Essay by Eric Worrall
According to Sanders, we should reconsider confronting China over mistreating Uyghurs and bullying Taiwan, to improve the odds of a climate deal.
The US and China must unite to fight the climate crisis, not each other
Bernie Sanders
Mon 21 Aug 2023 20.11 AESTCooperation is not only in the best interests of all countries, but is absolutely necessary for the survival of the planet
…
In recent years, the rapidly growing Chinese economy has eclipsed the US as the world’s major carbon emitter. Right now, China is building six times as many coal-fired power plants as the rest of the world combined – the equivalent of two new coal plants every week. Last year, they quadrupled the number of new coal plants approved compared with 2021. Current plans will see China add as much new coal to its grid as used in all of India, the second largest coal user, and five times more coal capacity as the US.
It is no great secret the Chinese government is undertaking many policies that we and the international community should oppose. They are cruelly repressing and interning the Uyghurs, threatening Taiwan and stifling freedom of expression in Tibet and Hong Kong. China has bullied its neighbors, abused the global trading system, stolen technology and is building out a dystopian surveillance state.
The US is rightly organizing its allies to press Beijing on these and other issues. But organizing most of our national effort around a zero-sum global confrontation with China is unlikely to change Chinese behavior and will alienate allies and partners.
Most importantly, it could doom our planet by making climate cooperation impossible between the world’s two largest greenhouse emitters. We need to move in a bold new direction. Recent history provides some instructive examples.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/21/us-bernie-sanders-china-climate-change-cooperation
I find this line of argument beyond shocking.
I might disagree with Bernie Sanders on economics and climate change, but I always imagined he valued human rights and human dignity.
I never imagined Bernie Sanders would argue the case for throwing human rights under the bus, that he would suggest we should overlook state sponsored forced labor and genocide against an entire ethnic group.
Why is Bernie doing this? We can’t know for sure, but I’ve long maintained that belief in an imminent climate catastrophe is a moral corrupting influence, a moral slippery slope.
Once someone believes the world is on the brink of destruction, what crime is unimaginable in the service of preventing ruin?
People could potentially use belief in an imminent climate catastrophe, or any form of catastrophism, to justify anything, including, apparently, relaxing our criticism and response to brutal Chinese attempts to exceed the worst genocidal atrocities of the 20th century.
Wake up and smell what you are shovelling Bernie Sanders. Take a good hard look in the mirror before you write your next piece.
China doesn’t care about climate change – no nation which builds as many coal plants as China genuinely thinks anthropogenic global warming is a problem. But I’m sure the Chinese leadership thinks it is hilarious every time the climate superstitions of high profile US politicians like Bernie Sanders drive them to prostrate America’s dignity and values before the tyrannical Chinese leadership, in the hopes of winning a few noncommittal crumbs of climate deal encouragement from the emperor.
There is a contemptuous Mandarin term for people like Bernie Sanders, meaning something like wannabe Commie useful idiot—baiguo? I have heard of the term and Chinese attitudes, but Pinyin is rather hard to remember.
Baizuo, means white left. Not exactly politically correct, but Sanders is a good example of a white leftist.
From what I have seen, Chinese do not much care about Western opinions of themselves.
Especially among party members or their wannabes. If I had known I would work for a Chinese company one day, I would have kept up better with my Mandarin.
Anyway, a large fraction of my Chinese colleagues loved Americans, more so than say Germans or Canadians, but their propaganda from the top is against us now.
Nations don’t have feelings but humans do. It might be that Western opinions of Chinese policies motivate the Chinese government to behave differently than Western opiners expect. I can’t believe that the actual people aren’t happy, sad, angry or proud of how they are perceived by others.
The impression I have is that Chinese opinions of Westerners are as varied as Western opinions of Chinese, and as deeply held.
The accounts of the Opium Wars were as if the English and the Manchus/Chinese were in a contest to see which could be more arrogant, and who had the worst understanding of each other’s culture and economics.
Gweilo?? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gweilo
“it refers to white people and has a history of racially deprecatory and pejorative use” (in Mandarin, but not it seems in Cantonese – Mandarin is the language of the mainland, Cantonese is used in Hong Kong).
I think Scissor had the word I was thinking of. Gweilo is like the older Wade-Gillis kwai-lo, which I had seen translated as “foreign devils”.
Gweilo.
Ghost, as in not fully human. Not unlike the way Japanese soldiers viewed US soldiers that had surrendered. Or the way Native American tribes viewed each other.
Is this really that shocking? If you know socialist fundamentals, then Bernie is adhering perfectly to them. Ideology trumps all other truth, for a socialist. Even contradictions. If it takes us “unifying” with China to solve climate change; and if in due course, millions of Uyghur are slaughtered and millions of Taiwanese citizens are slaughtered; and we, the US, turn a blind eye to it all for the ideologically driven cause of “climate change” and to “save the planet”; then so be it. Bernie wants to win, even if he has to burn the world down to win/save it.
“Ideology trumps all other truth, for a socialist.”
For everybody. Everyone has a world view. Some people don’t know what their world view is, but they have one.
Everybody has a world view, but many don’t have their world view cynically twisted by ideology.
Everyone has a world view, correct.
However that is not proof that everyone will sacrifice anything and everything in order to push their world view onto others.
From my file of quotes & smart remarks etc.
“Liberals would burn down the world if they could rule over the ashes.”
Sorry, I don’t have the attribution.
Don’t believe western propaganda. China has neither need nor desire to invade Taiwan. The upcoming elections are expected to go the way of the party calling for reunification with the mainland.
Don’t believe Chinese propaganda – Xi Jinping is doing everything he can to take over Taiwan….and not really being secretive about it.
What, for example?
Taiwan has been part of China since an agreement between the US, the UK to seize it from Japan 1943, later referred to in the Potsdam declaration in 1945, and a ROC force, assisted by UK and US forces went in to accept the surrender of the island to the ROC from the Japanese.
Why does Xi need to lift a finger?
And what business is it of America’s anyway?
Xi isn’t a nice man, but then a succession of US Presidents since 1945 have been an awful lot worse, and Biden the worst of the lot. He despatched Boris Johnson to scupper a draft peace deal* signed by Putin and Zelensky in March of 2022, and now 600,000 troops are dead on the battlefields of Ukraine.
The US (nor do I exclude the UK and Europe from this) has been involved in 71 major conflicts since 1945. The Congressional Research services reports that US combat troops have gone into service 251 times since 1991, around the time of the collapse of the USSR.
Biden’s stated objective is regime change in Russia, which is explicitly against international law. Yet no one bothers. The old buzzard whispered into the microphone that he was going to do something about the Nordstream pipeline, voilà, it mysteriously blew up and now Germany is heading for economic ruin.
Self reflection is not your strong point.
*The draft peace deal included the complete withdrawal of Russian troops back to pre February 2022 positions in return for Ukraine declaring itself neutral and self determination for eastern Ukrainian regions that wanted it.
Biden making a comment is not evidence that this is US policy.
Biden doesn’t know what he’s talking about most of the time.
As to self reflection, maybe you should try it some time.
Self reflection as to what?
Are you seriously still maintaining that Ukraine is winning the conflict?
Or are you perhaps suggesting that Taiwan isn’t part of China?
Or are you maybe suggesting that America had nothing to do with Nordstream?
Maybe you’re going to tell me that America doesn’t have the most aggressive foreign policy the world has ever seen?
BTW, I noticed you picked one feeble point, the feeble Biden announcing an attack on Nordstream, but no comment on any other points I made, and nothing about regime change Biden has discussed. Is he, and his staff, also talking nonsense about that?
Weak Mark, very weak.
I said nothing about Nordstream. As to the rest of your rant, I confess, I didn’t bother reading it. When you get going on how the US is the source of every problem in the world, you get worse than Peta when he gets on a bender.
Perhaps you should read before commenting, I didn’t confine my criticism to the US.
You remarked on Biden making a comment. The only comment I referred to was that he “whispered into the microphone” was about Nordstream.
You are wriggling now Mark.
The Chicoms attacking Taiwan would be a really stupid idea. That’s why I don’t think it is going to happen. The Chicoms would be just shooting themselves in the foot by attacking Taiwan, and there is a possiblity that an attack on Taiwan could escalate to turning China into a nuclear wasteland.
So, a really stupid idea. A lot of pain for no gain.
The world, including China, needs a functioning Taiwan.
I used to think so too, maybe still do in some ways, but then came Putin invading Ukraine, equally foot-shooting. China’s economy is finally paying its piper, and Xi may need a good foreign distraction.
You are having a laugh.
Russia currently occupies around 20% of Ukraine. It has, for the most part, won the military campaign. See my response to Antigriff to understand why it’s not withdrawn from the country.
Ukrainians have spent the best part of two months on a counter attack and haven’t got past no mans land, or the ‘grey area’, some kilometres from the first of three lines of defence the Russians have prepared.
In the process of that counter offensive Ukraine has lost in excess of 40,000 troops. Ukraine’s total death toll to date since February 2022 is around 400,000 with Russia suffering, perhaps, 20% of that.
of 40m citizens some 14m have fled the country and will probably never return.
Russia was supposed to collapse under the weight of sanctions. Instead, it’s added some $600Bn to its sovereign wealth. Much of Europe is in recession, Germany is being deindustrialised and economically ruined since ‘someone’ blew up the Nordstream pipeline. Couldn’t have been Biden of course, he only announced to the world he was going to do it.
Meanwhile, America is self flagellating over climate change, LGBTQ+ policies, racism, immigration, and the IRA ‘saviour’ of society, whilst Russia and China are laughing their socks off.
The only positive thing to come out of all this is that NATO and the UN are finished.
The west had better get off the climate bandwagon PDQ or it will be steamrollered by the global south.
“The only positive thing to come out of all this is that NATO and the UN are finished.”
That sounds like wishful thinking.
I do hope you are correct about the UN, but I don’t think so. Not at this time anyway.
Not sure about Nato being “finished.” Nato just added Finland to its ranks and Sweden’s membership has been approved.
Instead of being finished, Nato may have re-found its purpose.
Putin had already invaded the Ukraine and seized territory from it twice, with no consequences. Why should he believe that this time would be any different?
Crimea had been Russian since Catherine the Great. It was handed over to Ukraine by the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev to be precise.
There was no international agreement on it because it was conducted behind the iron curtain.
Kiev brutalised and virtually starved Crimea, cutting off it’s principle source of water.
Kiev also embarked on a campaign of aggression against eastern Ukraine since at least 2014 when a puppet government was installed following the coup d’état against it’s democratically elected government which was turning to Russia as an ally instead of the west.
None of this is a secret. The coup d’état was, at best, stimulated by the CIA, as it’s known to have done in at least 26 other similar events of late.
In western Ukraine it was deemed illegal to speak Russian. Orthodox Russian Churches were banned, priest’s arrested and property destroyed.
The military campaign against eastern Ukraine by Kiev went on for 8 years and cost 14,000 lives, many of them civilian. Did America or the UK try to stop it? Nope. Did the UN intervene? Nope. No one helped, other than NATO arming and training Ukrainian troops.
Zelensky was elected in a landslide victory in 2019, fresh from the TV show with him as the lead role playing the part of a President. He named his political party ‘Servant of the People’ after the TV show.
In something less than a year, Zelensky went from being a TV star to President of Ukraine. And you don’t think that stinks to high heaven? How long did it take Reagan to get elected? Certainly much more than a year.
But sure, Putin’s the bad guy here. He only watched the Minsk accords violated time and again, and announced to the world by Angela Merkel as a sham in the first place, used to allow the NATO incursion into Ukraine to park nuclear capable ballistic missiles four minutes flight time from Moscow.
But that’s OK with you because Russia’s still a communist state as far as you’re concerned.
Russia agreed to abide by the 1954 Crimean change, when it was the most important SSR in the USSR.
Russia agreed to honor Ukraine’s borders, including Crimea, in 1994, in exchange for Ukraine surrendering its USSR nuclear weapons.
But go ahead, make Putin out to be the good guy. Ukraine doesn’t have to have a perfect leader to be better than Putin.
No matter what Russia does, it’s always the fault of the US. How tiring.
Very true. That doesn’t make Putin a nice guy.
I never said that Putin is a nice guy. That’s HotScot’s fantasy.
Where did I say that?
It’s a really stupid idea because Taiwan is already part of China and has been since 1945.
The Taiwanese adopted Democracy and the Chinese left them alone. The forthcoming elections are liable to be won by a pro-reunification party, so America pricks it’s ears up interested only in the control it excerpts over the semi conductor industry Taiwan operates.
It will be the same old tactic used by America for decades now. To avoid US troops getting killed, the CIA will foment civil unrest before the elections to scupper them, organise a coup d’état, and attempt to install yet another puppet government in a country it seeks to control.
But when a genuine coup d’état occurs in Haiti to kick out a French puppet government, all hell breaks lose with the former Detroit drug lord, now President of Nigeria, roped in to send troops into the country to regain control of the Uranium mines the French so desire.
Since 1945, wow.
So the fact that it was independent for hundreds of years prior to the US given Taiwan to China as a war prize just doesn’t cut it for you.
You really need to get over your hatred of the US so that you can start viewing the world as it really is.
I see. So, it’s OK for Crimea to be handed over to Ukraine for 50 years, and it must stay there, but it’s not OK for Taiwan to be handed over to the Chinese for 80 years, and it should be handed back.
That’s your argument?
You are still living in the cold war era Mark. The world has moved on, but just not you and many Americans (and Brits it has to be said). You hate Russia for no logical reason other than McCarthyism and are terrified of China.
Instead of competing with them commercially, you would rather destroy them.
Well, you may get your wish. Biden and his neocons are just about insane enough to launch a nuclear strike, by accident or design, in Ukraine and that, my friend, will be the end of us all.
The Russian and Chinese have thousands of years of history. But 300 year old America turns up and decides its going to show the world whose boss, and adopts the most corrupt governmental system and people it can drag from the bottom of the barrel to do it.
The so-called neo-cons originally had a bug up their butts about the USSR because Trotsky lost out to Stalin in the post-Lenin power struggle. Since the collapse of the USSR, they have allied with the Left, who have a bug up their butts about Russia because it abandoned Marxism. Awful foreign policy meets awful domestic policy.
Who are these “neocons”?
I hear them talked about all the time, but noone ever names any names.
It gives me the feeling this is just a conspiracy theory based on nothing.
Names, places and events. That’s what we need. Not conspiracy theories.
No names, places or events are provided.
What should I think about that? That makes me think there is no substance here.
Your eagerness to excuse anything Russia and China do is causing to become irrational.
First off, Taiwan had been an independent country for several hundred years. After the war, the US gave Taiwan to China, who controlled it for only a year or two until the Nationalists fled there after the communists took over the mainland.
Russia gave Crimea to the Ukraine, then 50 years later decided to take it back, by force.
I had great hopes that Russia would be able to join the ranks of the civilized world. Unfortunately Putin took power. Russia is not communist, they have reverted all the way back to Czarist Russia with brutal dictators who murder anyone who gets in the way of themselves and power or money.
You are the one who is busy assigning bad motives to those who disagree with you.
China may have 3000 years of history, but Russia doesn’t come anywhere close to that mark. Any way, so what? Why does having a long hstory prove that Russia and China are always right, no matter what they do.
Your final comment gives me a clue as to what your motive is.
You resent that fact that a country that hasn’t existed as long as the countries you idolize has over taken them.
Gentlemen, please! Maybe we can all just agree that we have a common foe in the form of our respective (US and UK) ‘deep states’, both of which erode liberty at home and promote conflict abroad.
BTW, the US “gave” Taiwan to the Nationalists, the same group that fled to Taiwan and controlled it for many years.
The US gave Taiwan to the Nationalist’s?
When was this, and by what right did they accomplish that since Taiwan is still part of China?
It doesn’t matter who “fled” to Taiwan, that’s like saying the Mexican cartels fled to America so Mexico gave the country to them.
Your arguments are getting more and more bizarre.
You would be the first to say Biden is a bare faced liar, yet you give me this and expect me to believe it?
The US gave Taiwan to the Nationalist’s?
You’re the one who made the original claim.
As to your characterizations of my arguments, all you are demonstrating is your unwillingness or inability to understand any argument you don’t agree with.
The Republic of China is not the same as the People’s Republic of China.
“It’s a really stupid idea because Taiwan is already part of China and has been since 1945.
After World War II ended in 1945, the communists in China started fighting with the anti-communists in China for control of China.
The communists defeated the anti-communists, and the anti-communists moved to Taiwan in 1948.
“The Taiwanese adopted Democracy and the Chinese left them alone.”
The reason the Chinese communists left Taiwan alone was not a generous gesture as you imply, it was because the Chinese communists were not able to militarily conquer Taiwan, just like they aren’t able to do it today.
That’s the only reason Taiwan isn’t communist.
And Japan has about as much of a claim to Taiwan as does China, having ruled Tawian from 1895 to 1945.
The Chinese took Taiwan from the native Taiwanese, and then the Japanese took Taiwan from the Chinese. And then the Chinese Nationalists moved to Taiwan after World War II when Japan was not in a position to stop the move. So who owns Taiwan? Who has the right to Taiwan?
Japan says they will get involved if the Chicoms attack Taiwan.
Read all about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_indigenous_peoples
Taiwan was made a part of the Republic of China in 1945, after being liberated from Japan. Taiwan was never a part of the People’s Republic of China.
When it comes to politics, people and countries do really stupid things all of the time.
Politicians do really stupid things. The people of most countries, and the countries themselves are usually decent folks.
I have lots of American friends and they say “America is (was) great, just don’t mention the commies.”
It’s brainwashing on an industrial scale.
Not liking commies is just brainwashing?
So the fact that communists have killed well over 100 million people doesn’t matter?
So the fact that communism always involves totalitarianism doesn’t matter?
So the fact that Russian communism was aggressively expansionist, doesn’t matter.
Did it make sense for Hitler to start a war with Britain, France, Germany and the United States? Was it smart?
We may have seen “peak China.” China’s economy is in decline, the population is in decline (and aging). That may make China more dangerous and more prone to risk.
I think China likely won’t invade Taiwan because they figure they can take it without firing a shot. They just need to convince a few American that they will cooperate with fighting climate change if we support China’s claim to Taiwan. Typically, they will promise to assist with combating climate change in the future if we agree to help them now.
I wonder if this is the real “HotScot”.
True, I only have an impression of what he’s said in the past.
But this doesn’t sound like him.
HotScot
Who cares about human rights when there’s a planet to save?
/sarc
You need to delete “other” before “truth.”
Their ideology is not “truth,” just an ideology.
Sanders’ attitude is reminiscent of (in)famous British Stalinist historian Eric Hobsbawm when asked in a TV interview: ‘… if Communism had achieved its aims, but at the cost of, say, 15 to 20 million people – as opposed to the 100 million it actually killed in Russia and China – would Hobsbawm have supported it? …
… His answer was a single word: “Yes”‘ (Daily Mail Oct 2012).
Bernie is a card-carrying Communist of the Soviet school. He has been a commie for decades. Bernie has never valued human rights, to think otherwise is absurd. The kindest thing that can be said about Bernie is, he is a good administrator.
Bernie went to Moscow for his honeymoon.
Here’s a url for Bernie’s honeymoon:
https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/what-bernie-sanders-missed-his-soviet-honeymoon
I tried to put this link in the orignal post but the software says I’m “posting too quickly, slow down” and wouldn’t let me put the link in the original post. Let’s see if it stll thinks I’m posting too quickly.
There seems to be a bug in the edit feature. I’m having that problem as well.
Weren’t you even impressed with Bernie when that small bird landed on his podium during a speech in Portland Oregon?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/mar/26/moment-bird-interrupts-bernie-sanders-oregon-portland-rally-video
Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out. So true! I have known a few.
There are no constraints on progressivism, as every government intervention into economic activity creates new problems that ‘necessitate’ further interventions. The only possible outcomes are to either restore (classical) liberalism or collapse into a totalitarian form of socialism.
I can only imagine the Chinese Fascist* Party leadership shaking their heads in disbelief as to how easy it has been to lead on these American Progressive fools.
(* China hasn’t been a “communist” country for over 30 years)
Yes. What is USA?
I think European countries have been searching for middle ground. Imagine a world without nuclear weapons (I wonder if John Lennon could?).
Snarky, unclear, parenthetical translation – too-high stakes may have made WW3 too expensive for their generation.
I don’t have to imagine a world without nuclear weapons. We had one, in 1939.
If you read the writings of the Japanese leadership prior to WWII, you will find that they believed the US did not the will to fight back. They came to this conclusion because the US was failing to adequately fund what little military they actually had.
Troops were training with broom sticks instead of guns, because congress didn’t allocate enough money to buy guns for all of the troops.
There was a fatal flaw in our torpedoes that had gone undiscovered for years, because when training, sub captains were setting the depth that the torpedoes ran so that it went beneath the target ships. They did this so the torpedoes could be recovered and used again. As long as the track went under the target, that was counted as a successful firing.
What is it about some people and their belief that by disarming the good guys, they can make the world a safer place?
They don’t think there are any good guys. They think everyone in power is motivated by selfishness and greed.
Communist – Fascist – Socialist: all the same, 3 different shades of homicidal bullies.
Fascists dressed better, Communists worked incredibly slowly and methodically, but in the end they did whatever required to get and maintain power.
“Communist – Fascist – Socialist: all the same, 3 different shades of homicidal bullies.”
Exactly!
Authoritarian socialism in several flavors, rather like the differences between militant churches. Italian Fascism and Nazism were socialist, and it is a Stalinist trope to call them “right wing”.
What is the source of right and wrong by which he would judge the correct strategy?
The “Golden Rule” works for me.
Not confronting human rights abuses because to focus on climate change is as f’ed up as a 3 legged duck.
Bernie is despicable, the knuckleheads that vote for him are worse.
There are a lot of people who have been conditioned by the teachers union, that there is a free lunch out there for them. All they have to do is raise other people’s taxes high enough to pay for it.
Marxist millionaire barks again why can’t he fade into the sunset and take his millions with him……
ego
You imagined wrong. Bernie is openly socialist, which means he’s diametrically opposed to human rights and dignity when they get in the way of “grander” plans (see USSR, China, Cambodia, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. etc.). Remember, Bernie and his ilk would gladly throw anyone commenting on this blog in jail for wrongthink, since we disagree with him over the interpretation of scientific data on climate. He and his fellow travelers are evil, period.
“Bernie and his ilk would gladly throw anyone commenting on this blog in jail for wrongthink, since we disagree with him over the interpretation of scientific data on climate.”
I think Bernie would jail us, if he had the power to do so.
Don’t be so pessimistic, Tom! Bernie and his ilk would go WAY beyond just throwing us in jail! Given free rein the DC elites would spread the treatment of the Jan. 6th Fedsurrection prisoners across the country. Any and all who disagree with their benevolent diktats would get to experience a long vacation at the gray bar hotel with a large serving of psychological and physical torture on the side! I foresee attempts to set up gulags in our future!
“Most importantly, it could doom our planet….”
Senator Sanders,
OK Bernie, let’s go on a crash course game plan to get rid of fossil fuels say by the end of this decade. What do you think is going to happen to the economy as we phase out fossil fuels (and nuclear too if you so desire)? You get one guess.
Saying CO2 emissions are dooming the planet is an article of religious faith demonstrating one’s membership in a doomsday cult. We all can all die from either a climate catastrophe or from a collapsed economy wherein we all starve to death or freeze in the winter. That is some choice, isn’t it Bernie? Solar panels and wind turbines need fossil fuels for their manufacture and installation, so we can forget them. There is no way we can manufacture enough of them to replace fossil fuel and nuclear generated electricity anyway. I seem to recall reading that several billion solar panels would be needed just for the U.S. alone. And then of course, there is China and India.
In other words Bernie, there is no hope for us. It’s just a matter of how we all want to die in the years ahead. The Jonestown and Branch Davidian cults had nothing on this one. Which way do you prefer to go Bernie? Me? I’ll pass. At your age, you may go naturally before the end of the decade anyway. Maybe I will too.
Anyway Bernie, I imagine there are a lot of people out there (including me) who are not ready to check out from life just yet. The offramp for them (which I have already taken) in this doomsday scenario is to decide that the CAGW narrative is B.S. and to start looking at the science that says it is. The leftist MSM won’t do it because it undermines the narrative’s true purpose. So, all of those interested in the offramp need to either do their own homework or else just brush it all off as nonsense, and many have probably already done the latter.
Have a great day, Senator.
Yours Truly,
Me
Another sign of his inherent unfitness to prioritize in a way that is sensible and humane.
This ‘slippery (moral) slope’ began long ago, when the intellectuals fell under the magic spell of Soviet Russia and NAZI Germany for reasons which are the direct opposite of poor Bernie’s (ie, greater industrial production, not less). He is at least honest about China (unlike, say Biden). Yet it is the same mixture of state worship coupled to wishful thinking which leads him into dark places where he betrays his innate decency and generosity. A good man brought down by dreams.
I don’t think someone pushing to advance a system of government that has never had an end result different from tyranny and mass killing of humans HAS any “innate decency and generosity.”
Just the power lust of the desire to dictate how everything needs to be, as usual.
You know something? When you think you have seen the very depth of Climate Alarmism being expressed, and the strategy needed to resolve it, you can rest assured. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
This latest offering from the Alarmists will take some beating. Summarising his position, Bernie thinks it would be a good idea to overlook genocide in order to discuss climate change.
Well Bernie, let’s us guarantee your idea will find traction in China. I am sure XI will allocate as many officials you think are required to discuss climate change. The only precondition is, you must stop all criticism of China’s domestic policies….
The Malthusians are coming. All ideas welcomed, nothing is off limit to deal with the Climate Change crisis. Too many people consuming too much stuff you see. They have even come up with a catchy title.
The Great Reset.
Oh dear …
Just what sort of “climate co-operation” does Mr Sanders think is possible with China?
Maybe he should take a close look at how the deal between China and the Vatican is working out.
Bernie is a commie and the enemy of the West by definition. The problem is that his ilk have completed their March through the Institutions and via the MSM and education too many people have been brainwashed and cannot see through his and other Western commies and their lies.
The irony is that the China commies would use Bernie for pig food.
From the article: “According to Sanders, we should reconsider confronting China over mistreating Uyghurs and bullying Taiwan”
And murdering innocent Tibetans while stealing their country and destroying Tibetan culture.
The Chinese Communist Party is led by really evil people.
The U.S. Democrat Party is led by really evil people. Although they haven’t descended to outright murder just yet.
I don’t know if Bernie is evil or just real stupid. It’s one or the other.
What I’ve noticed about the behavior of the Democrats is that they have a tendency at times to make the U.S. Constitution subordinate to their party ideology. In other words, the constitution is no longer the supreme law of the land, at least not at all times.
If the Constitution does not address abortion rights, then the U.S. Supreme Court ruled correctly recently when it left the issue for the states to decide. I believe there is a constitutional article that leaves it to the states to decide. The Democrats didn’t like it because the ruling placed the Constitution above the component of party ideology that addresses abortion rights. The states can now outlaw abortion if they wish to do so.
If govt officials (the FBI?) were indeed colluding with Twitter (now ‘X’) to suppress free speech pre-Elon Musk, it was because things being said on Twitter about COVID and the vaccine that didn’t jive with the party’s belief system. That collusion, along with labelling dissenting opinions at ‘mis- or disinformation’, is a means of getting around the 1st amendment so as to silence or discredit that dissent. Again, the Constitution (and specifically the Bill of Rights) is subordinated to the party’s ideology and belief systems.
I don’t know if the Republicans are also guilty of such behavior or not. If they are, I haven’t noticed it as much. But, at any rate, placing party ideology above the Constitution is dangerous, even if it only happens with certain issues and at certain times. Anyone in this country who approves of such behavior needs to reacquaint himself or herself with the ideals that this country was founded on.
Just my two cents worth.
There was also the letter signed by most of the leadership of the FBI and DOJ telling various media and social media outlets that the Hunter Biden laptop story was just a Russian mis-information campaign and that all mention of it should be suppressed.
We now know that the government didn’t have a scintilla of evidence to support that claim, and that Hunter himself has admitted that the laptop is his.
There was also the so called documentation for the Trump/Russia collusion claims, that later turned out to be something that was cooked up by members of the Hillary campaign. The FBI pushed this document for years, despite knowing it’s true origins.
Moderators, the edit feature is still broken.
“I don’t know if the Republicans are also guilty of such behavior or not.”
No, the Republicans are not like that.
Your summary of the situation was right on the money: The Democrats are trampling on the U.S.Constitution and using the power of the federal government against Republicans.
Bernie should move to China – it’s where he belongs – get outta Dodge Bernie!
From the article: “and stifling freedom of expression in Tibet”
This is how Bernie described the rape and murder of Tibet by the Chinese Communists.
Yeah, I guess that would include stifling their freedom of expression.
Bernie so easily dismisses the murder of innocent people when it suits his political purposes. I would call that evil, if Bernie is aware of the real situation in Tibet, and I’m sure he is, so he is downplaying the murder of innocent people.
To the People of Tibet: Bernie Sanders will not defend you. Your desperate plight means nothing to him.
https://www.cecc.gov/sites/chinacommission.house.gov/files/documents/CHRG-118jhrg51694.pdf
And that’s just for starters. But sure, Bernie, let’s ignore ongoing genocide in favor of “cooperation” on a non-issue hyped up in the imagination of ultra-leftist loons.
Thanks for that rundown of some of the atrocities committed against the Tibetan people by the CCP that Bernis wants to ignore.
The CCP is undoubtedly the largest criminal organization in human history!
Unfortunately, the US government seems intent on following in their footsteps, and few of our young people are awake to it! Welcome to life in interesting times!
From the article: “I might disagree with Bernie Sanders on economics and climate change, but I always imagined he valued human rights and human dignity.”
Now you know differently.
The indoctrination in Tibet is about as bad as climate indoctrination is in the West.
story tip
WSJ
U.S. to Sanction Chinese Officials for Forcible Assimilation of TibetansState Department says Chinese boarding-school program deprives young Tibetans of their cultureBy James T. Areddy
Updated Aug. 22, 2023
The allegation by the U.S. government of forced assimilation of one million young people adds a powerful new level of international endorsement to long-running allegations from Tibetan support groups in the West and some U.N. officials that education programs run by Chinese authorities are designed to erode ethnic and cultural identity.
In a policy statement in February, three U.N. special rapporteurs for human rights stated that, “Roughly one million Tibetan minority children in China have been separated from their families and placed into Government-run boarding schools, forcing their assimilation into the dominant culture.”
It’s a Crime Against Humanity, what the Chinese Communists are doing in Tibet. They are doing similar things in Mongolia. Trying to destroy the culture and turn their young into good liitle “Chinese”.
If you want to destroy a culture, you attack it through the very young. That’s what all totalitarian governments do, they take over the education of the young and they brainwash them.
That’s what the American radical Left has been doing to American schools, and look where we are now.
Not for nothing the man’s initials, then.
The US and China must unite to fight the climate crisis, not each other
Bernie Sanders
If anyone believes such false prophets as Bernie Sanders, send ’em to a shrink. The ‘climate crisis’ is a dramatic production by power-hungry progressives, solely devoted to misruling the world – and Bernie is just a third-rate shill for them.
Once again, we have proof that bolshiecrats are riddled with extreme gullibility to go along with terminal stupidity.
Nah, some of them are criminally insane (read evil,) and some of them couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag with a box cutter!
What climate cooperation? China is building coal fired power plants as fast as they can.
Like most socialists and other creatures of the left, whether Sanders cares about human rights is very much dependent on the politics of the accused.
The most evil actions of humans were so often justified by the belief they were saving us from evil.
a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
Well, at least we’re not quite there. I seriously doubt their sincerity.
Bernie likes Communist dictatorships. He wants one here.
I must admit to being a hater. BS is on my list but it is a short list. Jane Fonda, S David Freeman, POTUS Bill and wanna be Hilary, and Obama call people who work hard to keep the lights on polluters.
They run there yap and take up space on the planet.
During
the Cold Warthe last Cold War, the US ignored human rights abuses in China. Was that the right thing to do?