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CDC data are disappearing

theatlantic.com

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Re: CDC data are disappearing

#281

Post by marcosdumay »

oefrha wrote: post #203
marcosdumay wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, stop using the US$ for trade is as simply as just stop doing it. There's no lack of infrastructure, and plenty of commerce doesn't use it already. What is hard is desinvesting from the US treasure. You have to sell those somewhere, and if everybody tries, their value will quickly go to 0. But if the US is successful in making their trade-balance positive, this will solve itself without a lot of hardship, it's ju…

> as simply as just stop doing it If you don't mind the tsunami that ensues, sure.

Hum... What kind of tsunami do you expect to come from some thousands of people holding dollars for a few fewer milliseconds?

That would take a lot of legwork to confirm, but while the US$ is certainly the most used intermediate currency, it would surprise me if it was even used on the majority of the transactions.

Re: CDC data are disappearing

#282

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

Applejinx wrote: post #30
diggan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Musk is evidently seizing control of the Office of Personnel Management Suddenly I feel out of the loop when it comes to US politics, how come Musk is suddenly seemingly seizing control of parts of the US government? I don't recall him being on any ballots or anything?

The trouble is, to talk about WHY Musk is attempting to seize control of parts of the US government and why the Trump administration is attempting to censor mass quantities of data would be a political conversation. Hacker News isn't designed for this. The point at which it becomes mass censorship that computer hackers (in their capacity as The Internet) might take an active role in routing around, is more or less th…

> to talk about WHY Musk is attempting to seize control of parts of the US government and why the Trump administration is attempting to censor mass quantities of data would be a political conversation.

In an attempt to keep it non-political: perhaps they (DOGE) are trying to put a "freeze" on the records while they consider who to fire. That would imply DOGE does not trust the people who have access to the records not to alter them in their favor. (Irony, since DOGE is demanding trust themselves.) You might not agree with that reason, but it is a reason.

Re: CDC data are disappearing

#283

Post by watwut »

sega_sai wrote: post #69

An "interesting" consequence of these type of measures of stopping collecting or publishing data will be that soon it will be impossible to tell how much infant mortality, or number of cases of tuberculosis or similar changed with respect to last year. Maybe that is partially the goal.

Well, if your plan is to destroy governmental agencies while being in charge of them, it makes sense to destroy anything that might show you are causing harm first.

Re: CDC data are disappearing

#284

Post by [deleted] »

vharuck wrote: post #217
jagged-chisel wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this data already inaccessible to those who are not tech savvy? My grandma isn’t visiting any of the data download sites provided by the federal government. She doesn’t even know why she would, or even that such data is available. And if I provide it to her, she hasn’t the skills to do anything with it.

A lot of federal money goes to state and local health programs. For example, consider mammograms. A state will be given a budget to spend on mammograms. The state doesn't do those screenings itself, so it solicits bids from several healthcare organizations. Those organizations create proposals with estimates of the number of residents eligible for free screening in their area, the burden of breast cancer among that g…

[deleted]

Re: CDC data are disappearing

#286

Post by chasing »

pphysch wrote: post #279
chasing wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Maybe deep in Bush Jr's admin, when Colbert said this

Certainly this sort of data isn't disappearing because it makes Trump look good.

Anyway, he's pissed about COVID-19 and instead of working to prevent future epidemics he's working to retaliate against those who embarrassed him. Pretty simple stuff. The man does not have the depth that he and his followers believe he has.

Re: CDC data are disappearing

#287

Post by panarky »

somename9 wrote: post #206
hypeatei wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those lists exclude royalty and other individuals who do not want the extra publicity What individual(s)? You just mentioned a family and not an individual. Forbes lists Elon's net worth at $419 billion.

David de Rothschild. The family has lent money to governments and royalty for centuries. You’re not going to find his accurate net worth on Forbes. Also, any king or dictator effectively owns their nation’s entire treasury, including all real estate. Maduro, for example, is wealthier than Musk.

There is no evidence — reliable, speculative, or otherwise — that suggests Nicolás Maduro's net worth exceeds even $100 billion. It's more likely in the hundreds of millions, not hundreds of billions.

Even the most aggressive speculative estimates from opposition figures, investigative journalists, or geopolitical analysts do not approach that figure.

No credible leaks (like the Panama Papers or Pandora Papers) have hinted at such vast assets tied to Maduro.

No intelligence reports or financial investigations from entities like the U.S. Treasury, the EU, or independent watchdogs have ever approached figures remotely close to hundreds of billions.

Re: CDC data are disappearing

#288

Post by watwut »

SmirkingRevenge wrote: post #130
nimbius wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look back at Germany in the 19th century, nations like Prussia and Austria had this sort of power struggle between the merchant class and the nobility at the advent of steam power. in this case the de-facto US nobility (rank-and-file career politicians) are being usurped by the bourgeouise (billionaires like Musk) at the advent of AI and tech by promising the working class a combination of culture war policy a…

Yea, these guys don't seem like the kind to do any abdicating, voluntarily. A lot can happen in 4 years though. Maybe self-inflicted catastrophic wounds will drive down support for Trump enough where it becomes possible for R pols and oligarchs to abandon him. Or maybe they'll choose the dark path, and go farther into repressive authoritarianism to stay in power. The problem for Musk et al is that they are concentrat…

> Maybe self-inflicted catastrophic wounds will drive down support for Trump enough

They will blame women, minorites and especially trans people for all of that.

And when dust settles, those who supported Trump and Musk will see themselves as primary victims - and will blame minorites, women, democracts and trans people for consequences of their own actions.

Re: CDC data are disappearing

#289

Post by timewizard »

nickff wrote: post #276
silverquiet wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that all uses of guns are defensive.

Assassination and suicide both seem non-defensive, unless you use a very broad definition of defense.

Suicide is more common than homocide. By a factor of 2 to 1.

Murder is more common than self defense. By a factor of 10 to 1.

In all cases you are highly likely (>90%) to be on a first name basis with the person that kills you.

Re: CDC data are disappearing

#290

Post by SeptiumMMX »

breadwinner wrote: post #240

Data is the ultimate Fact Check. This is a President that's adamantly opposed to fact checking [1] and has even coerced Facebook to drop fact checking. Of course they don't want data on government sites that disprove their "alternate facts". [1] https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4920827-60-minutes-tru...

Well, fact-checking works if it's done impartially. So, if you want to fairly fact-check a political debate, each side should have their own team of researchers/fact-checkers being equally able to object to an argument made by the opposing party. Due process, sort of, kind of.

But I don't think I've ever seen that done actually. Usually, fact checkers are akin to Reddit moderators. Technically independent, but with one important twist. These are people that have a lot of free time and are willing to spend it doing unpaid (or underpaid) work. And that's a huge bias. Big enough to question impartiality, if you ask me.

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