General News Discussion Thread

[Cresselia~~]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/09/...TF1-q4XcB6FQCrFlSWUL4fHs4-FEQpcVBm3-xNPfGM6PI
Hong Kong March: Vast Protest of Extradition Bill Shows Fear of Eroding Freedoms

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/06/...Kw8m4rR-yyUgIZiyzRDX5_ryJsgAIr2GWKOddyt9Y-i6s
Over a million attend Hong Kong demo against controversial extradition law, organisers say

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia...C0_RIaICKdTrMqQbomsqXnNgUt6H2jX40oXbk2VhoiWkQ
Hong Kong protesters demonstrate against extradition bill




This is serious. Don't make jokes .

The Hong Kong government plans to pass an extradition law between Hong Kong and China, which can lead to many problems.
It means that anti-China political figures can be arrested and be sent to China at any time they like.
It also means that pastors, missionaries, and religious leaders of any religion can be sent to China at any time they like. (Because China is against all religion. They've already been burning churches and buddhist temples in China)
Basically, anyone can be caught and sent to China whenever China likes.

And after the protest of a million people, the Hong Kong government chose not to care. The Hong Kong government stood their ground and blamed protesters for attacking the police.

This morning, (the day after the protest) most of the mainstream newspapers in Hong Kong claimed to agree with the government, and started listing benefits of the extradition law.

I'm not exactly pro or anti China, but I think this particular issue is messed up.
There's already 1 million people on the street, and the government chose not to care?
The current government only cares about China? How much has China bribed them? More than our taxes?

 

[the pugilist]

This is serious. Don't make jokes like "There must be a very good Pokemon GO raid over there"

Personally, I came into this thread with a serious mindset and cracked up laughing at that line. I feel sentences like that detract from the point you are trying to make. Just let the mods do their thing for moderating tone imo.

The Hong Kong government plans to pass an extradition law between Hong Kong and China, which can lead to many problems.
It means that anti-China political figures can be arrested and be sent to China at any time they like.
It also means that pastors, missionaries, and religious leaders of any religion can be sent to China at any time they like. (Because China is against all religion. They've already been burning churches and buddhist temples in China)
Basically, anyone can be caught and sent to China whenever China likes.

And after the protest of a million people, the government chose not to care. The government stood their ground and blamed protesters for attacking the police.

This isn't anything new. The Chinese government has been doing this type of thing for years without any regard to the welfare of their people. See the 1989 Tianamen Square Massacre for the most famous example.

I'm not exactly pro or anti China, but I think this particular issue is messed up.

Refresh me, what is your stance on China? I remember the China discussion from a few months ago to be pretty heated.

 

[Cresselia~~]

Refresh me, what is your stance on China? I remember the China discussion from a few months ago to be pretty heated.

Depends on the particular situation, to be honest.
My nationality is British, but I live in Hong Kong because I like it here. It's still a nice place to live.
I think it will still take China between 5 to 20 years to remove all the freedom in Hong Kong.

You are right that China had been doing it all the time, and that China had been removing freedom in Hong Kong since 1997.
The thing is that China has been accelerating the process, especially with Xi Jinping.
Nothing much happened during Hu Jintao. Life was quite good back then.
Experts say it's because Xi Jinping had very different ideals compared to Hu Jintao.
Xi is not as open minded as Hu.
So I think it really depends who's president. They aren't all controlling.

And that acceleration from Xi is making the people in Hong Kong not happy.
Most people in Hong Kong want freedom and are scared of China.

But then, a lot of expats from USA/ UK live in actual Mainland China, and they say they like it there.
So maybe it's not as scary as we all thought.
I guess it's something we won't know until we actually experience it.

As for whether the government cares, I meant the Hong Kong government.
In former demonstrations, the Hong Kong government cared, and they'd cancel stuff.
However, with Carrie Lam (the current chief executive of Hong Kong) she chose not to care, which is way people are so angry.

My bottom line is that if they start banning facebook/ Twitter/ Youtube in Hong Kong, I'd leave.

 

[Cresselia~~]

Hong Kong will have a mass work strike on 12 June.
They will gather at Tamar park to have a "picnic".
This is because the Hong Kong government did not care about the protest.

EDIT: The police are now stopping random people on the streets and ordering them to stand in a line.
They have also banned Christians from singing hymns.
(They initially stopped a group of teenaged Christians from attending a prayer meeting, and then progressed to stopping more random people)

There are even rumors that China has prepared military enforcement.

Honestly this sounds quite scary.
Maybe I'll be leaving Hong Kong sooner than I thought.

 

[Myzozoa]

https://www.thenation.com/article/c...sXZ9VGTJ93BUlxHv-rDskJ0sy94nevm-YN_b-5sTsto1o

"
Over the last hundred years, borders have come to function much as serfdom did until the 19th century: as a means of restricting the movements of the poor. Some of us are free to hop continents, suffering only the discomforts of economy seats; for the wealthy, scholar Parvathi Raman points out, “open borders are already a reality.” Others, who the accident of birth deprived of the right brand of passport, die by the tens of thousands in the deserts and in the Mediterranean. Thousands more survive the journey only to be detained, caged, tortured, and starved, or dumped back where they started.

The planet’s most prosperous residents, meanwhile, have not been gracious about their good fortune. Manufacturing a “crisis” at the borders in order to justify their further hardening has for decades been a project of the super-rich, one achieved through years of investment in think tanks, media, and political candidates spouting “populist” rhetoric. Some of the individuals who have profited most from the creation of the climate crisis are the same ones demanding that the fictional boundaries that disfigure the planet be reinforced with a violence that is all too real. One quick for-instance: The main, long-term funder of the anti-immigrant movement in the United States is the Colcom Foundation, which relies on the fortune of the Mellon Scaife family, and hence of Gulf Oil, now Chevron. To protect their investments, perhaps, Scaife family foundations have also funneled tens of millions into climate-change denial."

people think since they live in a rich country that they'll be safe from climate change and pollution, but I wonder, are they really rich enough? have they actually done the math? rich enough to pay for police investigations and firefighters when those services are privatized? rich enough to afford their own walled compound? rich enough to fight off other rich people's private armies? I bet most ppl who think they'll be safe couldn't even pay an American health care bill w whats in their savings account, but somehow think because they live in europe they'll be saved from climate change by their wealth. anything to continue with the delusion that their survival is not connected to the ecology of the planet.

 

[termi]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1139237781664874499

Well, Iran is doomed. It's blatantly obvious that the US government is making up lies about the Middle East in order to justify an imperialist war once again, but who's really going to effectively oppose it? In any case, if you're an American who intends to vote in the Democratic primaries please immediately drop the thought of voting for anyone who doesn't staunchly oppose the oncoming war with Iran (I have my reasons to believe that even if an anti-war candidate were to be elected nothing much would change, but hey, it's worth a shot I guess).

 

[Asek]

trumps actions have already screwed iran and alienated them further from the global community. the attitude towards JCPOA (nucelar deal) was difficult to watch and sunk an agreement that was working as intended. by all accounts iran were holding there end of the deal and trumps pulled america out of it because ofc they wants more and left the eu to try pick up some of the pieces.... but is there much support in america from actual constituents for another war of aggression? i get the military complex / israel / saudis would support a war on iran, but the sentiment i gather from the american public is that they are quite opposed to fighting another war in the middle east. i think iraq killed support for these kinds of wars for the foreseeable future and i dont see the rest of nato being gung ho like they were previously.

 

[M2H]

My better judgement tells me that a war with Iran isn't an option for the United States right now, and will not happen.

Geopolitics is basically a giant chess game between countries with nuclear weapons and Iran is protected by Russia and China.

Trump will likely escalate the conflict in some way, such as through sanctions or other means, but I refuse to believe that a rational actor would directly step into war with a Russian ally.

 

[Cresselia~~]

My better judgement tells me that a war with Iran isn't an option for the United States right now, and will not happen.

Geopolitics is basically a giant chess game between countries with nuclear weapons and Iran is protected by Russia and China.

Trump will likely escalate the conflict in some way, such as through sanctions or other means, but I refuse to believe that a rational actor would directly step into war with a Russian ally.

I doubt China is a threat in terms of military. I think it's only bluffing.
China can cause a dent in the economy, but I doubt they can do anything with their military.
Not sure about Russia though.

 

[Myzozoa]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...M6Ti8zjzYXwyOxKyZrxET-H2hrhUqwDFXHrehsPCbKz9E

lol guess it was a drone that attacked the tanker in the persian gulf? strange. i think this time the flimsy evidence of provocation just might work, the whole play here is to make it seem like iran is somehow this big threat to 'the global economy' to get it (support) up domestically and internationally for another big war in that region

 

[orch]

Trump had a big interview claiming that he didn't want to have a war with Iran on Fox news. I wouldn't be so quick to accuse Trump for being responsible. It could be an intelligence agency or military branch trying to trigger a war for their own agenda. I hope that Trump will actually stand firm and stick with what he said for this one... A war with Iran is just stupid.

 

[GatoDelFuego]

Trump had a big interview claiming that he didn't want to have a war with Iran on Fox news. I wouldn't be so quick to accuse Trump for being responsible. It could be an intelligence agency or military branch trying to trigger a war for their own agenda. I hope that Trump will actually stand firm and stick with what he said for this one... A war with Iran is just stupid.

He also did an interview where he said his new tax plan would cost him and his rich buddies a fortune, and then it didn't. Don't pretend like trump isn't capable of uh, lying

 

[orch]

He also did an interview where he said his new tax plan would cost him and his rich buddies a fortune, and then it didn't. Don't pretend like trump isn't capable of uh, lying

Of course, he could lie. That's why I'm saying that I'm hoping that he'll stick with his words for this one. I'm not blindly defending Trump in that post.

 

[orch]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...00-more-troops-to-mideast-over-tanker-attacks

The Pentagon (CIA) is authorizing 1k troops to install an USA military base. Not happy about this development.

 

[Cresselia~~]

Slovakia Welcomes Its First Female President — And She’s an Environmental Activist

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/co...cU-35WRcMHJPKl95flCRlTSxTN0BLdjYEy3PYJg2_Kd5A

 

[Pyritie]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1140885366360203264

send help

 

[Myzozoa]

send help

dw russia sent you the whole tory leadership, was there something else you needed?

 

[Myzozoa]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamese...5X9xznW-Wfek5_SRbkEOF8lS5yMGwii4#60a255394473
"
Despite nations worldwide committing to a reduction in carbon emissions and implementing renewable energy through the Paris Agreement, the IMF’s findings expose how fossil fuels continue to receive huge amounts of taxpayer funding. The report explains that fossil fuels account for 85% of all global subsidies and that they remain largely attached to domestic policy. Had nations reduced subsidies in a way to create efficient fossil fuel pricing in 2015, the International Monetary Fund believes that it “would have lowered global carbon emissions by 28 percent and fossil fuel air pollution deaths by 46 percent, and increased government revenue by 3.8 percent of GDP.”
"

unsurprising results from the suicide cult of mainstream political economy, which is really just socialism for the political class and serfdom and enslavement for the rest. when people wonder how to pay for x/y/z program: cut the military, cut corporate subsidies for polluters.

 

[Rugi]

 

[orch]

We can take a breather for now. Trump called off an escalation for Iran. We'll see if the swamp manufacture other situation.

 

[dice]

quite alarming that the cessation of our terrorist threat is being framed and celebrated as trumpian Prevail over '''''''the swamp'''''', instead of interrogated for its intentional psychological warfare and hard power posturing toward the populace.

 

[GatoDelFuego]

Crazy how the swamp makes people do things

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-bored-of-venezuela-as-maduro-clings-to-power-report-2019-6

 

[orch]

Why is only right wing media covering UFOs? This is a serious security concern unlike bombing brown people to plunder their natural resources.

 

[orch]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...as-13-trillion-of-debt-with-below-zero-yields

Clownworld finance strikes. This is an investment advice: get out of boomer paper contracts.

 

[Myzozoa]

All the ufos are either mistaken reports or drones, it's weird that as drone drama dominates recent news, especially events itt, that the connection isn't obvious