World Politics

[MetalCaveman]

3 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said:

 

At least it's not your actual officials. Or, you know, the head of your government doing that...

 

But yeah, I'm with you, if he dies it's his own damn fault, I only care because of the destabilizing effects it could have. I'll save my thoughts and prayers for the people who didn't actively make this worse.

 

That'd be my main concern as well, what happens if he dies? I don't know enough about politics over there to know how it'll go, just hope it all goes well, if it does come to that.

 

From what I've seen on twitter and some other parts, not many are hiding his disdain for the dude, so, yeah, reap what you sow, just don't take everyone else down with you.

 

9 hours ago, Mister Jack said:

So how long is it going to take for an angry mob to burn your president at the stake? Because it's feeling long overdue at this point.

 

Considering El Chapo's lawyer said the cartel has orders to ensure his safety while he's in their territory... The best bet we have is the 2021 election (assuming we make it that far ), if we can remove his party from the senate/congress then there's going to be a real opposition that could just say "no" every time he comes up with some dumb shit. Failing that, well... Who knows how that'll go, resentment and anger is welling up in certain parts, and if he continues this way there's no telling what'll happen, though the pessimist in me thinks we'll just have to endure the whole 6 years, and then try to rebuild from whatever's left after he's gone, IF he wants to go.

 

9 hours ago, Mal said:

There's a lot of reasons why COVID-19 isn't the flu but I hope (in vain?) this can get it through to people that still believe in that fairy tale. Like when's the last time you heard of a head of state getting absolutely clobbered by the flu? And make no mistake, if he is vented then he's in a really bad spot.

 

In my eyes, I'm wondering how Mexico is still together and if it will be together after all this. Seems like the president is one step before from telling the country to eat cake.

 

We can only hope, though I'm sure people will find a way to justify their fantasy of it not being serious, given everything else they've ignored so far, not to mention conspiracy theorists are having a field day with this.

 

As for your second point, who knows. This president has used the good old divide and conquer approach. Everyone that disagrees with him, regardless of background, social status, country of origin, whatever is a "conservative/neoliberal/fifi/member of the mafia of power" that wants to stop his fourth transformation from coming to fruition and therefore wants to destroy the country. His followers eat that shit like there's no tomorrow, and while he's at his lowest approval rate ever, that seems to have no effect on him and his policies, for that's neoliberal data from neoliberal methods (his words). His followers follow suit, completely ignoring the world around them and going after everyone that disagrees.

 

Every president has been corrupt, every single one of them, many don't even try to hide it, but at least some of them did some good stuff here and there to somewhat balance things out, yeah build a house of 200 million and claim it was 500 million so your construction company can pocket the rest, who cares, you also built and renewed some hospitals, schools and roads. Yeah you keep that property bought with tax money, after all, you also created the emergency fund that's meant to keep the country afloat in times of crisis.

 

If this guy did some good stuff no one would care about his pet projects and whatnot, but every "good" thing he does comes with so many strings attached, or with so many baggage or outright negative aspects that it's hard to just let it go.

 

My parents lived through the Echeverria administration and the Salinas circus, and even they agree this guy is pushing it.

[Mister Jack]

10 hours ago, Mal said:

There's a lot of reasons why COVID-19 isn't the flu but I hope (in vain?) this can get it through to people that still believe in that fairy tale.

I hate to say it but there's a new conspiracy theory spreading on Twitter now that the virus itself is a hoax because they're filming the outside of hospitals and HURR DURR IT'S QUIET OUTSIDE WHERE'S ALL THE SICK PEOPLE?! This crisis is really shining a spotlight on the depths of human stupidity.

 

Speaking of which, hey Dean, has this whole coronavirus thing changed any attitudes about Brexit from what you've observed? I can only observe from the outside and I definitely don't understand the intricacies of British politics but it doesn't seem like Britain is in a very strong position to deal with this right now.

[deanb]

It is still somewhat disturbing that the wife of one of our actual officials is pumping the line. (and he's now in isolation as family member has it...). She writes for the Daily Fail so has the ear of thousands unfortunately.

 

Really hating the current spin and wording around the pandemic. Boris will 'fight' the disease, NHS staff are our 'frontline', the nation is at 'war' with corona. They're on this constant chase of their Churchill moment. Especially given the implication that anyone that dies didn't fight hard enough, or that deaths of NHS are inevitable as a part of 'war'.

 

Oh as for destabilising effect they're already naming this various lines of succession. It'll be my dads MP, the recently promoted chancellor, that'll be third. Tories don't go in for "deputy leaders" like the other parties so they don't really leave a clear "who is next". I'm sure Cummings will have someone else's ear soon enough, hardly like the Tories are planning to have Johnson's flapping about on stage for the next 5 years anyway. Put him out front, get the election, et tu brute, then stick whatever right-wing columnist into the top seat.

[TheMightyEthan]

I learned yesterday that apparently Trump has a financial interest in at least one company that manufactures that drug he keeps hyping...

[MetalCaveman]

Reading about this OPEP stuff and man... This is going to be fun.  

 

Given how the president said that it was by his decree that fuel prices had gone down, I wonder what'll he say if/when they go back up?

 

In response to the lack of help from the government, the chamber of commerce and the national banks association have decided to draft their own plan, they'll see what to do in response to the pandemic and the lack of support from the federal government.

 

The president of the chamber of commerce called for the removal of the president in 2021, though as I've said, his party controls congress and the senate so that's unlikely to go through.

[Mal]

You guys need a Fauci-like figure.

[MetalCaveman]

He wouldn't last.  First time he wen't against the president he'd be "asked" to leave.

 

In other news, this is going to be a thing:

 

https://heraldodemexico.com.mx/estados/jalisco-pacto-fiscal-federal-obras-en-el-pais-tren-maya-enrique-alfaro/

 

The governor of Jalisco has said they're considering leaving the Fiscal Pact, what this means is that Jalisco will no longer send what they get from IVA, IEPS, ISR, and other taxes to the federal government, everything will be kept in-state, depending on the reaction from the federal government, worst case scenario is: after several fines, closing of federal offices and more, Jalisco is no longer part of the republic (I mean, worst, WORST, WORST, ideally it should never make it that far).

 

The kicker is, other states have said the same thing, including Nuevo Leon, which, together with Jalisco amounts for pretty much everything that's made and sold here, you name it, manufacturing, food, medicines, essentials, cleaning products, cosmetics, etc. Those two states alone handle so much of Mexico's production that losing them would pretty much be the end of it all.

 

Of course, the plan is not to go that far, simply to get the president to negotiate, what these states want is less spending on stupid shit, more spending on things people actually need*. Nuevo Leon also asks for a better share of what the federal government gives states, given that they're amongst the ones who provide the most tax money while receiving relatively little in return.

 

*Cancelling or postponing the new refinery, the new airport, the train thingy, and some other stuff in favour of more hospitals, maintenance and renewal of the electric grid, improving roads, etc.

 

How this plays out is going to be interesting, under different leadership we'd have a president who would be willing to sit down and negotiate, reach a compromise of some sort and move on. With this guy, who knows how it'll go, here's hoping for the best though!  

[MetalCaveman]

Business owners in Tamaulipas have said they'll stop paying taxes until the government listens to them.

 

Meanwhile, in Coita Chiapas... They're chasing werewolves. Really. People are saying they have seen/heard a werewolf around town, some have actually grabbed their guns and machetes and gone out at night hunting for the damn thing. Of course they ain't caught shit, but that won't stop them from trying night after night.  

[MetalCaveman]

 

 

First five mins, nurses and doctors from an IMSS hospital are saying they do not have enough resources to deal with the emergency, they've had to buy their own masks and other supplies with their own money. To bring attention to this, they requested journalists to cover what's going on. Apparently a cameraman was beaten by security guards from the hospital.

 

Doctors in other hospitals have complained about the same thing, Gatell and the director of IMMS on the other hand, claim that there's more than enough supplies, that they've bought enough for every hospital. So.... Where's the stuff?

 

Also, in the last week 5 doctors were murdered. Don't know if it's people that found out what was going on and tried to make it public, victims of those assholes that hate doctors because they "will infect us all" or something else (murders aren't uncommon here after all).

[MetalCaveman]

 

Welp, this is a thing. I don't watch much TV so I've missed most of this, but this is the latest in what seems to be a campaign from Grupo Salinas against Lopez-Gatell, undersecretary of health.

 

I've criticised him for his late response, how long it took for measures to be taken and how light these measures seemed compared to what other countries have done and the results they had. But I also can't deny he's doing what he can with what he has, and his reactions and responses improve dramatically when the president isn't around.

 

This however, is outright fake news. Calling him a liar because in an interview to the WSJ he said the model Mexico uses leaves many undetected cases. Meaning, there's way more infected than are being reported. Somehow, this has been spun into "Don't believe his lies, he's an idiot, we should all be able to go out, work and hang out with friends."

 

Yes it's true that they had said the current figures aren't up to date, but that should serve for people to take it more seriously, as there are WAY more infected that are being reported, NOT the other way around.

 

Also, something fun happened with some medical supplies. The contract was given to a Mexican middle-guy who has contracts with other companies, like PEMEX, to buy ventilators and other supplies from Chinese companies. He was all "well, we paid THIS much because they have increased the price of everything, but in the end our supplies are secured and they'll get here when we need them".

 

Then the Chinese company went "We.... don't know what you're talking about, we have no orders from Mexico or the Mexican government, and our products haven't and WILL NOT increase in price, particularly during this emergency."

 

Who's telling the truth? Who's lying?

 

Tune in next week for the stunning conclusion!  

[deanb]

https://archive.is/20200418182037/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-38-days-when-britain-sleepwalked-into-disaster-hq3b9tlgh

 

A decent read on some of the early (and ongoing) failures of the UK government. (it was behind a paywall, but really shouldn't given it's quite a key document). People are talking like we'll be wrapping up this lockdown in three weeks, but it's likely to be months and I think our government is just either afraid of the backlash of suggesting it (saying "three weeks" every few weeks for three months gets a bit less ire than "three months" right at the get go) or just totally clueless of what it will take. Given there's no reasonable increase in production of either PPE, test kits, or ventilators I doubt we're going to be out of it anytime soon. If the lock down lifts in three weeks as suggested it's going to skyrocket in cases and deaths.

We are also now more than two weeks into having no PM, which is rather alarming that we're not treating that as quite concerning at this point. We've no head of government to lead efforts and no parliament to scrutinise the efforts that are happening. It's a grand old failure of the system.

[Mal]

Ya'll been having anti-stay-at-home protests? While there's not a lot of them compared to the whole US population but, remember, South Korea's first spike was due to one person, Patient 31. Most of the ~10k infected can probably be attributed to her, directly or indirectly. Similar thing can happen with these folks.

 

So yeah... I want to work and work is generally elsewhere but I'm really hesitant to do so without a game plan that my company can work with. It requires not only state guidance but federal as well and we all know how well that is working. It also doesn't help that I am Chinese American. I feel that I may have a target on my back if I go to more Republican-leaning areas. Like, I feel that I may need to get life insurance, just in case...

[deanb]

Well today the Scum just ran a front page article on "pubs won't be open until Christmas" (with tiny "596 dead, more on page 4"). Given they're a murdoch rag no doubt trying to incite some kind of protest against the lockdown. Probably something from Tim Martin (runs the largest chain of pubs in the UK, was already against closures before they happened, and against paying staff if they had to close).

[MetalCaveman]

There's been some attempts at protests, some have been broken by the police, others sort of died out when few people showed up.

 

The Secretariat of the Interior issued a warning against TV Azteca, for telling people to disobey social distancing norms and continue with their business/daily activities as usual.

 

On another note, it sure is a fun time to live in a country that bases a good chunk of its economy on oil isn't it?  Yes there are hedges and there's supposed to be some kind of insurance, but no one knows the specific numbers of those, so it's hard to say how big of a hit we'll take.

[deanb]

Had my first interaction with a slightly crazy person today when commenting on a friends FB post. Complaints about lack of sun access and the recommendation from Public Health England to take Vitamin D. I had to try and convince them to not expose themselves to germicidal UV as a sunlight alternative (it'll kill viruses sure, but if you're in the room with one turned on it'll quickly make you smell like nicely done pork, and turn your eyeball to sandpaper).

[TheMightyEthan]

I mean, you're still allowed to go outside, aren't you?

[Mister Jack]

I can't help but find it bitterly ironic that it's the ultra conservatives, the ones who bought all those guns and have been itching for some kind of apocalyptic scenario so they have a chance to use them, who are out there in the streets screaming for everything to open back up because they can't stand not getting a haircut. And they say liberals are the coddled.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

The haircut thing isn't literal, it's some kind of dog whistle. I don't understand what it actually means though. Something racist no doubt.

[Mal]

Is it? I haven't heard of it yet and something like that would be all over Twitter. The way I see it, it's just that they want people back to work for their convenience and their pleasure. The people that do the jobs they want are quite frequently minorities and/or poor people. It's basically wanting the have-nots to sacrifice for the rich. To be fair though, I think a fair amount of the poor are willingly sacrificing themselves for the rich. Fucking madness.

 

Ranting now to blow off steam. Ignore if you want.

 

Of course, there is the real desire for things to go back to normal and for people to work so they can afford to live (26.5 million people filed for unemployment in the last five weeks). The folks that want that seems a bit scarce in the protests. Most people understand the need for such physical distancing measures but it is frustrating. My frustration though is not so much towards the SIP orders but the abysmal government response to help those in need. This situation is extraordinary so requires extraordinary measures. So far it has been half-measures that kicks down the problem down the road. Like how the fuck is anyone going to come up with X months of bills, rent or mortgage payments? I truly believe we need to lock down loans, bills and mortgages which in turn knock down payments and rent for the duration of this crisis. Just have people focus on staying healthy so when the times comes, we can slowly go back to do what we were doing... mostly. You're doing fine? Great! Enjoy the stimulus checks or return them. I don't care since it seems pointless to give it back for 1:1 tax credits unless it favors the tax payer like say 1:2, might be helpful for people who owe (back)taxes.

 

This virus is very real. You only have to look at Wuhan, Lombardy, Spain and NYC, among many other places. It has the ability to bring HC systems to their knees. With that said, I do not believe it circulated outside of China say before mid- to late-January in any meaningful way. It somehow went unchecked without slamming us? I just don't buy it from just that angle. Then you add in the sequenced genomes of different outbreaks separated by time and space. So yeah, I doubt anyone who had a bad flu late last year had it (it would include myself, I remember it since it was pretty shitty and it went through my family, bouncing around like crazy). My confidence lessens for illness back in late Jan/early Feb but I still find it unlikely since it can be the same flu that went around.

[MetalCaveman]

I think treating it as a dog whistle is giving these people way too much credit.

 

Today the government announced their plan to help businesses, well... some of them at least, they're focusing on small businesses first, formal and informal (not registered, don't pay taxes), thing is, they're only giving them 25k pesos which is... Not at all, I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it's 25k per employee, but I don't think that's the case. Either way, 25k if it's per employee it's not much, though for some people it'll be a saving grace, for a while at least, if it's per company then... it's nothing and from what I've seen, it's a one time thing, that after 3 months you have to start paying back with a 6% interest rate.

 

Also, the government is bragging about it's approach to dealing with the pandemic, which involves moving away from "neoliberal science" (whatever the fuck that means) which according to them is dependent on technology, at the same time, they seek to achieve "technological sovereignty" to ensure Mexico with Mexican work and Mexican made stuff will be able to handle the pandemic. So let's just ignore the president begging for some supplies from the US government, IMSS buying supplies and machines from China, and the Cuban doctors who were supposed to come and help us, yup, none of that happened, Mexico with Mexican strength alone will overcome this.

 

Meanwhile, doctors keep being attacked and the government says nothing about it, literally the only thing said about it was one "please don't do that" from the president, that was all.

 

Personally, I don't want things to go "back to normal" 'cause "normal" was fucked up, I'd rather we all take this chance to at least try and fix some shit, but I know that won't happen and we're likely to emerge from this worse than before.

[deanb]

16 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said:

I mean, you're still allowed to go outside, aren't you?

 

Yes. Though the person that started the fateful thread lives in a town centre flat so no garden out back and going out means directly heading through the town centre. On the plus side she hasn't had to complain about the loud music from the pub next door for the last few weeks.

 

I think the protests around the US are the inability for people to consolidate their own actions of constantly voting for corrupt republican buffoons with the fact they're now feeling the consequences of putting those people in power. The negative stuff was meant to happen to the others. It's easy for preppers to be all big and talk tall when they know there's nothing on the horizon (at least for them) and really it's power fantasy role-play but when it's suddenly there they shit the bed. It's realising that shitty healthcare is shitty, that stripping back the social security net to keep it from them for'ners means it gets pulled back for them too.

Plus Trump is clearly riling up people against blue and swing states. Making sure that they're stripped of any resources, while using the opportunity to consolidate power base and throw trillions at corporate partners.

 

8 hours ago, MetalCaveman said:

Mexico with Mexican strength alone will overcome this.

Sounds very similar to us. Constantly getting caught out in lies that we "missed out" on a joint EU scheme when government skipped on it because of brexit-y reasons. Now it's come out that the private corp hired to do some of the testing has lost a bunch of NHS staffs test results even though really testing should be done by the NHS (but our party wants to slowly strip out NHS to private firms even though that fucks up almost every step.

[deanb]

So, there's rumours Kim Jong Un is dead.

That bleach cure really isn't great, huh.

[Mister Jack]

I don't buy it. It's too good to be true.

[Mal]

Word from like China /East Asia is that he's a vegetable now or at the very least he's unresponsive. Chinese doctors were rushed in like a day or two ago. 

 

If he's out of the picture (dead or alive), shit is about to get wild. Kim Jong Un got a sister who can take over but rumor is (unknown how sexism plays a role) that she takes the cake as most bat shit insane of all of the Kims. So there is that or a power struggle during a pandemic. So yeah, international politics might get interesting soon. Not like it's not so already...

[Mal]

This sort of data, excessive deaths, from FT and other collaborators at other outlets is probably something to watch. COVID-19 deaths is a good measure to watch but excessive deaths of all types is probably the best. It probably paints a picture including who weren't tested and those who probably wouldn't have died if the pandemic wasn't going on.