Summations Only

This is ridiculous on a number of fronts:
1) No one knows thousands of people personally.2) The total number of canadians that went out of Canada to all destinations for health care last year was 52,000.
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This is 1.1 percent.
Out of those 52,000 you don't know any personally do you?3) It is interesting that the whole plot of "Breaking Bad" doesn't make any sense here. My sister-in-law is in hospital right now (for weeks) for cancer treatment and there is zero, nada, zip worry about bills.There is no way I would want to deal with the US system. Ours might not be the best in the world but it is head and shoulders above the US system. (Unless, of course, you are rich in which case you don't care where you are just fly to Europe for care).

I like that thought, Phat. Very insightful!

This is not an example that is going to allow a determination of "fake" or not "fake" news.It is an opinion piece. To decide if you'll give it some credence yourself you have to apply what you do know from what has happened in the past.For starters, you gotta actually know something. Most of us have only a cursory idea of what has been done and what happened in Afghanistan etc.What I might say if pressed to pick a side in this is:
The past use of military has either been too little or too much. We (the west) did enough to disrupt things and then ran or we used the military when it needed a lot of different kinds of intervention.Would I say that we can smash a society down and keep it that way with only the military? Has it worked in the past? Sure, but not often and not indefinitely.How would I react if I was people there? Not well is an answer that you might apply to yourself or your neighbors.Depending on what you think you know about the past and how people react you can pick one of the opinions given.Separately from a guess (opinion, educated or not) on how much sense any action in the middle east makes is the opinion (guess) on what the motivations and timing of this are.That depends on what you think of how Trump thinks. If you actually like this guy you may say he is showing leadership and it is time for him to make this decision. If you are me you can easily be convinced he is grandstanding and trying to redirect attention. But do you or I know his true motives? No, we don't so we construct an opinion.There is no fake or not fake news here. There are expressed opinions with varying amounts of support.

I'm feeling the same way from a somewhat greater distance here across the border. I'm not sure if shocked is the right word. In fact in coffee chats with friends I often find myself spluttering speechless at how utterly awful this man is.Like you, I knew he was going to be a bad actor and very bad for the US and the rest of us. I also am amazed at how much I underestimated how bad he would be.But unlike most around here in Canada (and by most I mean 80 to 90% of us) I do not want him impeached or otherwise removed.
My feeling is that he (and the Republicans) had already done tremendous damage to the democratic process and the foundations of the democracy down there. Any more "abnormalities" in the process just make that worse.My hope is that in 2018 the Republicans get trounced and Trump be removed in the 2020 vote by a landslide.Edited by NosyNed, : Just had to say more

June 22 Economist cover with their usual fun way with words:"Kim Jong Won"

It may be that your high opinion of Avenatti is shared by Fox news. .I saw a bit (as much of them as I can stomach) where they were repeatedly referring to him as CPL (creepy porn lawyer). They didn't actually have much to say but it seems they might be afraid that you are right about him.

I can, sort of, understand some people (like Faith) supporting some Trump policies. I can even understand someone like here shouting "fake news" about a lot of things.
What I can't understand is someone watching Trump speak and not being terribly embarrassed. He is either very stupid or is, in fact, suffering from dementia.It can't be shouted down by "fake news" because there is no reporting on it or anything you just have to watch him on camera. But the Trump supporters here don't seem to notice how horrible it all is.

As for what Faith thinks is fake news; how the heck can I tell? The overall impression is that she uses that to pretend to be rebutting anything she doesn't like.Like absolutely any thing she is arguing about you'll never get her to be clear about it for one of two reasons:
1) She is utterly unable to articulate her thoughts.
2) She may actually have just barely enough understanding in some cases (but few) that if she is clear her argument will be rebutted easily.So why would anyone talk to her?However, some Trump supporters may cry "fake news" to any hints that he has cheated on his taxes, that he is as rich as he claims or that his father wasn't born in Germany since they think that the source of any evidence for such things is corrupt.The threshold for using "fake news" is obviously very, very low.Since the supporters are unable to tolerate the idea he may lie about such things they need a universal fact blocker so they use it and I might understand a little of why they do.But just looking at the man talk doesn't repel them!!! That is amazing to me. That I can't wrap my head around at all.

You don't?? Look no further than our deplorable example here.

You know when I saw the news clip of Trump talking about sunlight and disinfectant my reaction was "This must be a fake video. Even he could NOT be saying that!!!!"I've only slowly realized that it may very well be true. That is just so scary. You guys down there gotta fix this!

You are correct in your suggestion that the death counts are flawed.With the thoroughly inadequate testing (in spite of Trump's continued claims otherwise) many may die of covid but not be allocated to it's death count.In addition, there may be in the old age group, as you say, deaths that seem to be covid but aren't. Again there is inadequate testing. (though the allocation of cause of death is not the very most important reason for needing more tests).So how would one determine the correct covid death count? Since you seem to think you are smarter than others maybe you know a way?I know one.Edited by NosyNed, : No reason given.

You seem to be making the mistake of treating each of the different epidemic and pandemic diseases the same. At least that's one mistake.We know that a person who has no symptoms can infect others who may then die of covid. This is one of the things that makes this a bigger problem than other diseases. You may feel that endangering others lives if fine. Many, in fact I'll bet the overwhelming majority, do not feel the same way. Since you are so irresponsible you can't be trusted to make your own decisions so your freedom to do so will have to be taken away.What incentives does anyone have for faking the death count? And you'd not get away with it for long if you tried on any large scale so it would be stupid to try.All the available evidence from around the world supports the death counts taken everywhere.The US's is high because of mistakes made that other countries didn't make. Countries who were as careless as the US experienced similar numbers.

So he will be stupid enough to try.