All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[PaulBullion]

This is hardly something you can pin entirely on Trump though. For as long as anyone can remember, people have claimed that they were just opposed to the Chinese government but didn't hate the Chinese people, and unless you're incredibly naive that has never not sounded like complete BS, especially if you realize the troubling racial history of this country. White Americans care about democracy and human rights in China about as much as they stopping black on black crime in the inner cities or ending the abuse of women and gays in the Muslim world, which is to say that while those are all serious issues that all need to be dealt with by the people in those communities, it is unlikely that your average American internet commentator has a speck of genuine concern about them.

The Russian troll bots are in full anti-China mode now:

https://twitter.com/Vesuvius619/with_replies

[WestPhillyPunisher]

At Least 2 GOP Senators Dumped Millions In Stock After Coronavirus Briefings

Sens. Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler reportedly made dozens of stock trades shortly after private health briefings for Congress began in January.

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2 Generic Drugs Being Tested In U.S. In Race To Find Coronavirus Treatments

A 1,500-person trial began this week to see whether malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine can prevent or reduce the severity of COVID-19.

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California Governor Announces Statewide Order To Stay At Home

California will be the first state in the nation under such an order due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Trump Dodges Accountability For Medical Supply Crisis By Blaming States

Despite the federal government’s vastly greater resources, the president insisted state governments need to find their own solutions as the coronavirus spreads.

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Photographer Captures Trump’s Handwritten ‘Chinese’ Virus Revision On Speech Script

The president’s transcript changes “corona” to the dog-whistle misnomer as he dodges criticism of his administration’s failures in addressing COVID-19.

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Jeremy Lin Delivers Scathing Rebuke Of Donald Trump’s Racist Coronavirus Rhetoric

The former NBA star said Trump’s “subtle anti-Chinese message only empowers more hate towards asians.”

[jetengine]

Correct, I was quick to underestimate China's poor behavior at the beginning of the crisis. I definitely should've looked harder at that.
However, my post was more of an indictment of Trump and his incompetent response than an exoneration of China.
Trump endangered the lives of Americans with his lack of concern and ignorance of the advice of experts.
Anyone believing otherwise right now is a moron.

Theres also the point I raised earlier that if Chinas draconian government actually used its authoritarian powers for some relative good (Ie: Ensuring basic health and hygiene) instead of randomly locking up anyone with even the mildest quibble then we'd not be in this damn mess in the first place.

[jetengine]

If you think I'm shitting on you, there's nothing I can do about it. The reason why Bernie has been consistently defended for three years, is because people keep shitting on him for years, even when he's not running. See?

If people here were honest, they'd realize their biases against Bernie go deeper than a Presidential run. That's why I'm aggressively defending him. Only person I actually dislike is Paul. Some of you are reasonable and some are not.

It's literally not about Bernies run, it's about the constant lies and smears, how is this not understood?

Your not shitting on me personally, your shitting on the entire democratic process because "muh guy lost" and poisoning the well. Your making good the enemy of perfect and letting fucking awful stat fine where it is

[Tendrin]

It's ironic to me that the 'you just want poor people to die!' crowd seems fine with the countless people who will die because of Trump with the aid of their inaction.

[jetengine]

It's ironic to me that the 'you just want poor people to die!' crowd seems fine with the countless people who will die because of Trump with the aid of their inaction.

But Tendrin...their guy/girl didnt win ! Cause whilst the more obvioys example is the Bernie bros sitting out in 2016 I've little doubt there are others for other candidates who have just given up.

[PwrdOn]

Theres also the point I raised earlier that if Chinas draconian government actually used its authoritarian powers for some relative good (Ie: Ensuring basic health and hygiene) instead of randomly locking up anyone with even the mildest quibble then we'd not be in this damn mess in the first place.

That's irrelevant though, somewhere down the line some outbreak like this was bound to happen, and in the past decade we've seen diseases originate from all over the planet, and we actually got quite lucky this time in that we had about two months of advance warning before it began to spread over here. However, we were so dead set on that narrative that this disaster was caused by China's authoritarian government and/or backwards cultural practices, and could never happen in a free, democratic, modern society like ours, that we basically didn't prepare for it at all, and you can hardly blame the Chinese for that.

[jetengine]

That's irrelevant though, somewhere down the line some outbreak like this was bound to happen, and in the past decade we've seen diseases originate from all over the planet, and we actually got quite lucky this time in that we had about two months of advance warning before it began to spread over here. However, we were so dead set on that narrative that this disaster was caused by China's authoritarian government and/or backwards cultural practices, and could never happen in a free, democratic, modern society like ours, that we basically didn't prepare for it at all, and you can hardly blame the Chinese for that.

Please, continue to cover for a nation with nigh unlimited powers on its citizenry that also cant be bothered to ensure basic health and hygiene.

The chinese citizens themselves I feel for, but their government has to be fucking insane considering how dense their population is and how obvious a disease of anykind would run through it

[Tendrin]

That's irrelevant though, somewhere down the line some outbreak like this was bound to happen, and in the past decade we've seen diseases originate from all over the planet, and we actually got quite lucky this time in that we had about two months of advance warning before it began to spread over here. However, we were so dead set on that narrative that this disaster was caused by China's authoritarian government and/or backwards cultural practices, and could never happen in a free, democratic, modern society like ours, that we basically didn't prepare for it at all, and you can hardly blame the Chinese for that.

That's... that's literally got nothing to do with why we're unprepared.

[jetengine]

Nations weren't unprepared because "racism" they were unprepared because they assumed....

A. China could contain it.
B. That maybe it had more to do with Chinas shittier health conditions (lung based disease on a nation 80% smog and heavy smokers with lots of old people ? Yeah thats going to go badly)
C. Incompetent governmentds going "We dont need to spend THAT much really ?" only for them to go "Oh **** we DO" because many right wing nations had slashed healthcare consistently, happy to let private deal with any issue.

[Tendrin]

Nations weren't unprepared because "racism" they were unprepared because they assumed....

A. China could contain it.
B. That maybe it had more to do with Chinas shittier health conditions (lung based disease on a nation 80% smog and heavy smokers with lots of old people ? Yeah thats going to go badly)
C. Incompetent governmentds going "We dont need to spend THAT much really ?" only for them to go "Oh **** we DO" because many right wing nations had slashed healthcare consistently, happy to let private deal with any issue.

Surplus supplies stockpiled to deal with epidemics like this one were used up containing H1N1. Republicans in control of congress from afterwards 'tl 2016 chose to focus on attempts to slash the CDC budget and never replenished them, but yeah, sure, pretend its just 'racism' and not shitty, basic long term planning failures rooted in our long term governance issues. Trump dissolved the pandemic response team as part of the typical Republican disdain for expertise that makes any demands of him, thinking it unnecessary to have.

But, yeah, sure, let's pretend 'racism' is why we couldn't stockpile masks like we were supposed to years ago.

[jetengine]

Surplus supplies stockpiled to deal with epidemics like this one were used up containing H1N1. Republicans in control of congress from afterwards 'tl 2016 chose to focus on attempts to slash the CDC budget and never replenished them, but yeah, sure, pretend its just 'racism' and not shitty, basic long term planning failures rooted in our long term governance issues. Trump dissolved the pandemic response team as part of the typical Republican disdain for expertise that makes any demands of him, thinking it unnecessary to have.

But, yeah, sure, let's pretend 'racism' is why we couldn't stockpile masks like we were supposed to years ago.

Though racism is probably a factor its like maybe 5% at best ?

[Tendrin]

Though racism is probably a factor its like maybe 5% at best ?

It's a factor in blame-shifting. Trump's relying on the kind of racism that will allow him to paper his own failures over by deflecting to China, which is causing hate crimes against Asian-Americans to spike here. Our own lack of preparation doesn't come down to that since the seeds for it were laid *years* before COVID. If anything, it was complacency and the assumption that China could control the mess like it had others before hand, along with Trump's fear of an outbreak harming his bid for reelection. As always when threatened, he simply goes back to the racist well after being all full of praise for China's efforts at containment in January.

[jetengine]

It's a factor in blame-shifting. Trump's relying on the kind of racism that will allow him to paper his own failures over by deflecting to China, which is causing hate crimes against Asian-Americans to spike here. Our own lack of preparation doesn't come down to that since the seeds for it were laid *years* before COVID. If anything, it was complacency and the assumption that China could control the mess like it had others before hand, along with Trump's fear of an outbreak harming his bid for reelection. As always when threatened, he simply goes back to the racist well after being all full of praise for China's efforts at containment in January.

Certainly hold his feet to the fire, I just feel we have to acknowledge as well the Chinese governments culpability in all this with their flagrant disregard for hygiene. Its not exactly einstein levels of brains to keep dead/living/raw animals away from each other

[JCAll]

Trump injecting racism into the situation is just to distract from the mishandling of everything.
...Also because he's a racist, and that's just what he does. We should expect this by now.