying that she and her son were bounced from their poll worker jobs because of her social media posts.
Fulton County representative Regina Waller said two poll workers were “relieved of their duties due to questionable social media posts,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Waller did not name names or provide details confirming that Kronen was the dismissed worker she was referencing.
Based on Kronen’s description of the alleged violating tweet, it appears she was referencing the following tweet:
Fulton County representative Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez framed the issue differently than did Kronen.
She said a poll worker raised concerns on Monday over “comments made by another poll worker during a virtual poll worker event Sunday and on social media.”
The secretary of state’s office also had some issues on Tuesday, resulting in the two poll workers being dismissed.
In a video of a confrontation between Seth Weathers, a former state coordinator for former President Donald Trump who has been calling attention to Kronen’s plight, and authorities, one of the men summoned to escort Kronen can be heard saying, “they do not want a disturbance.”.
The original tweets and more are available in the original article:
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According to CNN:
As Donald Trump inches closer to launching another presidential run after the midterm election, Justice Department officials have discussed whether a Trump candidacy would create the need for a special counsel to oversee two sprawling federal investigations related to the former president, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.The Justice Department is also staffing up its investigations with experienced prosecutors so it’s ready for any decisions after the midterms, including the potential unprecedented move of indicting a former president. Top aides to Trump have been eyeing the third week of November as an ideal launch point for his campaign, with two sources telling CNN on Friday morning that the team has specifically discussed November 14.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/03/politics/doj-trump-investigation-expansion-special-counsel/index.html
Special investigations into political opponents? Indicting the opposition? This isn't democracy. This is tyranny. Biden is officially a dictator.
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(The Center Square) – When Eastpointe residents criticized Mayor Monique Owens in a Sept. 6 city council meeting, she claimed the residents were “assaulting” her.
Now, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that defends free speech, filed a federal lawsuit accusing Owens of “abuse of authority.”
Video shows Owens repeatedly interrupting and silencing constituents at the podium expressing support for Councilman Harvey Curley, who has been involved in an ongoing dispute with Owens.
Mary Hall-Rayford, a community activist, former chaplain, and school board member who attempted to speak at the meeting, said that residents have a "right to complain."
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Links in article:
Video: https://youtu.be/AwayVxBb01w
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Politics
Democrat Poll Worker Ejected After Caught Electioneering & Preselecting ‘Straight Dem. Ticket’
Election Administrator Pushes for Prosecution
by Tony Kinnett
November 6, 2022
A Democrat poll worker, James Zheng, was ejected from a Carmel, Indiana, polling location Thursday evening following complaints of electioneering and election interference, election administrator Beth Sheller told Chalkboard Review. Sheller said that voters and volunteers who identified this individual directly interfered with the voting process.
Zheng was accused by local voters of telling black voters “…not to vote for the racist candidates outside” indicating a group of pro-parent candidates (beyond the electioneering boundary) running for school board in the Carmel-Clay school district, Sheller said. Two of the voters complained about this act of electioneering to the pro-parent school board volunteer Rhonda Kuchik outside, who told Chalkboard Review she then reported this to the local inspector.
According to a press release by the Hamilton County GOP and confirmed by the election administrator, James was told by the inspector not to return Friday or Monday to the early voting center set up at Mercy Road in Carmel. In a later November 6 statement released on social media, Zheng denied these allegations.
Additionally, Sheller confirmed another report that Zheng took a voter to the voting machines and, under the guise of “explaining the voting machines” preselected a straight-Democrat ticket for the voter. Several voters complained to the local election judges and inspector of Zheng’s actions, the inspector reporting some “didn’t know how to change it back,” Sheller said.
Zheng later claimed in a statement on November 6 “The Inspector did not name me as the person who did that.”
Sheller indicated to Chalkboard Review that she hopes he is prosecuted for both aspects of alleged misconduct. “I have never seen anything like this,” she said.
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Politics
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Sean Patrick Maloney admitted defeat in his reelection bid to the House Tuesday.
Maloney, a five-term incumbent, conceded to Republican candidate Mike Lawler Wednesday morning, having been trailing him in the polls by 6%, according to multiple reports. He was running in New York’s newly-drawn 17th Congressional District, covering Rockland County and parts of Westchester County, which includes many affluent suburbs, and is the congressional district of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Maloney’s status as DCCC Chair, placing him in charge of winning House elections for Democrats and a senior member of the party’s leadership, makes the loss a significant blow to the House Democratic Caucus.
Earlier in the year, Maloney had been expected to easily be reelected to his New York seat regardless of House Democrats’ prospects, with his district having a Cook Partisan Voting Index Score of D+8 in 2021.
The certainty of Maloney’s win was in question, however, after Cook rated the seat as a Toss Up, despite having a Cook PVI score of D+3 in 2022 and voting for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election by a margin of 10%.
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Politics
As Murders Soar, FBI Buries the Data
By James D. Agresti
November 4, 2022
Based on a misunderstanding of new FBI data, NewsNation is reporting that 14,677 murders occurred in the U.S. during 2021, a supposedly large decline from 2020. In reality, that figure is far from complete, and comprehensive records from death certificates show that about 24,493 people were murdered in 2021. This is about:
- 1,000 more murders than in 2020.
- 6,000 more murders than in 2019.
- 10,000 more murders than NewsNation reported.
Murders have become so common over the past two years that if the murder rate remains at the 2021 level, one out of every 179 people in the U.S. will eventually be murdered. Yet, certain politicians and media outlets are downplaying this bloodshed, while others are blaming it on Covid—a claim at odds with the facts.
A major source of confusion about this issue is the FBI, which is releasing fragmentary and inaccessible data on murders and other crimes. The FBI is part of the U.S. Department of Justice, which is under the authority of President Biden. . .
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Current events
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Cult: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious (Merriam Webster's online dictionary).
Spurious: outwardly similar or corresponding to something without having its genuine qualities : FALSE (Merriam Websters online dictionary)
The Catholic Church has a history of teaching heresy, and still teaches heresy, about the Pope, fasting, church authority, and church history and many foundational beliefs about Christianity.
For starters, the Catholic Church believes and teaches that the Pope is the head of the church.
As the Catholic Apologist website Catholic.com explains:
We have shown in the last section that Christ conferred upon St. Peter the office of chief pastor, and that the permanence of that office is essential to the very being of the Church. It must now be established that it belongs of right to the Roman See. The proof will fall into two parts: (I) that St. Peter was Bishop of Rome, and (2) that those who succeed him in that see succeed him also in the supreme headship. [1]
This has major Scriptural problems for clear reasons, mainly:
"For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body." - Ephesians 5:23
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. - Colossians 1:18
"and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;" - Colossians 2:20
But they also inaccurately claim that Peter is the foundation of the church:
The word for Peter and for rock in the original Aramaic is one and the same (N~D); this renders it evident that the various attempts to explain the term “rock” as having reference not to Peter himself but to something else are misinterpretations. It is Peter who is the rock of the Church.[1]
There's one problem with this... Peter himself never even claimed this about his position in the church:
4And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by people, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 5you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For this is contained in Scripture:“BEHOLD, I AM LAYING IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNERSTONE,AND THE ONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME.” 7This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for unbelievers,“A STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED,THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE,” 8and,“A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE”; - 1 Peter 2:4-7
Here Peter himself calls Christ the cornerstone of the church. If Peter believed he was the foundation of the church, then why call Jesus the cornerstone? It is because Peter knew that Jesus, not himself, was the foundation of the church.
Moreover, Paul also calls Jesus the foundation of the church:
10According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. 11For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 3:10-11
So both Peter and Paul agreed that Jesus, not Peter, was the foundation of the church. This, therefore, means the Catholic Church believes heresy about Papal supremacy and Peter's divine placement as the foundation of the church.
But not only do they err in papal supremacy, they also do not adhere to church tradition regarding sola scriptura.
Catholic.com explains:
A Catholic would not use the term sola scriptura—which is historically contentious and highly prone to misunderstanding—but he certainly can agree that the basic facts of the gospel and how to respond to it can be derived from Scripture. A Catholic would add that these facts need to be understood in the light of Sacred Tradition and that the Church’s intervention may be necessary to make sure they are understood correctly.[2]
Here, again, Catholics invent their own doctrine that simply was not to be found when Christianity was founded.
In Against Heresies, a work that Catholics have extremely high regard for, Irenaeus, who was an actual student of a pupil of John the Apostle, says that the Scriptures are the ultimate authority for doctrinal matters:
Suppose there arise a dispute relative to some important question among us, should we not have recourse to the most ancient Churches with which the apostles held constant intercourse, and learn from them what is certain and clear in regard to the present question? For how should it be if the apostles themselves had not left us writings? Would it not be necessary, [in that case,] to follow the course of the tradition which they handed down to those to whom they did commit the Churches? - Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 4 paragraph 1
So in the case of disputes, Irenaeus makes it clear that the early church sought THE WRITINGS OF THE APOSTLES to settle them before any sort of oral tradition. They didn't rely on oral tradition to interpret these writings. They went to the writings themselves and interpreted them on their own merit.
This is a fact that is also confirmed by Clement of Rome, who lived at the same time as the Apostles. Catholics also believe he is the second Pope after Peter:
The apostles have preached the Gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so] from God. Christ therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and established in the word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first-fruits [of their labours], having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe. Nor was this any new thing, since indeed many ages before it was written concerning bishops and deacons. For thus saith the Scripture in a certain place, “I will appoint their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in faith.” - Epistle To The Corinthians, Chapter 42
So here Clement states that the order of authority in the church is first God, then the Apostles, and THEN the deacons and bishops. So it follows from this that the writings of the Apostles, by the Apostles' very nature of superceding those left after them, supercedes the teachings of those who followed them.
This is why Irenaeus says that the church first consults the writings of the Apostles when controversy strikes. So the concept of Sola Scriptura is actually the true tradition.
Catholics also teach many other peculiar beliefs such as prayer to the saints, abstaining from meat, and other false doctrines that are not to be found anywhere in the early Christian writings as proper doctrine.
Therefore, the Catholic Church is a cult.
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Religion
"U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials were alerted that they spread misinformation about child COVID-19 deaths but still did not issue corrections, according to emails obtained by The Epoch Times.
Drs. Katherine Fleming-Dutra and Sara Oliver were told within days of presenting to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, in June that statistics from a preprint study they shared were wrong, the emails show. But after internal discussion about how to respond, neither the CDC nor the officials corrected the false information.
Fleming-Dutra and Oliver both referenced the study, which has not been peer reviewed, while the CDC’s advisers weighed whether to recommend the agency grant emergency authorization for COVID-19 vaccines for babies and toddlers.
The committee ultimately recommended the CDC authorize Pfizer and Moderna shots for children as young as 6 months of age and the CDC quickly accepted the recommendation.
A week later, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky appeared to cite the false statistics while urging parents to get their children vaccinated, despite no evidence the vaccines protect against severe illness and despite the clinical trials returning substandard or unreliable results for shielding against infection."
***THEY SHOW THE EMAILS IN THE ARTICLE***
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Current events
Have you all found that debating on this site has helped you all become better debaters outside of the website?
Are you able to demolish all your friends in debates and stuff? Do they all assent to your superior skillz?
Or has this website not really transferred over into the real world?
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DebateArt.com
The United States just joined a coalition of 60 partners, including 55 countries in signing a declaration call the "Declaration for the Future of the Internet."
According to the declaration, the 60 partners will "Protect and strengthen the multi-stakeholder approach to governance that keeps the Internet running for the benefit of all."
If you're familiar with the World Economic Forum, a stakeholder is someone who has benefit from something, as opposed to a customer who buys and uses the product. So this new internet will protect governments and other stakeholders and not their citizens.
The declaration also states:
"In signing this Declaration, the United States and partners will work together to promote this vision and its principles globally, while respecting each other’s regulatory autonomy within our own jurisdictions and in accordance with our respective domestic laws and international legal obligations."
This was supposedly to counter "a trend of rising digital authoritarianism where some states act to repress freedom of expression, censor independent news sites, interfere with elections, promote disinformation, and deny their citizens other human rights."
So... It takes authoritarian censorship to stop... authoritarian censorship?
Yeah... That'll uphold people's freedom of expression and rights...
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Current events
I think it would be pretty cool to see how peoples' Elo ratings changed over time. Like, to see when people grew the most and other such things. IDK I think this would be a fascinating little statistic to look at.
Is this possible to implement?
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DebateArt.com
"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating innovation, implementation and acceptance of molecular therapeutics (e.g. mRNA vaccines) globally. As a result, there is escalating interest in developing molecular interventions for many other conditions, such as gene therapies for genetic diseases. Strategically leveraging infrastructure that is being developed for molecular therapeutics will be critical in manufacturing, testing, and delivering gene therapies across diverse settings.
Three critical areas of consideration include:
- Repurposing manufacturing infrastructure developed during the pandemic to produce gene therapies. This approach will lower costs and accelerate implementation by maximizing use of existing facilities and workforce.
- Extending the current national policies governing molecular therapies, which were rapidly developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, to include gene therapies. Where gene therapy policies do not exist, governments should create accelerated pathways to efficiently evaluate and approve these advanced medicines.
- Educating patients, healthcare providers and funders on the value and impact of treating lifelong genetic diseases with gene therapies. This education should include upskilling healthcare providers to be familiar with gene therapy-specific processes, including safe product handling, treatment infusion and patient monitoring post procedure."
Source: Gene therapy can make a real impact on global health but we need equitable access, say experts
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Current events
Seriously is it just used to inflate a person's debate score?
Is it so people can troll like no tomorrow?
Why do it?
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DebateArt.com
After two of my votes were reported and removed, I just figured I had no idea how voting worked on this site because I am newer and only ever voted on DDO. I figured with time I would figure it out and also had a lengthy conversation with whiteflame about how to properly vote on this site.
But now that Undefeatable, Oromagi, Vici, and others who have come to be known as staples on this website have also had their votes reported and removed, I am beginning to suspect that nobody on this site other than the mods can actually come away with understanding the voting policy clear enough to cast a proper vote for a debate.
I think a very straightforward, detailed rewriting of the Voter Policy covering what is and is not proper for each voting category -- based on a pre-defined, agreed-upon standard -- would make a HUGE difference and give mods time to engage in more pressing matters than constantly having to review and remove votes and then debate with users over whether there was vote manipulation from the removals or not and other things related to people casting their ballots.
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DebateArt.com
The simple fact of the matter is a fetus is a living human being.
For starters, all of the biological markers for life are pregnant at fertilization. (1)
Furthermore, the fetus has a complete genetic code. (2)
The overwhelming majority of biologists, even liberal pro-abortion ones, believe that human life begins at conception. (3)
Therefore, it is a human being in the earliest stages of life. Biologists and scientific studies both agree to this.
Moreover, abortion is a very dangerous procedure for the women involved, with approximately 10% of women having immediate complications from an abortion. (4)
Furthermore, a 1997 study in Finland found that women who aborted their baby are significantly more likely to die within one year than pregnant women who carried their baby to term. (4)
Additionally, two Denmark studies in 2012 that followed the entire female population of women in Denmark found that women who aborted their baby were significantly more likely to die within 10 years than women who carried to term, and also found that the risk of death INCREASES with every abortion. (4)
So not only does abortion kill the baby, it also is dangerous to the woman having an abortion.
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Politics
Supreme Court Allows Health Plans to Limit Dialysis Benefits
September 14, 2022, Report#: LSB10819
By Jennifer A. Staman, Legislative Attorney
"This past term, the Supreme Court issued a variety of impactful decisions in the health care arena, including some that affect coverage and reimbursement for health care services under federal programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. Among these decisions is Marietta Memorial Hospital Employee Benefit Plan v. DaVita, a case about the intersection of Medicare and employment-based health benefits for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). In DaVita, the Court held that an employer-sponsored health plan could limit benefits for kidney dialysis services without running afoul of the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) statute, a provision designed to reduce Medicare spending by moving health care costs from the Medicare program to private payment sources. This Legal Sidebar provides background on the MSP statute, discusses the Court’s decision in DaVita, and concludes with selected legal considerations for Congress."
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Politics
Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons
July 20, 2021 – September 12, 2022 IF11882
The DOD has a number of DE development programs underway, requesting at least $669 million in FY2023 for unclassified DE research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) and at least $345 million for unclassified DE weapons procurement. For additional information about specific U.S. DE weapons programs, see CRS Report R44175, Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Gun-Launched Guided Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke, and CRS Report R45098, U.S. Army Weapons- Related Directed Energy (DE) Programs: Background and Potential Issues for Congress, by Andrew Feickert.
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Technology
Abstract
Designed and engineered protein and DNA nanopores can be used to sense and characterize single molecules and control transmembrane transport of molecular species. However, designed biomolecular pores are less than 100 nm in length and are used primarily for transport across lipid membranes. Nanochannels that span longer distances could be used as conduits for molecules between nonadjacent compartments or cells. Here, we design micrometer-long, 7-nm-diameter DNA nanochannels that small molecules can traverse according to the laws of continuum diffusion. Binding DNA origami caps to channel ends eliminates transport and demonstrates that molecules diffuse from one channel end to the other rather than permeating through channel walls. These micrometer-length nanochannels can also grow, form interconnects, and interface with living cells. This work thus shows how to construct multifunctional, dynamic agents that control molecular transport, opening ways of studying intercellular signaling and modulating molecular transport between synthetic and living cells.
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Science and Nature
Smoking Gun: Newly Discovered Emails Confirm Joe Biden Obstructed Justice For His Son’s Foreign Business Deal
By James Agresti
August 2, 2022
Overview
Newly discovered emails prove beyond all doubt that the “true purpose” of Hunter Biden’s lucrative deal with a Ukrainian energy company was for Hunter to get “high-ranking US officials” to visit Ukraine and persuade the nation’s leaders to “close down” all criminal “cases/pursuits against” the firm’s primary owner, a notoriously corrupt oligarch with ties to Russia.
Documentation of this illegal scheme begins with a widely overlooked email on Hunter’s laptop in which a top executive of the Ukrainian firm describes the plan. Now, emails uncovered by Just Facts prove that Hunter and his partners:
- explicitly agreed to this deal.
- concealed the names of top U.S. officials to “be on the safe and cautious side.”
- affirmed that only Hunter could credibly promise to get those officials to shield the oligarch from criminal charges.
Just one month later, then-Vice President Joe Biden did exactly what those emails specified by visiting Ukraine and threatening to withhold U.S. aid unless the prosecutor investigating Hunter’s cash cow was fired. Moreover, Biden did this by going after two “key targets” identified in the emails: the “President of Ukraine” and the “Prosecutor General.” . . .
Read more:
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Politics
Selected Human Rights Issues
Under Xi’s leadership, China has further restricted and suppressed civil society, religious groups, human rights defenders, speech, and academic discourse. The government has enacted laws and policies that enhance the legal authority of the state to counter perceived ideological, social, political, and security threats. It has closed much of the space that had previously existed for limited social activism, such as that relating to environmental issues, women’s rights, and gay rights. In 2021, the government widened the tightening of freedoms to include some relatively non-political entities, such as tech giants, private education companies, and social media influencers.
The Department of State’s annual report on human rights practices states that in 2021, “[PRC] authorities continued to impose ever-tighter control of all print, broadcast, electronic, and social media and regularly used them to propagate government views and CCP ideology.” The PRC government oversees one of the most extensive and stringent internet censorship systems in the world, which includes blocking major U.S. news and social media sites and censoring domestic social media platforms. In 2021, PRC authorities blocked Signal, a U.S.-based messaging app popular with Chinese social activists, dissidents, and journalists. PRC internet platforms have censored online criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and disseminated pro-Russian views and misinformation about the war. An online video (“Voices of April”) compiling audio recordings of people describing the severe 2022 Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown in Shanghai circulated widely before authorities blocked it.
According to the Department of State, “[PRC] law grants public security officers broad administrative detention powers and the ability to detain individuals for extended periods without formal arrest or criminal charges” and police target lawyers, human rights activists, journalists, religious leaders and adherents, and former political prisoners and their family members for arbitrary detention or arrest. The nonprofit Dui Hua Foundation has compiled over 7,600 cases of political and religious prisoners in China as of June 2022. PRC leaders long have asserted that human rights standards vary by country, and that a country’s human rights policies are an “internal affair.” In 2021, the PRC government released a white paper on China’s democratic development that emphasized “material and cultural prosperity” when referring to human rights.
Religious and Ethnic Minority Policies
In 2016, Xi Jinping launched a policy known as “Sinicization,” by which China’s religious and ethnic minorities are required to “assimilate” or conform to majority Han Chinese culture as defined by the CCP and adhere to “core socialist values.” The PRC government has implemented policies in Tibetan areas, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia requiring that nearly all primary school courses be taught in Mandarin rather than in minority languages. Since 2018, new regulations require religious organizations to obtain government permission for nearly every aspect of their operations, submit to greater state supervision, and register all clergy in a national database. The government has continued to pressure unofficial Christian congregations to register with the state and to persecute practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual exercise. The State Department has designated China as a “Country of Particular Concern” for “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-292) in every annual designation list since the law’s passage.
Authorities have carried out coercive assimilation and employment in Tibetan areas, including by “forcibly resettling and urbanizing nomads and farmers, weakening Tibetan-language education in public schools, and weakening monasteries’ role in Tibetan society,” according to the Department of State. The PRC government insists that Chinese laws, and not Tibetan Buddhist religious traditions, govern the process by which lineages of Tibetan lamas are reincarnated, and that the state has the right to choose the successor to the Tibetan spiritual leader, the 87- year-old 14th Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India.
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Politics
Scientific Survey Shows Voters Across the Political Spectrum Are Ideologically Deluded
By James D. Agresti
April 16, 2021
Results by Ideology of Falsehood
Among questions in which the wrong answers accorded with partisan agendas, an average of 57% of answers were liberally misinformed, while 28% were conservatively misinformed. In other words, voters were twice as likely to believe certain progressive myths than conservative ones.
For all 10 of the questions in which the electorate was most deluded, the wrong answers they gave concurred with progressive narratives propagated by the media. Moreover, the false answers they gave were often far removed from reality, not just slightly mistaken. For example, 66% of voters thought that doubling the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour would raise the average income of families in poverty by 25% or more. The real figure is about 1%.
Results by Politics, Age, and Gender
The survey also recorded voters’ ages, genders, and who they voted for in the presidential election. This allows the survey to pinpoint the segments of society that are most and least informed about specific issues. The sample size of third-party voters were too small to produce meaningful data.
The results show deep partisan and demographic divides, with different groups being more or less knowledgeable depending upon the questions.
On average, the rates at which voters gave false answers varied from 61% for Biden voters to 42% for Trump voters. From worst to best, the false answer rates for the various groups are as follows:
- 61% for Biden voters
- 56% for 18- to 34-year olds
- 53% for females
- 51% for 35- to 64-year olds
- 51% for 65+ year olds
- 49% for males
- 42% for Trump voters
All of the questions, the correct answers, and the full survey results and methodologies are detailed below. The survey was conducted on November 4–11, 2020.
SOURCE (and questions with the proper answers and how people responded):
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Politics
One thing that was so great about DDO for many years, though not toward the end, was that there were a crapton of active accounts and these accounts debated issues from all over the interests map. Science, religion, politics, public policy, philosophy, cars, etc.
This website seems to have, like, 12 or 14 active members on it, maybe slightly more, at any one given period of time. And most of the debates are the result of extreme echo chambers or forfeits and defaults, rather than engaging debates that merit voting.
This website is also seems to be prone to having new accounts of people who log in once and then never log in again, or stop after 2 or 3 days total.
So I propose that we all share the forum posts, debates, and more on Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Like, make engaging posts on those platforms that make others check out the website and then some will explore it and want to make new accounts.
This way, even if the accounts are temporary, there will always be a new onslaught of them, and, over time, it will raise the total amount of active accounts and create a much bigger active userbase.
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DebateArt.com
POTSDAM, Germany — Climate change may be the cause of rising tensions and hate speech online, according to new research. Study authors from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research say incidents soar by more than a fifth when the temperature rises.
Global warming is getting people hot under the collar during conversations on social media in particular. Temperatures above 86°F show a consistent link to this phenomenon. The study authors say this applies to all climate zones irrespective of socioeconomic differences such as income, religious beliefs, or political preferences.
The findings, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, have implications for social cohesion, suggesting there will be more aggression and violence unless greenhouse gas emissions fall dramatically. Scientists used a computer neural network to analyze four billion tweets from users in the United States.
“People tend to show a more aggressive online behavior when it’s either too cold or too hot outside,” says study first author and PIK scientist Annika Stechemesser in a media release.
You can't make this stuff up, folks:
Proof that even scientists fall for the correlation/causation fallacy.
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Current events
Electric Cars Are Not “Zero-Emission Vehicles”
By James Agresti
September 2, 2022
While praising California’s decision to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, Governor Gavin Newsom declared that this will require “100% of new car sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles” like “electric cars.” In reality, electric cars emit substantial amounts of pollutants and may be more harmful to the environment than conventional cars.
Toxic Pollution
The notion that electric vehicles are “zero-emission” is rooted in a deceptive narrative that ignores all pollutants which don’t come out of a tailpipe. Assessing the environmental impacts of energy technologies requires measuring all forms of pollution they emit over their entire lives, not a narrow slice of them. To do this, researchers perform “life cycle assessments” or LCAs. As explained by the Environmental Protection Agency, LCAs allow for:
the estimation of the cumulative environmental impacts resulting from all stages in the product life cycle, often including impacts not considered in more traditional analyses (e.g., raw material extraction, material transportation, ultimate product disposal, etc.). By including the impacts throughout the product life cycle, LCA provides a comprehensive view of the environmental aspects of the product or process and a more accurate picture of the true environmental trade-offs in product and process selection.
LCAs are subject to multiple levels of uncertainty, but an assessment published by the Journal of Cleaner Production in 2021 shatters the notion that electric cars are cleaner than conventional ones, much less “zero emission.” The LCA found that manufacturing, charging, operating, and disposing of electric vehicles produces more of every major category of pollutants than conventional cars. This includes:
an increase in fine particulate matter formation (26%), human carcinogenic (20%) and non-carcinogenic toxicity (61%), terrestrial ecotoxicity (31%), freshwater ecotoxicity (39%), and marine ecotoxicity (41%) relative to petrol vehicles.
Foreshadowing that result, a 2018 report by the European Environment Agency warned that studies on the “human toxicity impacts” of electric vehicles were “limited” and that electric cars “could be responsible for greater negative impacts” than conventional cars. . .
Click "source" to read the rest of the article, as republishing entire articles violates copyright laws and does not fall under "fair use."
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Politics
Revised Real GDP Posts Smaller Decline, Real Private Domestic Demand Increases
Robert Hughes – August 25, 2022 CC BY 4.0
(NOTE: CHARTS ARE IN THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE LINKED BELOW)
Revised data show real gross domestic product fell at a 0.6 percent annualized rate in the second quarter versus a 1.6 percent rate of decline in the first quarter (see first chart). The advance estimate had shown a 0.9 percent decline. Over the past four quarters, real gross domestic product is up 1.7 percent.
Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, a key measure of private domestic demand, have shown greater resilience. Revised estimates show it rose 0.2 percent in the second quarter following a 3.0 percent pace of increase in the first quarter (see first chart). Over the last four quarters, real final sales to private domestic purchasers are up 1.8 percent.
Declines were widespread in the second quarter. Among the components, real consumer spending overall rose at a 1.5 percent annualized rate versus a 1.0 percent gain in the advance estimate, and down from a 1.8 percent pace in the first quarter. That is the slowest pace since the lockdown recession. Real consumer spending contributed a total of 0.99 percentage points to real GDP growth. Consumer services led the growth in overall consumer spending, posting a 3.6 percent annualized rate, adding 1.56 percentage points to total growth. Durable-goods spending fell at a 0.1 percent pace, subtracting 0.01 percentage points while nondurable-goods spending fell at a -3.7 percent pace, subtracting 0.56 percentage points (see second and third charts). Within consumer services, growth was broadly strong, led by food services and accommodation (12.4 percent), recreation (6.8 percent), and other services (5.5 percent growth rate).
Business fixed investment was unchanged in the second quarter of 2022 after a 10.0 jump in the first quarter. Intellectual-property investment rose at a 10.0 percent pace, adding 0.51 points to growth while business equipment investment fell at a -2.7 percent pace, subtracting 0.15 percentage points, and spending on business structures fell at a 13.2 percent rate, the fifth decline in a row, and subtracting 0.36 percentage points from final growth.
Residential investment, or housing, fell at a 16.2 percent annual rate in the second quarter compared to a 0.4 annualized gain in the prior quarter. The drop in the second quarter subtracted 0.83 percentage points (see second and third charts).
Businesses added to inventory at an $83.9 billion annual rate (in real terms) in the second quarter versus accumulation at a $188.5 billion rate in the second quarter. The slower accumulation reduced second-quarter growth by a very sizable 1.83 percentage points (see third chart). The inventory accumulation helped boost the real nonfarm inventory to real final sales of goods and structures ratio to 4.06 from 4.0 in the first quarter; the ratio hit a low of 3.75 in the second quarter of 2021. The latest result is still below the 4.3 average for the 16 years through 2019 but suggests further progress towards a more favorable supply/demand balance (see fourth chart).
Exports rose at a 17.06 percent pace while imports rose at a 2.8 percent rate. Since imports count as a negative in the calculation of gross domestic product, a gain in imports is a negative for GDP growth, subtracting 0.45 percentage points in the second quarter. The rise in exports added 1.88 percentage points. Net trade, as used in the calculation of gross domestic product, contributed 1.42 percentage points to overall growth.
Government spending fell at a 1.8 percent annualized rate in the second quarter compared to a 2.9 percent pace of decline in the first quarter, subtracting 0.32 percentage points from growth.
Consumer price measures showed another rise in the second quarter. The personal-consumption price index rose at a 7.1 percent annualized rate, matching the first quarter. From a year ago, the index is up 6.5 percent. However, excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the core PCE (personal consumption expenditures) index rose at a 4.4 percent pace versus a 5.2 percent increase in the first quarter and is the slowest pace of rise since the first quarter of 2021 (see fifth chart). From a year ago, the core PCE index is up 4.8 percent.
Lingering materials shortages, labor constraints, and logistical problems are sustaining upward pressure on prices, though progress is being made on improving the supply-demand balance. Upward price pressures have resulted in an intensifying Fed policy tightening cycle, raising the risk of a policy mistake. In addition, fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to impact global supply chains. The economic outlook remains highly uncertain. Caution is warranted.
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Economics
About Truth Decay
By: RAND Corporation, 2022
The line between fact and fiction in American public life is becoming blurred. RAND calls this phenomenon "Truth Decay," and our researchers are studying its causes, consequences, and how to counter it.
The Causes
America's current era of Truth Decay is defined in part by an increasing disagreement about objective facts that exists on scale not observed in previous periods. For example, despite having more evidence than ever before about vaccines being safe and effective at preventing disease, vaccine skepticism in the United States is on the rise.
This is just one example of how public attitudes can diverge from facts and data in debates and discourse. So what's behind the decline?
RAND researchers have identified four main drivers:
- cognitive biases
- changes to the information ecosystem, including the rise of social media and changes in the economics of news
- demands on the educational system that slow its ability to adapt to changes in the information ecosystem
- political and social polarization
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Politics
Student Loan Forgiveness and the Shifting Standards of the Department of Education
Adam Kissel – August 29, 2022, AIER.ORG:
On August 24, 2022, the U.S. Department of Education (DoEd) announced arbitrary amounts of student debt cancellation and arbitrary income cutoffs for eligibility for the cancellation. Borrowers who earn at least $125,000 per year ($250,000 if married or head of household) are completely ineligible for debt cancellation. Among those who are eligible, borrowers who received a Pell Grant at any time in the past qualify for up to $20,000 in cancellation, while those who never had a Pell Grant qualify for no more than $10,000. These arbitrary decisions undermine the legal basis on which the DoEd is relying for mass debt cancellation in the first place.
The DoEd is relying on an August 23 memo from the Department of Justice, which argues that mass debt cancellation is authorized under the HEROES Act of 2003. This law, representing some of the federal grab of emergency powers following the 2001 terrorist attacks, appeared again during the pandemic “emergency.” It was invoked to justify, for example, the pause on student loan repayment (at a cost of $5 billion per month). Now, this law is being used as emergency aid for people with student loans.
Emergency powers under the HEROES Act kick in when the President declares a national emergency. Of course, the Department of Education is delighted to observe that the United States is still in a pandemic “emergency.” That means the Secretary of Education is authorized to waive or modify rules that, for instance, help ensure against waste, fraud, and abuse in the repayment of federal student aid. More than two years into the “emergency,” several rules remain waived, including the rules pertaining to paying one’s debts and accruing interest when not paying one’s debts.
The previous administration considered whether the HEROES Act could justify mass debt cancellation and, fortunately, determined that it cannot. Most importantly, the waiver is limited to “affected individuals” who “suffered direct economic hardship as a direct result” of the “national emergency.” Moreover, the previous administration noted several laws and regulations directing agencies to collect debts, not cancel them.
But the current administration has been thrilled to discover the needed emergency authority in the HEROES Act after all. The administration sees no meaningful difference between delaying the requirement to pay one’s debts, such as already exists in forbearances, and waiving or modifying the requirement to pay one’s debts at all, ever. If mass delays in repayment are allowed because nearly every American with a student loan has been directly affected with economic hardship as a direct result of the pandemic, the argument goes, mass cancellation is allowed because nearly all of the Americans being helped today are still directly affected with economic hardship.
The biggest problem with this argument is that large numbers of these borrowers have no economic hardship due to the pandemic, and many of them never did. Vast numbers of white-collar workers continued to get their paychecks while working from home, and a substantial portion of these workers had student loans. They did not need the repayment pause in the first place, and they need debt cancellation even less today.
The other key problem involves the arbitrary cutoffs in the cancellation plan. On the current (but flawed) reading of the HEROES Act, the Secretary of Education has extremely wide discretion to determine what is “necessary” to provide relief such that those who were harmed by the emergency will not be in a worse financial situation, after all, because of their student loans. Even such wide discretion, however, cannot include such arbitrary decisions. The Justice Department’s memo insists, “the Secretary can use the HEROES Act only to offset that portion of the harm that has a ‘relation to’ the borrower’s title IV assistance.” Yet, without any written discussion, analysis, or notice and comment from the public, the Secretary has declared which borrowers will get what, and which borrowers will get nothing.
In particular:
- There is no reasonable ground to imagine that borrowers who at some time in the past were Pell Grant recipients have financially suffered twice as much from the pandemic compared to borrowers who never received a Pell Grant. It is true that Pell Grant recipients, by and large, more often drop out of college and more often attend two-year colleges, so their lifetime income trajectories are lower. But these differences appear entirely irrelevant to harm related to the pandemic.
- Even if the plan survives that challenge, the $10,000 and $20,000 cancellation figures are drawn out of thin air. The decision was clearly political. The amounts needed to be enough to count as “loan forgiveness” without reaching the politically infeasible $50,000 per borrower or full forgiveness insisted upon by progressive advocates. The amounts are entirely disconnected from the actual economic harms of those who hold student loans. No attempt whatsoever was made to estimate harms.
- Again, Americans’ economic situations are very extremely diverse. Accordingly, there is no justification at all for creating three classes of borrowers. None of the purported classes has anything relevant in common that reflects harm from the pandemic related to federal student aid. The department does not even attempt to explain its division of borrowers into meaningfully separate classes.
- In particular, what magically happens at the $125,000 annual income level such that those borrowers have zero harm from the pandemic? Of course, this decision is also political. It helps avoid the charge that debt forgiveness is regressive, making less educated, less wealthy people pay for the college educations of the more educated, more wealthy, while still providing a perk to the richer among us. (The poorest four states have a median family income around $60,000, just one fourth of the family-income cutoff of $250,000.)
- Furthermore, why are both the Pell and non-Pell classes distinguished from a third class, those with an income of at least $125,000 per year, whether Pell or non-Pell? Does the Pell vs. non-Pell distinction simply disappear at this income level?
- Finally, to justify a continued repayment pause for all borrowers, the current administration must rely on the HEROES Act and show that all borrowers are still being directly harmed by the pandemic “emergency.” If that’s true, the Department of Education must argue and acknowledge that even the wealthier borrowers, those with annual income above $125,000, are being harmed, such that a repayment pause for them remains “necessary.” Well, are they being harmed, or aren’t they? Are they being harmed for the purpose of a repayment pause, but not harmed for the purpose of debt cancellation? That would be absurd, much like the other arbitrary decisions described here.
In sum, the HEROES Act provides no shelter for the arbitrary, capricious, political decisions announced by the Department of Education.
The Department’s full announcement, unfortunately, is even worse. It also proposes major changes to income-driven repayment plans. These are plans that are affordable by definition because they are based on ability to pay. But now they may get even more affordable: After just 10 years of paying only 5 percent of one’s disposable income (redefined so as to exclude even more income), one’s debt will be forgiven. There’s no need to be shy about calling the Department’s plans a new socialism of higher education: pay only what you can, the minimum amount vanishes toward zero, and the taxpayer will cover the rest.
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CREATIVE COMMONS:
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Current events
By James D. Agresti, President of Just Facts
June 15, 2022
“For the children we can save,” declared President Biden on June 2, “we should reinstate the assault weapons ban and high-capacity magazines that we passed in 1994.” To support this claim, Biden alleged:
And in the 10 years it was law, mass shootings went down. But after Republicans let the law expire in 2004 and those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings tripled. Those are the facts.
In reality, Biden is confusing terms and distorting data to paint a picture that is opposed to the facts. Such facts include but are not limited to the following:
- The number of people killed in mass shootings didn’t decline even after the 1986 federal ban on automatic guns, which are more capable of mass murder than the guns Biden wants to ban.
- The terms “assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines” are misleading and refer to common weapons used by citizens for hunting and home defense.
- Before, during, and after the 1994 law cited by Biden, the portion of the U.S. population killed in mass shootings barely budged, and the slight changes are better explained by other factors.
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Current events
I did a forum post not as a delaying tactic, but because I tend to have extremely specific rules for my debates and I didn't want to waste time setting up multiple debates when we can just hash out what we want and don't want for our debate.
TOPIC:
The 2020 Election Should Be Decertified Due To Illegal Election Activities That Sufficiently Challenge The Results Of The 2020 Election
STANCES:
PRO must defend the above claim.
CON must argue there was not enough election fraud to decertify the election
DEFINITIONS:
The following sections of the U.S. Code will determine the standards for illegal election activities:
- 18 U.S. Code Chapter 29 - ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
That is the section of the U.S. Code that deals with federal election crimes. If you can think of any other pertinent sections of the U.S. Code feel free to list them.
For definitions, the U.S. Code, in its entirety, shall supplement the definitions, and where the U.S. Code fails to provide a definition, then The Law's law dictionary will be used:
And if neither can provide a definition, then Merriam Webster will be used.
"Sufficiently challenge" means that illegal election activities more ballots than the margin of victory for Then-candidate Joseph R. Biden.
RULES:
By participating in this debate, PRO and CON agree to adhere to the following rules:
1. Use of logical fallacies are strictly prohibited. Any logical fallacy that exists in this Wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies is banned from the debate. All logical fallacies shall be defined according to this Wikipedia webpage. Any deliberate usage of a logical fallacy results in immediate forfeiture and admittance of defeat. Accidental usage can be rectified by not using the fallacy again and moving on with the debate.
2. The rules and definitions of logic shall come from the webpage newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Logic, and not Merriam Webster's online Dictionary or the Wikipedia page. This debate shall be governed by the laws of logic, meaning burden of proof is required by both parties.
3. Any propaganda techniques as defined, outlined, and explained in this wikipedia article are banned from usage:
4. Any compliance techniques as defined, outlined, and explained in this wikipedia article are banned from usage:
5. The rules of grammar and proper english shall come from Farlex's grammar book available here:
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/The-Farlex-Grammar-Book.htm. And they will be followed strictly. Deliberate attempts to use gibberish english result in forfeiture of debate by the person who committed the action.
6. Using alternative definitions from the ones listed in the above sources is strictly prohibited and results in forfeiture of debate.
7. For the purposes of this debate, evidence is defined by entry 1, definition 1b in Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary (and only including entry 1, definition 1b of testimony) and shall also not break any of the debate rules.
8. Willfully and knowingly disobeying these rules repeatedly results in immediate forfeiture of debate.
Does this sound good to you?
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Miscellaneous
As the title says.
First off, this website is the true successor to Debate(.)Org. I don't know how many of you remember that fantastic website, but it was a debator's paradise. It recently closed down due to reasons I don't know. But the website devolved into internet trollery around 2016 or so after many years of hosting rational debate. So when I found this website I was glad someone picked up the proverbial torch.
That being said. . .
The website is really buggy on mobile phones and lacking some features available to desktop users. Also, depending on the browser, you can be halfway through posting an argument, open a new tab to obtain your source, and come back and the page reloads, forcing you to start over. I write my arguments in the text box to prevent formatting issues that some run into when copy-pasting from word processors.
It is also frustrating to log in on a mobile device and have to press the menu button because the homepage is the landing page for enticing the general public to join. And a portion of the links from the menu button are not optimized for mobile.
These usability issues would be solved with a standalone app.
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DebateArt.com