US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2191

On March 17 2020 21:27 Wombat_NI wrote:
Wonder if there will be any silver linings when all this fun settles down.

I guess it’ll show we can do relatively drastic things if we put our mind to it, which I suppose might open the door on doing so on climate change, although I’m skeptical.

The folks on the poorer end of the scale who don’t get the perk of ever working from home and subsequently have absolutely been able to do so (surprise surprise), can things like that entirely be stuffed back into the bottle?

On March 17 2020 21:31 mahrgell wrote:


Pretty sure this crisis will more serve as an excuse why nothing will be done about climate change.
"But surely we can't do anything for climate change while this crisis is on" and then "Oh, we would love to do something against climate change, but you must see, now we have to recover from this china crisis!"

On March 17 2020 21:37 GreenHorizons wrote:


The irony being that the best plans to save us from this crisis (and that could have greatly mitigated its health and economic impact had they been in place) are the ones people have been arguing would destroy the economy (which corona did instead)

Maybe that's true for the climate as well.

On March 17 2020 21:48 Wombat_NI wrote:

The economy is just our modern god the way some people frame it, ‘oh no we must change our wicked ways, the economy is angered and we won’t have a bountiful harvest’

On March 17 2020 21:54 Mohdoo wrote:
Feels very weird to still have the primary voting happening right now. The entire process of voting is going to be spreading Corona

On March 17 2020 21:31 mahrgell wrote:


Pretty sure this crisis will more serve as an excuse why nothing will be done about climate change.
"But surely we can't do anything for climate change while this crisis is on" and then "Oh, we would love to do something against climate change, but you must see, now we have to recover from this china crisis!"

On March 17 2020 23:30 LegalLord wrote:

While that's definitely going to happen, don't pretend that this is the reason for why a serious effort won't be taken to prevent the fallout of climate change.

The reality is that there's a country out there that is notionally on board with a world agreement to reduce emissions, but really just used it as cover to expand their emissions (since they were really low "per capita" and need to "catch up") and then open enough coal plants to make up for all the ones that the entire rest of the world has closed.

There's another country with a leader who clownishly withdraws from the same climate agreement, and while the rest of the country publicly mocks his stupidity the business community is secretly overjoyed that even the most token of efforts will make them look like angels, preventing them from having to change anything.

Then there's another group of countries, all clustered in an oil-rich desert, who openly flaunt their lack of effort in this fight, with projects like air conditioning entire cities whose absurdity is second only to its harm to the planet.

And lastly, there's a spattering of other countries, which seem genuinely committed to slowing the heating of the planet, but whose measures don't go much further than shuttering some unprofitable coal plants and giving large subsidies for luxury electric automobiles which pollute just as much as the vehicles they're replacing.

No, the truth is that this has been a losing battle, and the only way to really make a dent in the fight against global warming is to significantly reduce consumerism. The reality is that our entire economy runs on consumerism, though, so the only way anyone is willing to kill that sacred cow is if something - say, a global pandemic that is the worst thing seen in a century - drags the world kicking and screaming out of the consumer mindset. And yes, the economic/human damage of doing so is going to be insane.

On March 18 2020 00:49 Wombat_NI wrote:

Agree with you here, as bleak as it is it seems rather accurate.

Best case scenario outside of something catastrophic is that this moderates our consumerism slightly, and perhaps some moderate social reforms and workers rights issues remain on the agenda but I wouldn’t hold my breath even on that.

On March 18 2020 00:55 GreenHorizons wrote:


One thing worthy of note is that China has demonstrated they can flip a switch on what they produce if we decide to consume differently. They aren't particularly attached to much of their economy providing us useless shit and would happily shift to producing more sustainable/useful products if we gave a damn.

Because they have room to grow QoL wise if we meet them somewhere in the middle we can then adopt their practices in ways that we could increase our production capacity as a nation while reducing our consumption/emissions. On a longer (shade of trees they won't sit in sorta thing) such a bargain increases US QoL in the long run anyway.

Just imagine going into a store and all that stuff no one is even looking at/thinking about buying right now from China just axed and replaced with more efficient, sustainable, and useful products.

　
　　In recent years, the U.S. government has unreasonably restricted the normal news reporting activities of Chinese media agencies and personnel in the United States, making it unreasonably difficult, and has escalated discrimination and political suppression against the Chinese media, especially in December 2018, the United States requested relevant Chinese media agencies in the United States. Registered as a "foreign agent", and listed five Chinese media agencies in the United States as "foreign missions" in February 2020, and then adopted a number of restrictions on the above five media agencies in the United States, disguising a large number of Chinese media in disguise reporter. China immediately made solemn representations to the United States on the US's wrongdoing, expressed its firm opposition and strong condemnation, and stressed that it reserves the right to respond and take measures.

　　The Chinese side announces that starting from today:


First, the five Chinese media agencies in the United States are listed as "foreign missions" against the United States. The Chinese counterparts have called for "Voice of America", "New York Times", "Wall Street Journal", "Washington Post", and "Time" 》 The five US media offices in China report to China all written materials such as staff, finances, operations, and real estate information in China.

　　Second, in response to the significant reduction in the United States and the actual deportation of employees of Chinese media agencies in the United States, China requires American journalists whose New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post expiry of their press passes before the end of the year to report within four days from today. The Department of Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declares the list and returns the press card within 10 days. In the future, it is not allowed to continue to work as a journalist in the People's Republic of China, including Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions.

　　Third, in view of the U.S.'s discriminatory restrictions on visas, administrative review, and interviews of Chinese journalists, China will take reciprocal measures against U.S. journalists.

　　The above-mentioned measures by the Chinese side are totally a necessary counter-reaction to the US side to unreasonably suppress the Chinese media agencies in the United States, which are forced to carry out, and they are completely legitimate defenses. The U.S. approach to the Chinese media is based on Cold War thinking and ideological prejudice. It seriously damages the reputation and image of the Chinese media, seriously affects the normal operation of the Chinese media in the United States, severely disrupts the normal humanities exchanges between China and the United States, and exposes its so-called "self-proclaimed The hypocrisy of "freedom of the press". China urges the United States to immediately change its course and correct mistakes, and stop political suppression and unreasonable restrictions on the Chinese media. If the U.S. insists on doing it alone, adding wrong to wrong, China will surely take further countermeasures.
　　China's basic national policy of adhering to opening up has not changed, nor will it change. We always welcome media and reporters from various countries to engage in interviews and reports in China in accordance with laws and regulations, and will continue to provide convenience and assistance. What we are opposed to is ideological prejudice against China. We are opposed to making fake news through the so-called freedom of the press. We are opposed to acts that violate journalistic ethics. It is hoped that foreign media and journalists will play an active role in promoting mutual understanding between China and the world.

On March 18 2020 02:47 farvacola wrote:
We can now be close to certain that China does not want the rest of the world to know how they’re continuing to handle Covid.

On March 18 2020 02:35 Nevuk wrote:
From former ABC news reporter. China is expelling all reporters from three large western papers. Includes Hong Kong and Macau as well. VoA and Time are being required to report all information they've gathered to China as well.
https://twitter.com/StephenMcDonell/status/1239955452072349697

China is claiming it's reciprocity for US treatment of Chinese press.

Chinese source :
https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/t1757128.shtml
(google's autotranslate worked fairly well on it for me :
　

Keep in mind : autotranslate, probably not perfectly accurate.