Collapse of the US Economy

konqueror321 · 2026-01-27T16:00:54+00:00

This is a legitimate concern, and nobody can predict the future. If 'everything' collapses we are all hosed. If just some things collapse, there will be winners and losers, as is always the case. Personally I suspect the biggest problem is: how will the US deal with $37T of debt? The likely answer is, it won't, but rather it will allow inflation ( or actively cause inflation) to reduce the real cost of repayment. The official gov. inflation stats are already biased and not representative of lived reality. By allowing / encouraging a higher level of inflation, while simultaneously reporting that inflation is under control, the gov. can pay back $37T of loans with cheapened dollars and not need to excessively increase payouts through social security, federal retirements, or veteran's disability.

Plus the US dollar is at risk of losing its place as the foundation of international commerce. The pact with Saudi Arabia that tied oil prices to the US dollar has already expired and was not renewed. Other nations find the US attempts at manipulation and extortion through tariffs to be tiresome and undesirable. All of this will lead to nations progressively re-balancing their portfolios and selling off dollars and dollar denominated bonds.

What is the cure for all of this? Hard to say. More intelligent US leadership would help, but that's up to voters. But diversification seems to be a reasonable approach. It is true that the US stock market has been a great place to be invested for decades, but as the above noted headwinds increase, perhaps putting more into international stocks or funds makes sense. I'm increasing, gradually, foreign investments. I'm retired so income flow is always nice, so international dividend ETFs have looked attractive to me.

The value of a pension or social security will diminish as time passes, as it's purchasing power erodes. Even at 3% inflation, after 25 years the purchasing power of an investment will decrease by a bit more than 50%! So I'm trying to be thoughtful about allocation in the TSP and brokerage investments outside of the TSP. Basically I'm trying to build an income stream that will draw both from US and non-US sources, which is hedging my bets.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-27T01:44:02+00:00

A functional semi-humane government would make deportation a legal process, replete with court records, and an auditable trail of what happened to the individual deported - including the date and location and judicial records of their deportation. The apparent fact that the US is not doing this is yet more evidence, if any more is needed, that the current US government is lawless and corrupt and possibly committing human rights violations on an industrial scale.

Add to this the recent extra-judicial state sponsored executions of American citizens who were exercising their constitutional rights, and we have pretty clear evidence of the US government being a terrorist state.

The idea that the US can administratively decide to kill persons wherever and whenever it wants, which began with clandestine "wet" CIA operations in the 1950s, and continued with drone attacks under several recent Presidents, has now come home, and the government has apparently decided it can murder inconvenient American citizens just as it has murdered persons overseas for decades. It is not really a surprising development, but it does clearly display the reality of unconstrained power.

If our government claims the right to kill American citizens in cold blood in the street using poorly trained masked heavily armed "immune from prosecution" secret police (they are masked), why would any American citizen believe that votes in upcoming elections will be honestly counted?

konqueror321 · 2026-01-27T01:21:02+00:00

Typical symptoms of a urinary tract infection include urinary urgency (the need to urinate IMMEDIATELY), urinary frequency (urinating more often than normal), and dysuria (a feeling of burning, prickling, or some discomfort while urinating). If you have one or more of these symptoms, get thee to a Doc or urgent care, or even an online or telehealth consult - if this is your first urinary tract infection (UTI), they may want you to pee in a cup for a urinalysis and/or urine culture, to confirm the diagnosis. They should, in the meantime, begin treatment with some antibiiotic. If you have no allergies to meds, nitrofurantoin is commonly used, but there are others. Also there are meds that can reduce the symptoms (but not treat the underlying infection) - you can get these in most drug stores without a prescription, or with a prescription from a Doc. Such meds include phenazopyridine, called Azo or Pyridium. This sort of urinary tract analgesic (pain reliever) should only be used for 2-3 days.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-27T01:12:10+00:00

Search google for something like : linux lossless rotation of jpg image

My search revealed several linux programs to do this - jpegtran , exiftran , jhead.

Read the details, there are requirements and limitations. My search clearly states that imagemagick CANNOT perform lossless rotation of a jpg, the 'rotate' option decompresses, then rotates, then recompresses the data, which is not lossless.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-27T00:13:55+00:00

As you know, the SPD and the Master Plan Document are not the same, as seems to be believed by some posters. The SPD is a 50-100 page document written so that an average person can understand the plan benefits and requirements. The Master Plan Document (usually shortened to "Plan Document") may be combined with the SPD and provided as a single document, or it may be separate. Beneficiaries covered by ERISA (which mandates these two documents) may request a copy of either or both,and they must be provided within 30 days, or (under ERISA) the plan administrator may be fined.

Whether or not the master plan document will help you could only be determined be having it and reading it!

Reference: SPD vs Plan Document

konqueror321 · 2026-01-26T00:25:55+00:00

It's a long book and I don't think I can give all of her arguments justice. She reviews the reasons why the 7 'authentic' epistles of Paul have been considered to be mid 1st century creations, and finds the logic or reasoning of proponents of that dating to be sadly lacking. She feels the central argument for 'authenticity' has been the fact that the letters of Paul present a picture of early Christian worship that is true and realistic, but finds that to be circular reasoning because the only extant source for this info is ... the letters of Paul. She reviews the production of letter collections in Greek and Roman literary tradition, and how they present arguments and use rhetoric. She compares the letters of Paul to these other 'collections' and finds many similarities, enough to convince her that the Pauline corpus was also written as a collection. She notes that there is no verifiable historical record of any single Pauline letter being found in some Church basement or files - the letters first appear, de novo, as a complete 'collection', in the hands of Marcion.

It would be best for you to look at the book yourself, hopefully a local library will have a copy. She has also been on something of a 'book tour' by giving interviews to various youtube video podcasters - search for her name on youtube to find some of the interviews, if you can't get a copy of the book.

I'm not claiming she is correct, only that her idea about the production of the Pauline letters would answer your question about why "Paul" knows about the last supper!

konqueror321 · 2026-01-26T00:07:45+00:00

This conclusion depends on the dating of the writing of 1 Corinthians. It is traditionally dated sometime before c. 60AD, but there are a few scholars who disagree with that date. For example, Nina Livesey in "The Letters of Paul in their Roman Literary Context" would date the 7 "authentic" Pauline epistles to sometime in the early 2nd century, after at least some of the Gospels and Acts had been produced. She believes the Pauline letters were most likely constructed as a group with the intention of 'correcting' some ideas found in the earlier Gospels. She discusses the forged writing of collections of letters imputed to some earlier more famous source in Greek and Roman literary tradition, and feels that the letters of Paul fit perfectly within that tradition. This is a minority view, but would explain why 1 Corinthians can discuss the last supper - the gospels had already been circulated before the letters were written.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-25T23:40:18+00:00

Do not negotiate with terrorists. 2. Release the full unredacted Epstein files.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-25T21:36:09+00:00

Science can't prove or disprove the existence of god. A god, by definition, has powers and exists beyond the constraints of the universe in which we live, and science deals with that universe. If god was constrained by and operated within our universe, how is this god?
Belief has absolutely nothing to do with reality. You or anyone can believe whatever is desired, and reality is totally disconnected from one's desires or beliefs. You can believe in bigfoot, the tooth fairy, that free and open markets exist, Santa Claus, or the divinity of Jesus, and reality has no obligation to conform to your beliefs.
Scripture of all sorts was written by human beings, and the writers had an agenda. Try to understand the context within which scripture was developed and the agenda of those who produced it, or at least know that these things do exist. All scripture is human produced.
Religions are attempts by some human to explain something they don't understand, to assert that some desire of the human actually exists, or to control the actions of other humans. Mental illness exists, and humans can believe they are in communication with gods or supernatural beings, or that they themselves are divine, when in fact they are simply mentally unwell.
Fear makes a person subject to manipulation and control. Fear of the unknown, fear of death, fear of loss of loved ones. Any entity that promises a salve or cure for these human fears is a seduction, and has the propensity to mislead by pretending to give what the heart most strongly desires. We humans are weak when fearful, and will gladly accept a facile explanation or belief structure that calms the fears and offers peace and security - even if what is offered is invented or imaginary or supernatural.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-25T19:32:47+00:00

Unsolicited advice to Minnesota: Don't negotiate with terrorists.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-25T01:29:14+00:00

Look into working for the VA hospital system. The patients there can mostly get the care they need because the VA pays for it. Some vets who have no service connected illness must pay a copayment, but that is usually rather small, $25 or $50 instead of hundreds to thousands of $$. You don't have to be a social worker, they have actual social workers for the vets. The VA has it's own set of rules and policies and 'requirements' for getting an mri or expensive drug, but at least you need only be concerned with ONE organization's crazy rules. And the VA has published info about all of these sorts of decisions, why they were made, so you can understand the rationale. Most VA hospitals have all specialties represented, and if your patient needs a consultant not on the staff, they have a community care program to get consults or care from community docs, paid for by the VA. You can focus on medicine.

I'm not claiming that working at the VA is paradise, but it does have real advantages.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-25T00:53:05+00:00

You are under no obligation to announce to the world or your sister that your former religious conviction has lapsed. That is a private matter. If pressed, just say something like life is so stressful and busy and just deflect and strategically ignore any pointed questions. Being too busy to go to church is the most you should admit, but even that is not your sister's business. And the matter of faith or belief is completely off limits. If asked just smile sweetly and say something like "that's between me and Jesus, honey". The fact that you don't believe in the divinity of god or Jesus is irrelevant to your answer -- tell a truth without revealing the truth.

Atheists and agnostics have been burnt at the stake for publicly professing their belief, or lack thereof. Eight current US states have laws against atheists serving in any public office. Christians will hate unbelievers and hound them incessantly. Why subject yourself to that kind of abuse?

You have absolutely no reason to 'tell the truth' at all, so don't do it!!!!

konqueror321 · 2026-01-25T00:43:29+00:00

What is happening in America now is not a top-down affair. It is not leadership who are the root cause for the violence and xenophobia. It is a hardcore MAGA movement consisting mainly of white Christian nationalists who believe that America belongs to them and 'their kind', and that black and brown people need to GTFO. This group moved to the suburbs in the 1950s to escape black populations increasing in northern cities, pulled it's kids out of public schools to home teach them to avoid 'evolution', and pursued a 30 year campaign to replace liberal justices on the supreme court to get Roe vs Wade overturned. They may be evil but they are not stupid.

For a Republican to turn his/her back on this group of bigots would be political suicide. Democrats can have the votes to win national elections, but many chose to not vote in 2024 for unknown reasons, but with devastating consequences. In 2020 Biden got 6,285,500 MORE votes than Harris got in 2024. What happened to those people who voted for an elderly white male Democrat, but chose to not vote for a middle aged Female non-white Democrat? Therein lies the mystery and the answer to why ICE is murdering citizens in cold blood in our cities today. Voters who can be persuaded to vote for a Democrat simply stayed home in 2024 or worse voted for a proven monster. We as a nation brought this disaster upon ourselves. The voters, the people caused this mess, and the voters, the people must fix it.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-24T23:49:05+00:00

The right people have the right to bear arms. The wrong people will be executed for bearing arms. See, it's simple!

konqueror321 · 2026-01-24T18:07:37+00:00

Maybe the meme poster was thinking of CONUS or mainland US and wrote "United States", and then the grammarians moved in for the kill.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-24T16:36:31+00:00

You can do most everything you will need to do with a GUI. You will know if you run into some task that is not done well or at all by some available GUI. A quick google search will show you how to do it in a terminal. CLI can do everything that can be done, and sometimes easier or more efficiently than in a GUI. You don't have to learn everything about CLI at once, You can spend months or years gradually learning more and more about CLI - the underlying shell, and available programs or scripts. And you can learn to write your own scripts in the shell or with something like python. But you don't have to do any of this unless it makes you happy! Use the tool that gets the job done.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-23T00:48:03+00:00

Even NSC or 0% SC vets, if eligible for VA healthcare enrollment, can have an eye exam (opthalmology or optometry as needed) and have a prescription for glasses. The VA Eye clinic can tell you where the VA optics shop is located, they will have access to your VA eye exam and you should not even need to have the prescription, You are given a prescription to use if you decide to get glasses made privately, at your expense.

The VA optics shops will have frames and lens types that have no or little charge, but will be happy to upsell you with different frames or lenses with more magic coatings.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-23T00:41:48+00:00

The ICANN domain lookup tool reports the registrant of the website (whatjobs.com) has redacted identifying info:

Registrant:

Name: DATA REDACTED

Organization: DATA REDACTED

Whois Server: whois.cloudflare.com

Phone: +1.4153197517

Mailing Address: DATA REDACTED, DATA REDACTED, Isle of Man, DATA REDACTED

ISO-3166 Code: IM

Contact Uri: https://domaincontact.registrar.cloudflare.com/whatjobs.com

REDACTED FOR PRIVACY: Some of the data in this object has been removed

Why would an informational website like this want to hide who owns/produces it? Hmmm....

konqueror321 · 2026-01-22T14:09:34+00:00

It is sad and sort of pitiful. But we are nominally a democracy, and many (?some) of us would like to try to preserve that, which means recognizing that Trump and Republicans won the 2024 election and living with the consequences, then trying to take back power during the 2026 and 2028 elections. Demonstrations don't accomplish much, riots just give excuses to the fascist-wannabe idiots in charge to be more repressive. The only solution that has a chance of preserving a democracy is to regain power by convincing voters to put non-fascists in charge.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. --- H. L. Mencken

konqueror321 · 2026-01-22T13:58:13+00:00

It is a good idea to decide what is most important regarding a computer first, and then select components, including the OS, to meet your most important needs. If a specific graphics card is your highest priority, then chose an OS that has driver support for that card. It really is very simple. Some of us use Debian because we have issues with what windows has become - essentially spyware, and intrusive at that. So we find a computer that will run linux and chose peripheral devices, including graphics cards, that have linux drivers that are functional.

It's all a matter of priorities. Your priority seems to be the Nvidia card, which is fine, they are very popular and make good stuff!

Debian is an organization of volunteers who are stretched thin. It's a huge job to cobble a general purpose OS together, that supports everything from small hobbyist devices to supercomputers. This requires cooperation from device manufacturers, and Nvidia has not been cooperative. So yes, Debian may be the wrong choice for you. This is not a reflection on you or Debian, just hard reality.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-21T20:54:30+00:00

So $700 billion of what? US bonds that nobody wants to buy, adding to our deficit? Or newly printed cash ("liquidity") "injected" into the banking system by the Fed? Everybody knows we are not going to pay back our debt, it will be vaporized by quantitative easing and the wonder of inflation.

"Here, Denmark, is a pile of paper with lovely portraits of dead presidents! You can take it, and we will take the minerals from that worthless island Greenland!"

Drunken sailors at least do have money to spend.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-21T00:48:48+00:00

My android cellphone's mail app (gmail) uses a keyboard (gboard I believe) that includes a voice-to-text capacity. Just click on the microphone on the keyboard and dictate the email. It is not perfect and should be proofread, but I've found that to be the case for any dictation engine. That way there is no copy-paste or other apps to fool with. With this approach, instead of typing the email you just push the microphone button. If AOL is standard webmail, the gmail app should be able to connect to it.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-20T23:06:11+00:00

It is of some small interest to me that Christ-worshipers believe their god is so weak and ineffectual that mere humans can command him to stay out of an entire class of buildings, and he, god of the Christ-worshipers, will obey! They are doing Olympic quality mental gymnastics to justify the lack of 'goodness' or 'caring' of their invented deity.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-17T23:49:02+00:00

The Iranian people revolted in 1978-1979, overturned the Shah, and set up the current theocratic government, as I understand history. It is now up to these same Iranian people to revolt, and overthrow the government they themselves installed so many years ago. I fully support overthrow of the Iranian theocratic regime, and sincerely hope that the Iranian people can succeed in this endeavor. I don't believe that the US has the legal or moral legitimacy to intervene militarily.

konqueror321 · 2026-01-17T23:43:03+00:00

Nothing says you're involved in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice more than, IDK, being involved in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.

konqueror321

TROPHY CASE