Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Washington Post thinks China’s Coronavirus incompetence, lies and coverups, which directly led to the premature deaths of thousands of US citizens, is somehow fostering a new era of closer international cooperation.
The pandemic could be a call to action on climate change
By Ishaan Tharoor
April 24, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. GMT+10Amid its horrors and tragedies, the coronavirus pandemic has driven home a startling reality. Travel bans and lockdowns have cleaned the globe, flushing the murk from Venice’s canals, clearing Delhi’s polluted smog, making distant snowy peaks visible for the first time in years from the shores of the Bosporus. With humans in retreat, nature reclaimed what was once its own in whimsical ways: Goats strutted through villages, antlered deer grazed on manicured city lawns and mountain lions found perches by suburban fences.
…
“A good way to think about the coronavirus pandemic is that it is like climate change at warp speed. What takes decades and centuries for the climate takes days or weeks for a contagious disease,” New York University climate economist Gernot Wagner wrote last month. “That speed focuses the mind and offers lessons in how to think about risk in an interconnected world.”
…
In Washington, there’s a cautious hope that the urgency presented both by climate change and the pandemic may cool the geopolitical tensions between the United States and China and force greater global collaboration.
“We all breathe the same air and we’re all going to live with the same rising seas,” Michael Chertoff, a former head of the Department of Homeland Security in the George W. Bush administration, told Today’s WorldView during a webinar this week. “And whatever we may disagree about some things, we’re going to need to sit down with them and our like-minded allies and everybody else and figure out what can we do collectively to protect the global commons against either pandemic diseases or disastrous climate change.”
…
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/04/24/pandemic-could-be-call-action-climate-change/
Meanwhile back in the real world, China appears to be attempting to exploit Chinese Coronavirus outbreaks on US Warships with aggressive fleet manoeuvres. Asia Times thinks the Chinese are attempting to permanently push the USA out of the South China Sea, by presenting a show of naval force the USA is no longer able to match.
Not exactly the opening salvo you would expect from an outbreak of global peace and cooperation.
“Washington Post thinks China’s Coronavirus incompetence, lies and coverups, which directly led to the premature deaths of thousands of US citizens, is somehow fostering a new era of closer international cooperation”
At least Trump’s sarcasm sounded plausible. /sarc
Loydo
What did you think of the Michael Moore film? Nothing we didn’t already know, but you no doubt felt it useful to have the shortcoming of green energy pointed out in such a graphic manner?
Bear8ng in mind we are in the UK I hope that tidal energy can become useful, but we are decades away from that as all attention has been directed to wind and solar (solar! in the UK!)
tonyb
I haven’t seen it but the shortcomings of green energy are not new, nor is the delusion we can just continue bau by just substituting one for another. But neither is the need to phase out fossil fuel use – intersting dilemma is it not?
@Loydo
Actually, there is a solution, but it is probably even more delusional: we can get rid of fossil fuels by staging a “fake health pandemic” which will require the entire world to be quarantined. The demand for fuel will drop like a rock. We really need to get started on this, because the American Democrats will also need this to get rid of Trump. /sarc
You cannot have many epidemics fake or not before you run out of food and essentials.
This is a lesson what will happen if the greens take over – Poverty and unrest.
loydo
So do how do you resolve it? What is your ideal energy mix or perhaps that should be ideal real world energy mix for the next 30 years and then beyond that time period?
tonyb
How about start with an electric grid powered by 90% advanced, SAFE, nuclear – preferably two-fluid liquid salt thorium breeders, which can also
1) “burn” existing nuclear waste into safer (shorter half-life) elements, and
2) provide a steady stream of medical isotopes for cancer therapies – some of which have such short half-lives that they’re damn near impossible to extract quickly enough from solid fuel reactors, and
3) provide an ample supply of high-temperature fluid for high-heat chemical processes in co-production facilities thus “skipping” the inefficiency of converting low-temp electricity generation into grid power and then back to heat (example: aluminum smelting)
Of course China is taking the lead in both throwing resources at development of these reactors and … throwing money at Western Media to naysay them. The CCP is first and foremost a Propaganda Machine. UGH.
JSMill April 25, 2020 at 4:54 am
re: How about start with an electric grid powered by 90% advanced, SAFE, nuclear ”
Nuclear power alone is a bad choice for supplying grid demand that varies 2:1 over the course of a day; HALF your assets will be idle during low usage periods, and the ratio get even worse during temperate times of the year! Like in Texas this time of year, little domestic heating of cooling is required for instance.
Of course, some *new* nuclear reactors may be ‘throttleable to the 1/4 of max output with ease on an hourly basis, but again that is not effective use of a usually expensive asset (or ‘resource’). Present nuclear designs are economical when used as ‘base load’ (always running near max or rated output) geneating plants.
There are other alternatives now closer on the horizon, but discussing them ‘draws flies’ of the Bob Park (APS) scientifically-illiterate (e.g. MarkW) variety.
Yeah, the big nukes need a hill top reservoir to fill at night aka pumped storage aka battery.
Bad Creek or Raccoon Mtn for example.
But there are other nuke options:
https://www.nuscalepower.com/
No. We do NOT need the added headaches of Thorium. Sorenson is entertaining to watch but his fetish for that element is a real impediment to progress. We have enough 235U supplies to burn in conventional reactors or, preferably, MSRs to last for decades if not centuries. Focus on the real MSR breakthrough: cheap, bulk fuel, higher burn up, atmospheric pressure operation, passive safety, etc.. Leave the added headache of proliferation/diversion risks and the cost of batch or continuous reprocessing for when we actually need it.
LeBlanc lays it out quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8Rg9V7JXic
New/old. MSRs can be made in smaller modules, say 50MW. And they can load follow and idle more readily than your typical LWR/PWR/BWR. The French have also done some load following with their fleet. I honestly don’t know the numbers or impact on efficiency but they get 80+% of their electricity from their nuke fleet and have some of the lowest electricity costs in Europe (Sweden/Norway get to cheat because of all their hydro).
Pointing out that your favorite scam artist still can’t attract a single investor makes you scientifically illiterate?
Interesting.
MarkW April 25, 2020 at 5:56 pm
Pointing out that …
—————–
Be it known, MarkW is a scientifically illiterate.
You (and several others) have been pointed out to be fools on this subject, because, it’s decidedly outside your limited field of knowledge LET ALONE expertise. You continuing further on this just means you’re an ass, as well as being stupid.
In your jackassery, why don’t you look up Dr. Mark Nansteel, Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley. Tell him what you think of BrLP and Dr. Mills’ work, moron. In the meantime review the reports written by Dr. Mark Nansteel of the University of California, Berkeley on this subject:
Report: https://brilliantlightpower.com/pdf/Waterbath_Calorimetry_Data_and_Analysis_031120.pdf
Test protocol: https://brilliantlightpower.com/pdf/Waterbath_Calorimeter_Protocol_031720.pdf
Since there has never been a need to phase out fossil fuels, what’s the problem?
We need to watch the death rate in the period after this virus. It is likely that the death rate will drop below the normal average because the virus mostly takes people who would have died soon any how.
We see the same effect with heat waves. The peak of deaths during heat waves is followed by a dip in the death rate as the heat wave simply takes people a little sooner than they would have normally died.
It is after cold snaps that the peak in the death rate is not followed by a dip, as cold kills any kind of person, and is effectively non-selective.
Lockdown = less highway death and less hospital accidental death, death rate should increase if we get our liberties back.
Tennessee is all for it and opening for business.
Give me liberty or….
We could throw in Green New Deal for a three way contest and have a contest 🙂
Once again loydo demonstrates that the only data she will accept is what she is paid to accept.
China’s incompetence, lies and cover ups are well documented.
An alternate view is that China had many more infected and dead from this corona virus than it reported. It has already recently updated the death numbers by about 50%, but this still appears to be way under what really happened. The Chinese population are not dumb and they certainly wont be impressed with what has happened to them. So Xi’s hold on power may not be as solid as he wants everyone to believe. He and the CCP are going to be very embarrassed by the international legal challenges that are coming because of the CCP’s failures to contain the virus as required by their international obligations. The best way to hold on power in such circumstances is to create a diversion. Arrests in Hong Kong, locking missile radar onto Filipino boats. Using overwhelming force to rid the US from the South China Sea? What we don’t know is how far this might go.
Can’t we all just go along to get along? Submit. This is WaPo running interference for its Green Blight and China clients.
I’ve been saying one outcome of the current situation is Chinese troops in the the streets of the good ol’ USA. Coming to your hood soon? May need more than pop corn for that movie.
Only bright spot in that scenario would be the local NWO lovers won’t be spared as they will find the NWO never cared about them to begin with.
The sheep are fat, perhaps this is the lead in to the slaughter.
That would make a good movie but I think it would bring about real targeting of Chinese, by Americans that aren’t sheep.
Scissor: Unfortunately there’s way more Chinese than Rednecks.
And don’t forget how the Viet Nam experiment worked out.
Quantity has a quality all it’s own.
But, unlike the global warming scam I think we’ll see the primary outcome of this one earlier rather than later. Could be for the better, or worse, time will tell.
I don’t know how Chinese soldiers would come to the streets of America unimpeded, unless you are suggesting they would be invited by the NWO, via the American Communist Party. I hope it doesn’t come to that.
I do know that in general, the Chinese people are conditioned to follow orders and they don’t do well without someone giving them orders. It’s far easier to chop off a snakes head and less dangerous that grabbing a snake by its tail.
Having lots of soldiers is not the same being able to fight a trans ocean war.
First you need to get there along with all the stuff to fight a war
Also you need warships that can cross the ocean and fight. Do you recall the Russia CV that was sent to Syria a few years back Before it got through to the Med they were begging for fuel for it.
Its not sailing the seven seas these days Seems to have sink in dry dock and also caught fire speaking of fires ,,, check this out, marshmallow time
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32980/a-fire-has-broken-out-on-chinas-massive-new-type-075-amphibious-assault-ship
smoke em if you got em
michael
Vietnam was won bu us on the battle field, the Tet offensives cost the North Vietnam nearly their whole army, yet here we were told it was a defeat to American power by our media. By 1972 the north could not safely operate in the south. The North look at our political situation and figured they could out last us they were right. By the fall of the South we had drawn our fighting forces and the Demorats had cut off funding to the south, the Demorats wrote the book on how to lose a war.
Now since you history seems only to start with Vietnam let us look a Korea. That were the US and China really did fight a war, in that conflict the US lost a little over 50,000 the Chinese lost over 1,000,000. At losses like that china cannot win they only have four times our population, if you don’t know I will tell you the US is the third most populated country in the world. Korea was fought to a stalemate because the US commander were not allowed to bring the full power of the US military to end the war, due to the fear of a nuclear war, when I say full power to end the war I am talking conventional forces and not limiting targets. The same was true in Vietnam.
I’m reminded of a conversation between a German general and a Swiss ambassador.
German: How many soldiers does Switzerland have?
Swiss: (made up number) 100,000
German: What if we were to invade using 200,000 soldiers?
Swiss: Each of our troops would have to shoot twice.
There may be more Chinese than Red Necks, however;
1) The Chinese are in China, not here. Before they can shoot at us, they have to find a way to get here.
2) The Chinese population tends to be old and heavily female.
3) Those Chinese that are male and in the right age groups tend to be spoiled because they have grown up as the only grandchild of 4 grandparents.
4) The rednecks will be defending, the advantage always goes to those on defense in such battles.
Scissor: Guess it all comes down to how many nukes and how much oil they have.
Of this I am certain: they have plenty of bullets and plenty of trigger fingers.
Hope they are not like US and choose stay home.
Could get nasty if they don’t.
Middle West of Asia a case in point.
My bad, China has an excess of males, not females.
“I’ve been saying one outcome of the current situation is Chinese troops in the the streets of the good ol’ USA. Coming to your hood soon?”
The Chinese will regret doing something stupid like that.
They don’t want to set foot on American soil. Americans have guns, and will use them. Americans are tougher than the Chinese military. We’ll prove it to them, if they are ever so foolish as to think they can invade our nation and get away with it.
Remember the Korean war? The Chinese do. Remember the Chinese dustup with Vietnam over land? The Chinese do. They got their nose bloodied by Vietnam.
So the last two real military fights the Chinese got into, they have lost. The only military success the Chinese have had in recent times is the murder of Tibet where they attacked those fierce pacifist Tibetans.
The Chinese military has a long history of losing. Military battles are decided by psychology as much as they are by hardware. Just because the Chinese have some nice, new shiny military hardware, does not mean they have the will to fight. They might start a fight, but they might not be able to sustain it when the going gets tough, and belive me, the going will get tough for them if they try anything..
American troops and people definitely have the will to fight. We’ll take you on anytime you say. Come and get it. Let’s see how tough you are. That’s our attitude.
The PRC Army is not a factor globally. Until the PRC have the first rate naval and air assets to support a global expeditionary deployment their huge Army is regional concern, not a global one.
Tom A: We can only hope their cultural introspection keeps them at home. It has b4, that’s why europeans took over NA.
That said, today they can build power plants including nukes much faster than us now. That’s not speculation on my part, I’ve seen them do it and us not.
So let’s hope they stick to minding their own business unlike us.
But, if they choose not too I’d bet on the bicycle riding masses of construction workers over fat, diabetic couch potatoes…but maybe we can bamboozle them with IT or maybe they already did it to themselves.
Wait, they made our IT. But we’ve still got our “service sector” to put up against them…want any fries with your order?
US military is more set to overthrow the US than to deal with a real invader, look at it’s structure:
https://www.cfr.org/article/demographics-us-military
But I forgot, US D&I would win the day…you know working from home…but wait…most construction workers don’t get to work from home.
Hand ’em a gun and tell ’em to get to work…free ticket…open borders or no…
I think it could like like that dessert swarm movie back b4 the turn of the century, esp if the NWO backs it.
NWO b wanting to protect their investments over there after all.
re: “That said, today they can build power plants including nukes much faster than us now. That’s not speculation on my part, I’ve seen them do it and us not.”
Two risks to your statement (IOW straight-line projections rarely work out): Gates and Mills; Gates with Terrapower and Mills with Brilliant Light Power.
Gates: https://www.terrapower.com/
Mills (4-24-2020 bus. plan): http://brilliantlightpower.com/pdf/Short_Business_Presentation.pdf
I wouldn’t worry about ChiCom troops. I’d be more worried about arm-banded Antifa members & indoctrinated university students.
Same difference?
Within China, the CCP can cancel a life like a bank can cancel one’s credit card, at least if they think they can get away with it. Undoubtedly, more succumbed to the virus than the CCP but have no doubt that many political adversaries were disappeared during the chaos.
“Using overwhelming force to rid the US from the South China Sea?”
Good analysis, Brent.
And yes, the Chinese sailing their ships around has nothing to do with U.S. preparedness and is no more of a threat now than they were before the Wuhan virus showed up.
You know, most American sailors are young and strong, and most of them will get over a Wuhan virus, and all of them will fight, whether they have the Wuhan virus or not, assuming they are able to carry on normally otherwise.
The Wuhan virus is not goig to knock out the U.S. Navy.
Wow. The jingoism is strong in this one. Beat beat beat those drums.
Conflict has been coming for several years. It is just a matter of timing.
Since 1949 is more than a few years, but okay.
No. Since about 2010.
Jingoism presumes an optimistic outcome.
Acknowledging that a rapidly militarizing de-facto Fascist regime that has been spewing hateful propaganda for seventy years, controls numerous strategic global supply chains, controls a majority of its rival’s mass media, has purchased the affections of its rival’s whorish political elite, has brokered away or stolen virtually all of its rival’s technological advantages, almost certainly has peppered said rival’s military command with moles, and is, BTW, a nuclear superpower in its own right, might be an immediate threat is hardly an optimistic assessment to me.
And don’t fergit thars way more of them than us.
We’re fuct.
“And don’t fergit thars way more of them than us”
There were more of them than us during the Korean war, too. It didn’t help the Chinese. The Chinese would launch large “Human Wave” attacks on U.S. Marines, outnumbering the marines ten to one, and the marines said as long as they had ammunition for their quad-50’s, they would just mow the Chinese hoards down like wheat in a field. They kept coming and the marines kept mowing and then it was over.
So large numbers don’t always help you in a battle. China cannot depend on their numbers to carry the day. Not then, not now.
Care to actually present an argument?
“Washington Post thinks China’s Coronavirus incompetence, lies and coverups, which directly led to the premature deaths of thousands of US citizens, is somehow fostering a new era of closer international cooperation.”
Mr Trump sometimes thinks so too:
Press Conference Feb 7 2020
“Now we have a deal with China. I just spoke to President Xi last night, and, you know, we’re working on the — the problem, the virus. It’s a — it’s a very tough situation. But I think he’s going to handle it. I think he’s handled it really well. We’re helping wherever we can.
But we have a great relationship. It’s incredible. They respect us again. They didn’t even respect us. What they were doing to us — they didn’t even respect us. (Applause.) They respect us again and we respect them.”
Tweet March 27, 2020
“Just finished a very good conversation with President Xi of China. Discussed in great detail the CoronaVirus that is ravaging large parts of our Planet. China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!”
Hold your friends close and your enemies closer.
It is idiots like Obamah that make idle threats and create wars because it shuts down negotiating between the partys.
There is clearly a world conflict coming. Too many people will have been killed, too much damage has been done. This is an Archduke Ferdinand event. The question is how will this be resolved.
Start by calling Xi evil and see where this takes the world. Better start dusting off the bomb shelters.
excreta may hit turbines sooner than we think..
I read chinas sent a med team to NK
so the rumoursof fatboykim being crook seem to be correct
he turns his toes up his newly reinstated sister as agitprop n media mouthpiece is in a spot to control media pdq
meanwhile elsewhere(ZH) item on how USA and SK would be planning to go into NK fast to take control
uuh huh and we all reckon thatd go without a hitch or dissent from the nation concerned dont we?
between utter idiots like the WApo and the mentioned above
the lockdowns n go withouts may well be considered a trial run for some seriously nasty times coming
re: “Too many people will have been killed”
The deaths of the ‘weak and infirm’ demographic have been “front loaded” into the yearly flu cycle; are you of a panicky mindset on this, or is this a mistaken impression of mine?
I’m reading your prose as if SARS-Cov-2 has hit us hard, present tense, and the body count you refer to is not some future, yet to be fought battle.
Hold your friends close and your enemies closer.
Exactly, especially those enemies that you still see potential value in negotiating with. Now concerning the US marx-stream media, there’s no negotiation, so Trump goes after them.
One would think Stokes is smart enough to realize that.
“…. Coronavirus incompetence, lies and coverups, which directly led to the premature deaths of thousands of US citizens” I had to read that twice to see whether Eric was talking about the Chinese or Trump himself?
And what did your idiotship decide?
“And what did your idiotship decide?”
I don’t think Trump knows what to decide at the moment. Seems he no longer wants to answer questions at briefing (and probably a good thing for his re-election chances).
Look you can blame the Chinese all you want and it seems that is fair enough given they did mislead. Disasters like this are rarely the wrong doing of one person or group. It is impossible to ignore that Trump sat on his hands for over a month (Feb -March) while the virus spread through the US. Sure he did the travel ban thing but that was all wiped out in the following month of “do nothing, she’ll be right.”
His (well documented) denial through those crucial weeks will go down in US history as one of the biggest mistakes ever made by a sitting president. That inaction cost the States 10’s of thousands of lives when you compare the outcomes for those countries that did act. And let’s not forget those numbers are still climbing.
are you a product of CNN and liberal news..or what?
If “racist” Trump had listened to the democrats we still wouldn’t have bans at all
democrats, lib media, all of them were screaming their heads off and calling Trump a racist
During the time when the Chinese were lying to us, Trump acted based on those lies.
Therefore it’s all Trumps fault.
Simon really is as simple as he portrays himself.
Latitude, recently Biden put forth a commercial where he proclaimed that he would have done more against the Chinese earlier than Trump did.
The usual suspects leaped all over Biden for being a racist. That ad was quickly pulled from the internet.
Once again, simon can’t see the reality.
In the mind of a leftist, any fact they don’t agree with becomes a lie, and any attempt to explain why what they believe is wrong, is a cover up.
On the other hand, implying that simon actually has a mind might end up being a bridge too far.
MarkW
And once again… Mark defaults to insult than insult. Now…. if you area able, tell me where I am wrong, so we can have a grown up discussion.
Latitude
“If “racist” Trump had listened to the democrats we still wouldn’t have bans at all”
I think you will find “restricting” travel from China was not an original Trump idea although he would have you believe it was. Lots of countries did the same thing. But it was a good call for sure…. among rather a few not so good ones.
A more recent quote:
https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/14/donald-trump-accuses-china-lying-dangers-coronavirus-12557671/
So was there new information arising between March 27 and April 14 on the possibility of human to human transmission? Or just a newly perceived need for someone to blame?
Blame for what?
US unpreparedness.
You mean unprepared for the (so far) 2.2 million deaths? https://tinyurl.com/yaxyvrj5
Or for the shortage of hospital beds? https://tinyurl.com/ybgeh6tx
Information may have come to light between March 27 and April 14, however the information was from earlier.
Once again, Nick feels the need to cover up for the Chinese by blaming Trump for not acting on information the Chinese hadn’t released.
The new information between March 27 – April 14th was US deaths jumped from 1,614 to 30,081.
Trump says China and the WHO lied about the severity of Coronavirus, and I believe the evidence supports this assertion.
I thought Coronavirus was a serious problem back in January, but I started from the position of not trusting the WHO and China. There are plenty of people who took a different view, and I understand their reasons.
For those of us who have followed what is happening in China for the past fifty years it is abundantly clear that many ordinary Chinese have suffered greatly because of the ideology and actions of their leadership. Does Mr Trump believe that President Xi is a good guy or is this simply because because Xi is cordial and co-operative in their meetings?
Could this be a strategy that, while praising the Chinese people and their leader, Trump is simply setting them up against each other – the former who are suffering and the latter to prove that he really cares about them? Could it be that he is giving Xi an opportunity to keep his word but giving him enough rope to hang himself? Perhaps Trump would do the same with the Iranian leadership if they were prepared to talk politely with him even if only pretending to want to improve the relationship between Iran and the US.
I might not like Mr Trump’s method of lavishing praise on people who do not deserve it but his actions towards China and North Korea show that his words cannot be taken simply on face value. Trump’s opponents are all playing politics so why should he not also want to play politics?
re: ” Does Mr Trump believe that President Xi ”
WHY the two different titles? Are you aware that Donald J. Trump is STILL the office holder of the Office of the President of the United States of America. Why not also “Mr. Xi”? Do you have CPC (Communist Party of China) sympathies? Once could be inclined to think so …
Alternate post: You JUST might be a ‘numpty’ if you can’t properly identify the president of the US.
I meant no disrespect to President Trump, but used this title deliberately because of the way Nick Stokes addressed him. I believe Trump is far more in touch with ordinary Americans and small business people than the Democrat politicians and perhaps many Republican politicians would care to admit.
I am also aware of the stark contrast between President Trump, who is legally elected President with nearly 63 million adult votes (and 57% of electoral votes), and President Xi who is in office merely though the votes of a clique of less than 3000 (out of 1100 million adults).
By attacking me you show you have missed my point (which Nick Stokes also appears to have missed): the Chinese leader is a wily fox but the American leader may well prove more cunning. This would explain his strategy and style. With a careful reading you should have gathered this.
Michael, I recommend you read Trump’s old best seller book “The Art of the Deal”, written long before he thought of the presidency. I has 5 stars on 4000 reviews and it will make you an expert on Trump. I’m sure Xi and every other leader has read it. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B000SEGE6M?ref=dbs_p2d_P_W_kindle_available_T1
LOL! Ever hear of the iron fist in a velvet glove Nick? I don’t think you really buy into what you said! Just stirring the pot for anyone but Trump. I mean after all Team Trump has given the PRC an unprecedented economic spanking and still has sanctions on them as he continues to warn US and international commercial concerns to get out of the China. He says good things about conversations with Kim Jung-un also, but you can’t believe that he is going to take long showers in the night with the guy he called “Rocket Man”? Do you believe Nick that when senators refer to each other as “my friend from the state of…..” they usually mean it?
“Do you believe Nick that when senators refer to each other as “my friend from the state of…..” they usually mean it?”
I think he does..
rah’s description of the interaction between U.S. Senators is a good example of what is going on with Trump and Xi. It’s diplomatic speak. Nick wants to make more out of it than is there.
“It’s diplomatic speak”
Did you ever hear President Obama lavishing such praise on China or its leader? I wonder what you would have been saying if he did?
LOL! During Obama’s presidency the PRC was on a fast track to supplant the US as the #1 economic power on earth. During Trump, the US economy grew at an unprecedented rate and all talk of the PRC overtaking the US came to an end. But Nick and all the left whines about what Trump says about China’s leader while ignoring that accomplishment.
Dr. Stokes:
You mean for example:
“’Everybody’s been impressed by his — you know, his — his clout inside of China after only a year and a half or two years,” Mr. Obama told business leaders in Washington. “He has consolidated power faster and more comprehensively than probably anybody since Deng Xiaoping [China’s leader from 1978 to 1992].’”
https://tinyurl.com/ya37lgy3
In the above case, since you asked, I’d say Mr. Obama was just a bit green (and not in the enviro-sense) that he wasn’t president in a country more aligned with his and Dear Leader’s similar philosophical beliefs on governing. A statist is a statist is a statist and all that.
Here’s another example: https://tinyurl.com/yapce83l
And another one: https://tinyurl.com/ybd2xq8y
And another one: https://tinyurl.com/y6udupba
You’ll find more if you look around a bit.
“Did you ever hear President Obama lavishing such praise on China or its leader?”
Or North Korea…. the man love there is strong.
Not quite as “strong” as Obama’s lurve for him though, wouldn’t you agree?
“When I served as a senior sanctions official at the State Department in the Obama administration from 2012 to 2014, the government generally focused on one or two major sanctions programs at a time. Under President Barack Obama, Iran was the clear priority between 2010 and 2015, and Russia was the priority from 2014 to 2016, with other sanctions programs substantially lower on the list. But the Trump administration is aggressively pursuing sanctions programs against three countries as first-tier policy priorities—Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea—while also expending significant energy on the Global Magnitsky Sanctions program, which targets individual human rights violators, against Cuba, Syria, and Russia.”
https://tinyurl.com/y2agtqa8
“You mean for example…”
That is simply a factual commentary on Xi Jinping’s rapid rise and dominance within China. And he went on to say
““There are dangers in that. On issues of human rights, on issues of clamping down on dissent. He taps into a nationalism that worries his neighbors,” Obama said, noting maritime disputes in the region.”
Reuter’s headline for that report was
“Obama says China’s Xi has consolidated power quickly, worrying neighbors”
“You mean for example…”
That is simply a factual commentary on Xi Jinping’s rapid rise and dominance within China. And he went on to say
Nick posted ““There are dangers in that. On issues of human rights, on issues of clamping down on dissent. He taps into a nationalism that worries his neighbors,” Obama said, noting maritime disputes in the region.”
Reuter’s headline for that report was
“Obama says China’s Xi has consolidated power quickly, worrying neighbors”
Question for you Nick why did Oblama do anything about it, he continued weakening out military, sounds to me he was giving XI an complement and the go ahead.
Dr. Stokes:
So you’d argue that where TheObama praises Dear Leader, it’s not really that at all, rather just “factual commentary,” but where TheDonald praises Dear Leader, it’s Donald-China love?
Yes, TheObama was known to “go on to say.” But others went on to say:
“US President Barack Obama ‘has been very weak and compromising when facing China’s human rights issues,’ Chinese journalist Su Yutong told a Republican-party led US congressional commission hearing on China on Wednesday. Su, based in Germany, is also a human rights advocate and internet activist.”
https://tinyurl.com/y8ajp29k
Leave it to Reuter’s to tell me via headline what my president says rather than the words he himself uses.
“But others went on to say”
That is a journalist invited by Republicans to testify at a House hearing. She is telling them what they wanted to hear from her.
“Leave it to Reuter’s “
OK, here is Time
“Obama Issues a Warning Over Xi Jinping’s Growing Power”
The thing is, no-one but you is able to twist Obama’s words into a compliment. And the Chinese did not take it as such:
“Later yesterday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing needed to study Obama’s comments in detail before responding, adding that in principle, the steady development of ties suited both countries.
“It is only natural that we have different points of view on certain issues, but our common interests outweigh our differences,” Hua said.
Tao Wenzhao, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that rather than expressing such opinions Obama should have shown mutual respect and tried to understand China’s position, its development path and government.”
Nick, the fact that Obama was very bad at diplomacy is hardly something for him, and you, to be proud of.
Dr. Stokes:
So now anyone critical of China is just telling whomever asked them what they wanted to hear? Or is it just when it’s Republicans?
If I didn’t know better (and now I’m not sure I do), it’s starting to sound like my joke wasn’t a joke after all:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/24/the-state-of-missouri-sues-the-chinese-communist-party-for-its-virus-coronavirus/#comment-2977395
You’re sounding more and more like the Trump you criticize for not criticizing China.
Well thank you for the flattery, I do try to think for myself. But I can’t take the credit in this case. I’ve been using your own strict hermeneutic as I found it here:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/07/coronavirus-blowback-trump-to-withhold-funds-from-the-china-centric-un-who/#comment-2958525
“The thing is,” why do you apply one critical method with Obama and another one with Trump? I would think consistency should be paramount to avoid contradiction?
Ok, but quoting from your excerpt, Hua, like Obama, went on to say: “It is only natural that we have different points of view on certain issues, but our common interests outweigh our differences . . . ”
Sounds to me like Mr. Obama was pretty commonly interested with whatever it was that interested the Chinese. Or at least that’s what the Chinese said.
What say you? Are the Chinese trustworthy or no?
For example, in this March 21 quote referencing Hillary Clinton’s accusation of racial prejudice against TheDonald:
“Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian backed the former Democratic presidential candidate in a two-line tweet responding to Clinton’s tirade against Trump for his continued use of the terms ‘Chinese virus’ and ‘Wuhan virus.’ Clinton claimed Trump was ‘turning to racist rhetoric to distract from his failures to take the coronavirus seriously early on.’
‘It is true,’ wrote Lin on Saturday morning. ‘Justice always speak loudly.'”
Does it sound like TheDonald is really man-loving the Chinese as some would argue? Or was it just the Chinese ambassador to SA telling a Democrat what she wanted to hear?
If you think President Trump is speaking his mind in those quotes, your naivete is even greater than I thought hitherto, Stoke-san.
Stokes has gone full troll someone build the bridge for him to hide under.
Sad and desperate yet again, Nick.
Two cherry-picked comments – one nearly a month old and the other before almost 3 months old (maybe even before we have a confirmed COVID-19 death in the US) – don’t come close to painting the picture.
China is now refusing to allow an international investigation into the source of the virus within China and wants the US to “prove” it didn’t come from a US lab.
I guess you didn’t find any typos in the post, so this is the best you could do?
I’m trying to decide if Nick actually is as naive as he portrays himself to be, or if he’s being paid to make a fool of himself.
He actually seems to think that it’s OK for China to lie to the world, so long as Trump says nice things about Xi in a couple of press conferences.
The press takes Trump literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.
Good advice, but the haughty press can never understand!
Both the Washington Post and the China shills are misreading the US of A, bigly….
To your point, the last couple of minutes of this video are classic.
11:45 “They’re using this to see how much of your freedom they can take away”.
This where tinfoil can come in handy.
re: “This where tinfoil can come in handy.”
‘Probing the defenses’ of (what kind of/how much abuse) the proles (will take) is hardly tin foil hat territory.
Bezos is sucking up to China.
thinking of the money as always
all those clicks
Consider the origins of the first world war circa 1910 -1912:
– a declining empire (U.K.) no longer sure of its place in the sun, torn by internal divisions (the Irish question);
– a rising power looking to establish itself and desperately seeking international recognition with a political system unsuited for its rapidly industrializing economy (Germany)
– an alternative power starting to industrialise that could soon become a major competitor (Russia)
– a minor power wanting to expand its borders under an autocratic leadership and not really caring how it happened (Serbia)
– countries tied together by a set of alliances such that any misstep would inevitably lead to a broader engagement (e.g. France and Russia);
– a general belief that a major war was unthinkable due to its costs meaning that the other side would back down when push came to shove;
History doesn’t repeat itself, its just that the same memes keep coming back.
So who gets assassinated to start it? The Arch Duke of Serbia?
We are seeing the assassinations, by the tens of thousands. The question is, who pulled the trigger.
The “archduke” of Russia of course. Too much power in one pair of hands, his death would throw Russia into disarray and create a useful distraction
“useful” ???
Using the Chinese proverb, “Be careful what you wish for.” You might actually get it.
Hi JO’B
It wasn’t exactly a kind of ‘the Boston tea party’ that fat old duke came to Sarajevo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria
well if Kim jnr jnr falls off the perch you can bet someones going to yell it wasnae an accident
chinas docs going there are at risk, allies or not
Not right! The insecure empires were Russia and Austria
You got a bit of history there wrong. It was Austro-Hungarian empire who was expanding its borders by annexing Bosnia-Hercegovina after Turkish Muslim empire colonialists was defeated and ejected from the christian Balkan lands. People of B&H did not take kindly to one colonial power being replaced overnight by another one.
The old Austro-Hungarian colonies in Balkans are Slavic people, none of Germanic or Hungarian origin, race or language. The WWI that followed, it put right the wrongs of an oppressive Central European colonial power with Check, Slovaks, Slovenians, Croats and many Serbs finally becoming free nations.
Only after the Tree of Liberty had been watered by the blood of “patriots”(soldiers and civilians alike) for the better part of a century.
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I would think that the lesson on climate change From the pandemic is that if one is to reach zero emissions that the world needs to be locked down together , movements tracked and police states implemented and economies destroyed to get any reduction in emissions , except 10 x worse. Yeh ! That seems like a good idea.
1 case out of 7000 transmitted outside
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/04/07/2020.04.04.20053058.full.pdf
Mosk
Thanks for the link
Which beggars two questions; the first of which is it a good idea to lock people up in their homes to transmit the virus from one person to another, especially when family members may be going out to work or to shop and thereby bringing back the virus to start circulating in the home again?
Secondly, as so few cases are shown to come from geing outside should we not positively encourage that as being better than staying inside by way of walks, cycling etc thereby also providing exercise and getting vitamin D. Always granting there needs to be some social distancing
Tonyb
We the sheep are fat.
Next part might come as no surprise.
“Which beggars two questions; the first of which is it a good idea to lock people up in their homes to transmit the virus from one person to another, especially when family members may be going out to work or to shop and thereby bringing back the virus to start circulating in the home again?
its not a good idea. In China here is what they did
tested positives are separated from their families and put in
large unused gymnasiums for quarantine. Away from their families.
In Korea they have done several things, a mix of self quarantine at home (if they can)
or quickly converted facility ( about 7000 in all)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-south-korea-solved-its-acute-hospital-bed-shortage-11584874801
All this was known. UK and USA officials all knew or should have known that putting
people who tested positive back in their homes was a bad move. it destroys the effectiveness
of a lock down. See CNN anchor Chris Cuomo as a poster child for this.
We had a person break quarantine in Korea and infect 5 others. She will likely be fined
and now folks may get GPS tracked.
“Secondly, as so few cases are shown to come from geing outside should we not positively encourage that as being better than staying inside by way of walks, cycling etc thereby also providing exercise and getting vitamin D. Always granting there needs to be some social distancing”
yup. swedes travel to the park is up 84% while their travel into retail and the grocery store is
down more than locked downed countries.
keep your gatherings small. keep your distance. keep your hands to yourself. wash your hands
dont touch your face. wear a mask for other’s sake. watch out for highly touched public surfaces: hand rails, door handles,
elevator buttons, ATM buttons, etc. In china the strategically places boxes of tissues you
could use to open doors, etc. Staff cleaned constantly.
as far as we know the shit does not fly through air up your nose or in your eyes or mouth.
Did you get sick? well then YOU PUT YOUR FINGERS IN YOUR VIRUS ENTRY HOLES.
So you think you staying home is safe. marge goes out for groceries. She picks up a basket
handled by an infected person. She rubs her eyes. Bingo. She comes home to the
rest of the family. Opens the door. Hits the light switch to the bathroom. touches the faucet handle. Washes her hands. Touches the dirty faucet handle again. dries her dirty hands on the
towel everyone shares, hits the light switch again. and prepares dinner.
cross contamination is hard to control.
how do we know? New york is still getting cases.
re: “and now folks may get GPS tracked.”
It is sufficient to find out which cellsite/sector one’s phone is ‘camped’ on, or has registered with the system through to gain knowledge of a phone’s geographic location.
This is called “metadata”.
GPS NAVSTAR in and of itself tracks nothing. Location reporting can involve the use of the GPS NAVSTAR (or GALILEO, GLONASS etc.) satellite system, if subscriber equipment (“the phone”) is capable and if able (SOMETIMES this is impossible when inside buildings for instance.)
Two Aggressive Countries, China and Russia, empowered by buying friends or threatening them, one already captured the Crimea region and the other trying to control the South China Sea, and years of Joe/Hunter support and DNC/Clinton support, and President Trump is going to turn a blind eye to the Chicom-19 virus issue? Both said aggressive countries in dire economic straits due to collapse of cheap production for export (China) and a combination stupid/poorly timed oil production war with Saudi Arabia, and they have what left for them to utilize? Only aggression. Wait for it.
We better find reservoirs to store the oil glut. I’m sure China is trying to figue out how to store this bonanza. Oil is a major weakness of that country’s preparedness for serious conflict. They have a modest oil industry. They have large areas of carbonaceous shales but even with US help, they haven’t been able to make fracking work.
Similarly, they are not self sufficient in most of the major metals and even decent coal has to be imported from Australia. This is why they are buying up mining assets in Canada, US, Africa Australia and South America. I think there is 95% bluster with the Chinese right now because until Trump, they had their way with the US who provided the technology and capital to make them what they are today.
I worry about the fact that the US has filled all their Universities and research establishments with students from China and Clinton gave them space technology (Talk about pay to play, S’Truth!!). Before Pearl Harbour, Japan sent students to top science and engineering schools in US, too, and bought up millions of tonnes of steel scrap from US to shoot it all back at them.
Only bluster …right now. You could go ahead and dig up the new island they built without a lot of worry … right now. But this country is playing the long game.
USA = ~250 yrs before current events
Chin = ~5000 yrs before current events
In a long game I’m pretty sure who wins, esp if the new comers already lost before the oldies even got in the game on this side of the pond.
Maybe chin has as many diabetics nows as the us but I doubt it.
Look to Occam and Darwin for clues.
When was Crimea NOT Russian?
Harrabin has a version:
25 Apr: BBC: Coronavirus recovery plan ‘must tackle climate change’
by Roger Harrabin
Tackling climate change must be woven into the solution to the Covid-19 economic crisis, the UK will tell governments next week.
Environment ministers from 30 countries are meeting in a two-day online conference in a bid to make progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The gathering is called the “Petersberg Climate Dialogue”.
It will focus on how to organise a “green” economic recovery after the acute phase of the pandemic is over.
The other aim is to forge international agreement on ambitious carbon cuts despite the postponement of the key conference COP26 – previously scheduled for Glasgow in November (now without a date).
Alok Sharma, the UK Climate Secretary and president of COP26, said: “I am committed to increasing global climate ambition so that we deliver on the Paris Agreement (to stabilise temperature rise well below 2C).
“The world must work together, as it has to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, to support a green and resilient recovery, which leaves no one behind.
“At the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, we will come together to discuss how we can turn ambition into real action.”
The informal conference is co-hosted by the UK and Germany…
The EU is already set on delivering a green stimulus. The Commission’s Green Deal chief, Frans Timmermans, said every euro spent on economic recovery measures after the COVID-19 crisis would be linked to the green and digital transitions.
“The European Green Deal is a growth strategy and a winning strategy,” he tweeted.
“It’s not a luxury we drop when we hit another crisis. It is essential for Europe’s future.
Meanwhile, China appears set on its current carbon-intensive development path, and President Trump says the US will rescue struggling fossil fuel firms…
Even in Europe there’s a degree of push-back against the idea of a green stimulus .
Markus Pieper, an MEP from the centre-right German CDU party, told the magazine FOCUS that the EU’s sweeping plan for investment in clean technologies would no longer be possible.
He said: “The Green Deal was a gigantic challenge for an economy in top shape. After the corona bloodletting, it is simply not financially viable.”…
But the UK climate economist Lord Stern told BBC News: “The immediate priority is the current Covid crisis – but then we have to build for the future.
“Timmermans is right and Trump is wrong. We should only be bailing out firms that are going to contribute to tackling climate change.
“They don’t have be be ostensibly clean tech firms at the moment – but they do have to be committed to cutting their emissions in line with international targets.”
The high-level segment on 28 April can be followed live from around 3:10 pm here.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52418624
former Reuters’ CAGW gate-keeper, Alister Doyle, seems to have moved to Climate Home in recent times:
23 Mar: Climate Home: Next UN climate science report to consider lessons from coronavirus
UN climate science reports due in 2021 will examine the links between pandemics and human pressures on the natural world to guide policymakers
By Alister Doyle
Zoonotic disease was mentioned in the last round-up of scientific knowledge by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013-14, but the pandemic potential was not a focus.
That will change in its next assessment report, due to be published in stages over 2021-22 as the main scientific guide for government action on global warming. Each section is likely to be delayed by a few months, IPCC scientists say…READ ON
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/04/23/next-un-climate-science-report-consider-pandemic-risk/
He lost me at “flushing the murk from Venice’s canals”.
Venice’s canals are just as dirty as they have always been. They only appear cleaner because there are no longer propellers and barge poles stirring up the silt on the bottom. As soon as traffic returns to them, they’ll be just as murky as ever.
Notice in the graph that there is a weekly spike starting with Day 10, extending for four weeks, probably reflecting pauses in reporting on weekends. The graph doesn’t identify Day 0, so we can’t tell what day is involved, but I’d guess it’s Sunday.
Michael Chertoff reeks of the collective and global common experience of non events of climate change tied into a pandemic crime of mass deaths. This guy has all the inspiration of a flat tire in a snow storm. And I didn’t even mention he Washington Post.
article: “We all breathe the same air and we’re all going to live with the same rising seas,” Michael Chertoff, a former head of the Department of Homeland Security in the George W. Bush administration, told Today’s WorldView during a webinar this week. “And whatever we may disagree about some things, we’re going to need to sit down with them and our like-minded allies and everybody else and figure out what can we do collectively to protect the global commons against either pandemic diseases or disastrous climate change.”
In the most-affected states here in the US, the average age of death from Covid is in the 80’s.
Those are hardly “premature” deaths.
See this for an example:
https://www.mass.gov/doc/covid-19-dashboard-april-24-2020/download
Scroll down to: “Deaths and Death Rate by Age Group”
Ah so your view is they were going to die soon anyway I so it doesn’t matter they got finished off a little early by Covid-19.
“Not exactly the opening salvo you would expect from an outbreak of global peace and cooperation.”
To those on the left, world peace always starts with communists taking over.
Or perhaps covid eradicating all the hairless monkeys.