Coronavirus: Continuing Vigilance

[Gorgon]

6 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Can you separate the influence of the European Council and Parliament  from the huge success of the EU single market? In other words the EU only really exists and is sustainable because of the huge economic and trade  benefits of the single market, its not a military union for example. But  it  requires certain rights to be driven and enforced from the overarching EU parliament  and this includes  regulations. 

I guess what Im asking is what specific laws or regulations do you think should change or will be changed in the future. I am no expert on EU laws so Im wanting to understand what you think will change 

My real concern is the reason why other unions like the Arab League and African Union have failed primarily is  because there is no enforcement of the laws and regulations that are suppose to create similar environments like the EU single market. So you need the influence and enforcement to ensure consensus which leads to economic growth and sustainability 

 

I think on the strength of past performance that countries might sign on just for the economic benefits. Hell, most of the later additions were probably joining for exactly that reason.  So, we accept some authority loss as the price of having a regulatory body to oversee the internal market.  It turns out that we probably don't have enough in common to pursue other joint policies. 

So, when the worst hit countries were more or less abandoned during the worst of Covid 19, it also revealed that the EU superstate monster probably doesn't exist. It's just a rich boys club masquerading as something else. 

 

[Zoraptor]

11 hours ago, Gorth said:

The first link worked fine. NYT encourages people to sub, but I don't think they enforce it (although The Guardian is normally my goto paper newpaper sites)

IIRC NYT and WaPo both give you a limited number of 'free' articles (5?) per month before enforcing a paywall. Fortunately, I never hit the limit because both papers are utter trash, and am never tempted to subscribe for the same reason.

1 hour ago, Gorgon said:

So, when the worst hit countries were more or less abandoned during the worst of Covid 19, it also revealed that the EU superstate monster probably doesn't exist. It's just a rich boys club masquerading as something else.

That was the lesson of the GFC too, though it doesn't seem to have been politically expedient to learn it. I don't particularly blame countries for throwing each other under the bus when it comes to covid-19 supplies and the like, if they have to (so definitely not exonerating China, who didn't have to leave their borders open) but it does expose how quickly the theoretical talk of european brotherhood gets unceremoniously thrown out the window whenever it's convenient.

The response to both the current and that crisis show that the EU should never have progressed beyond a trading union. That part has always worked well, most of the ancillary political guff post Maastricht has been both unnecessary and counterproductive to the parts of the union that worked (though none of the political integration has done so much overt damage as the Euro has).

[ComradeYellow]

On 4/28/2020 at 4:45 PM, ktchong said:

 

This is why China is going to win.

Let's face it: America's real problem is not Trump, not Democrats or Republicans. America's real problem is... the low quality of the American people.

I'm not entirely know how America has devolved to this point. IMO it's probably a toxic mix of Evangelism (stupidity) and libertarianism (immorality) that started in the 1960s and, over the decades, has taken over the whole country and culture. Nowadays too many Americans are just... low quality, of much lower quality than people from so many other countries. And it ain't the fault of immigrants, because look at all these low-quality people... they are all white. And that's not something that any government, politician or system can fix.  Republicans can't fix it. Democrats can't fix it. Seriously, I really don't think a nation filled with people of this quality will be able to compete against China. Say whatever you want about Chinese: that  Chinese are dishonest, deceptive, immoral, lack creativity, or whatever, but Chinese people are not this stupid, and certainly not to this degree or scale.   Ultimately, the quality of the people matters, for foundation and strength of a country... and all this just does not bore well for America. 

Well, he kinda has a point.  I consider myself one of the more intelligent and informed Americans but after thorough examination of my surroundings over the past few years a lot of Americans are....stupid dirt level quality intellectually and morally.  I have literally ONE friend and perhaps my brother who I consider a intellectual peer but all-in-all yeah, surrounded by a sea of stupidity.

The only way out of this mess is Civil War and shedding bad blood, to paraphrase Clemenza from The Godfather. 

[Bartimaeus]

Maryland governor says coronavirus tests acquired from South Korea under guard at undisclosed location [due to concern of feds stealing them]

Been hearing for the past month how the feds have been outright stealing medical shipments from states, then giving those shipments to 'politically-connected' companies, who then turn around and auction them off to other companies and states again. Using federal force to steal critical medical supplies and give them to friends and family to profiteer during a national crisis, I sure wouldn't mind if Trump and the rest of this administration lost their frontal lobes right about now.

Edited April 30, 2020 by Bartimaeus

[rjshae]

Yeah there's probably all manner of underhanded dealings right now that we won't hear about until after the election.

[Elerond]

11 hours ago, Gorgon said:

Less influence for the Eurpean Council and Parliament in recognition that it hasn't really handled either this or the previous crisis very well. The internal market will plow on, because it makes money.

European Council or European Commission.

As European Council is just EU member states' leaders (plus European Council and Commission presidents who don't have right to vote if Council decides to held vote for any issues discussed) getting together  four times in year to discuss what direction EU should go and what priorities EU should have. 

[Zoraptor]

That Jared has been seizing supplies and doling them out for political and financial gain/ influence has not exactly been a secret. I wouldn't hold my breath for anything to come of it though, any more than I was holding my breath waiting for revelations from Epstein before he didn't kill himself. There will be a lot of very rich and well connected people who have made a lot of money out of this, many of whom will also be owners of the major media outlets tasked with reporting about it. To be blunt, people like Jeff Bezos- despite being theoretically a vociferous Trump opponent- won't be too keen on reporting this in the WaPo because a lot of the seized stuff will inevitably end up being sold on Amazon.

If Trump loses the election Kushner will be the fall guy, but will probably be on a plane to Tel Aviv the next day. If Trump wins, not even that.

 

[rjshae]

Not coming to a movie theater near you...

[ktchong]

Germany. Taiwan. New Zealand. Iceland. Finland. Norway. Denmark.

What Do Countries With The Best Coronavirus Responses Have In Common?

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by ktchong

[Volourn]

6 of 7 are white... and, I've heard from many that Asians are basically white +. LMAO

[Skarpen]

2 hours ago, ktchong said:

Germany. Taiwan. New Zealand. Iceland. Finland. Norway. Denmark.

What Do Countries With The Best Coronavirus Responses Have In Common?

 

The story about Germany is completely false. Merkel didn't spoke out until March (quoted 70% speech was march 10th) and Germany had first cases in January. In fact Germany was one of the countries scolded for not taking this virus seriously. So I assume all the rest is false as well and this piece of "journalism" is nothing more than trying to spin a narrative. 

[BruceVC]

2 hours ago, ktchong said:

Germany. Taiwan. New Zealand. Iceland. Finland. Norway. Denmark.

What Do Countries With The Best Coronavirus Responses Have In Common?

 

This is blatantly sexist  towards men  because you suggesting that men are doing a worse job at handling the virus than women  when in fact its all about policy and how countries were exposed to it. For example Italy had no real chance to stop the destructive spread initially because of little we knew about the virus and timelines around how we knew about virus spread 

But it does reinforce what you often say, how white people make excellent leaders...so I suppose I am not offended and wont call for an immediate banning of this post as it is so hurtful  to men 

[ComradeYellow]

Putin and Xi are doing a fascinating job at containing the virus in their respective countries so I'm not sure Kwong's angle on this one.

Edited May 1, 2020 by ComradeMaster

[Gorth]

2 hours ago, ComradeMaster said:

 I'm not sure Kwong's angle on this one.

Trolling

 

Link is useless unless you want to pay your way past the Forbes Magazine paywall anyway.

 

Edit: Or just draw some conclusions that are worthy of the article, like they are all sceptical at best, hostile at worst towards Beijing. So, never trusting the Chinese government may be the key to success? I don't think that was what he intended though.

[Raithe]

[Gorgon]

13 hours ago, Elerond said:

European Council or European Commission.

As European Council is just EU member states' leaders (plus European Council and Commission presidents who don't have right to vote if Council decides to held vote for any issues discussed) getting together  four times in year to discuss what direction EU should go and what priorities EU should have. 

I knew I got that wrong.

[Gorgon]

Got my Corona test today. They had this older crowd wrangler nurse who was a bit of an MC just in the way he layed out how to act to not transmit. If I owned a mall or something I would totally hire him. 

Once it was my turn I was in and out of the test site in less than a minute. 

[Elerond]

7 hours ago, Skarpen said:

The story about Germany is completely false. Merkel didn't spoke out until March (quoted 70% speech was march 10th) and Germany had first cases in January. In fact Germany was one of the countries scolded for not taking this virus seriously. So I assume all the rest is false as well and this piece of "journalism" is nothing more than trying to spin a narrative. 

I find it quite ironic that you say that about opinion piece which is not written by journalist of any sort but CEO of 20-first, a global gender-balance consultancy.

 

But with your logic everything that you wrote can because of that mistake assumed to false and nothing more than trying to spin a narrative 

[rjshae]

9 hours ago, Skarpen said:

The story about Germany is completely false. Merkel didn't spoke out until March (quoted 70% speech was march 10th) and Germany had first cases in January. In fact Germany was one of the countries scolded for not taking this virus seriously. So I assume all the rest is false as well and this piece of "journalism" is nothing more than trying to spin a narrative. 

The list also leaves out South Korea (248) and Australia (93), both of whom are doing well and have male top officials.

[Skarpen]

3 hours ago, Elerond said:

I find it quite ironic that you say that about opinion piece which is not written by journalist of any sort but CEO of 20-first, a global gender-balance consultancy.

 

But with your logic everything that you wrote can because of that mistake assumed to false and nothing more than trying to spin a narrative 

https://muckrack.com/avivah-wittenberg-cox

Quote "Writes for writes for HBR and FORBES, TEDx, FRSA" Who writes for journals? Could it be journalists?

[HoonDing]

I couldn't imagine why Iceland and its 50 inhabitants are doing so well

[213374U]

7 hours ago, Gorth said:

Link is useless unless you want to pay your way past the Forbes Magazine paywall anyway.

Disable JavaScript. Anyway, the article is garbage, so the paywall may be actually protecting you from losing a few IQ points.

Through liberal cherry-picking -Malaysia, Singapore* and Indonesia are all conveniently left out of the "analysis" as is, most glaringly, Belgium- and by connecting the dots by means of "with this therefore because of this" you can draw any conclusion you want, backed by "data", no matter how absurd.

The piece is just a glorified blog post -- neither news nor rigorous analysis. And people actually pay to read this tripe?

 

*Singapore's HoS is a woman, but her role is largely ceremonial (sexist pigs!); the HoG is a man.

[Malcador]

People click on ktchong's links ? Huh.

[213374U]

I keep telling myself that I need to make sure they aren't malicious.

[ShadySands]

I was just surprised that he posted something that listed Taiwan as a separate country.