What's in the News? 2.0

[The Lovely Tsaritsa]

I think this is a Trump-style rhetoric threat. Has Trump's way of acting rubbed off on previously sensible countries? Have we all plummeted to a lower level of diplomatic behaviour?

I think Mr Trump, only encourages many politicans, and people, for saying what already they think, for years.

[Hades]

The Washington Post is reporting that the Biden administration supports waiving patent protections on covid vaccines in a proposal before the World Trade Organization currently.

Which means that if approved, companies like Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Moderna and so forth would not be able to sit on their patents for years or decades before a generic variant can be produced in other countries, the way it currently is done.  And I'm completely fine with that, considering here in the US at least, taxpaper money was heavily involved in the research and development of the vaccines, and drug companies shouldn't hold a monopoly on life-saving drugs (at all really, but especially during a global pandemic).

[Oniya]

As I recall, the inventor (creator?) of the polio vaccine waived his own patent for similar reasons.

[Fox Lokison]

I think Mr Trump, only encourages many politicans, and people, for saying what already they think, for years.

I second this

[Kathadon]

What the hell is up with the west coast and Asian American hate crimes?!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/asian-american-father-walking-1-225240689.html

[Oniya]

What the hell is up with the west coast and Asian American hate crimes?!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/asian-american-father-walking-1-225240689.html

I don't think it's limited to the West Coast, but it pretty much started boiling over with that whole 'China Virus' thing that Trump was pushing.

[Kathadon]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/05/us/anti-asian-hate-crimes-study/index.html

"The area with the largest increase in reported anti-Asian hate crimes was New York City, which saw a 223% spike in early 2021 as reported incidents rose from 13 to 42 compared to the same time last year; followed by San Francisco with a 140% increase as reported incidents rose from 5 to 12, and Los Angeles with an 80% increase associated with a rise from 5 to 9 reported anti-Asian hate crimes.

go underreported due to the lack of mandatory national reporting requirements by police agencies, but also because of other factors that could deter victims from calling the police, such as: longstanding distrust of law enforcement, language barriers, and immigration status."

I'm not sure I buy "longstanding distrust of police" or "immigration status" for Asian Americans. Latinos Americans? Sure. Not Asians Americans. I also give a side eye at language barriers, that just rubs me as a racist stereotype.

[Annaamarth]

Uhm.  There are asian-american communities on the west coast of the US where fluency of English is not a requirement in daily life - and where having a "stereotypical" accent is considered both normal and, to a degree, expected.  I've seen people who usually spoke in a stereotypical west-coast american accent suddenly transition to that stereotypical accent when within that community.

Now, that experience was a long time ago, but the years (ugh, maybe decades) since, what have we seen?  Twenty years of war, the increased militarization of police, growing inequality, and a more-and-more obvious government by the minority.

We've also seen more sophisticated human-trafficking networks, which is one of the ways undocumented asians can enter the US - and can come with a mistrust of authority.

I'm not sure I buy "longstanding distrust of police" or "immigration status" for Asian Americans. Latinos Americans? Sure. Not Asians Americans. I also give a side eye at language barriers, that just rubs me as a racist stereotype.

I would totally buy this.  I would also buy it for eastern-european enclaves in the pacific northwest, for example.

But I'm biased - I think we fucked up the melting pot.

[Haibane]

I think Mr Trump, only encourages many politicans, and people, for saying what already they think, for years.

I second this

The issue is there is a big difference between holding an opinion and voicing it, or putting it into action and post-Trump I think political rhetoric has generally become more vulgar and less controlled, with threats of punitive actions waved about like political blackmail and that is something that was very rare before Trump.

[Humble Scribe]

Is Trump the disease, or just a particularly noticeable symptom? We had Brexit and the Tea Party and the rise of the far right in Europe long before the Tangerine Mussolini stood for election. There's a rising tide like in the 30s, and it's about all kinds of things, but maybe most of all the failure of globalisation to deliver for anyone except a monied elite.

[legomaster00156]

Trump was a symptom, but such an incredibly bad one that he exacerbated the disease itself.

[Fox Lokison]

Is Trump the disease, or just a particularly noticeable symptom? We had Brexit and the Tea Party and the rise of the far right in Europe long before the Tangerine Mussolini stood for election. There's a rising tide like in the 30s, and it's about all kinds of things, but maybe most of all the failure of globalisation to deliver for anyone except a monied elite.

I would argue a symptom, but I've covered that a fair few times in the white supremacy thread already so there's no need for me to ramble and repeat myself XD I'll spare y'all's eyes.

[Beorning]

Regarding the issue of LGBT rights in Poland: it recently came to light that one of our police training centers published a manual about "social pathologies" (such as substance abuse etc.)... which included the LGBT community as one of these:

https://tvn24.pl/tvn24-news-in-english/polands-ombudsman-chides-police-handbook-for-negative-approach-towards-lgbtq-5087246

BTW. The Polish ombudsman, Adam Bodnar, who intervened against the manual? Polish president Duda recently called him "anti-Polish" and, basically, incompetent:

https://notesfrompoland.com/2021/05/04/polands-human-rights-commissioner-is-anti-polish-for-criticising-own-country-says-president/

Another low for Andrzej Duda... but again, we're talking about a man who - when asked in an interview about brutal methods Polish police uses against women protesting against the abortion ban - cheerfully replied: "The police does a good job! After all, nobody was killed!"...  ::)

[Mechelle]

Politicians acting like children again...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56984886

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57003069

So...just because your country's fishing boats cannot fish off X islands without Y permit you think its okay to threaten the innocent people living on those islands with cutting off their power?

I think this is a Trump-style rhetoric threat. Has Trump's way of acting rubbed off on previously sensible countries? Have we all plummeted to a lower level of diplomatic behaviour?

This all seemed to escalate this morning, with both Britain and France sending a couple of naval vessels into the area, as the French fishermen sailed into St Helier harbour in Jersey. Fortunately, the local politicians in Jersey (which is not part of the United Kingdom, but a British dependent territory) were much more reasonable and expressed sympathy for the fishermen who made their way back home.

While Macron seems increasingly ridiculous in his statements, I do have to mention that Boris Johnson chose to send in gunboats and wrap himself in the flag on the very day that a lot of local, regional and national elections were taking place in Great Britain, What a coincidence.

I also wonder what conversations are like in the Johnson family, as Boris's father, Stanley, has moved to France and is applying for French citizenship.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jersey-news-live-france-uk-navy-b1842955.html

[Saria]

The Washington Post is reporting that the Biden administration supports waiving patent protections on covid vaccines in a proposal before the World Trade Organization currently.

Which means that if approved, companies like Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Moderna and so forth would not be able to sit on their patents for years or decades before a generic variant can be produced in other countries, the way it currently is done.  And I'm completely fine with that, considering here in the US at least, taxpaper money was heavily involved in the research and development of the vaccines, and drug companies shouldn't hold a monopoly on life-saving drugs (at all really, but especially during a global pandemic).

I would like to see this approved, and when it is, I would like to see it called the “‘Fuck Bill and Melinda Gates’ Resolution”.

For those who don’t know, one of the major vaccines being used right now was originally developed by Oxford University, using (almost entirely) public funding. Even cooler, Oxford University was going to open source their vaccine to allow people to manufacture it royalty-free, especially in poor or badly-hit countries.

What’s that you say? You know of the Pfizer, Johnson&Johnson, Sputnik, etc. vaccines, but have never heard of the Oxford vaccine? That’s because of Bill and Melinda Gates. They swooped in and showered money on Oxford, and convinced them to sell their vaccine to AstraZeneca. Oxford immediately walked back their open distribution plans, and Gates has said flat-out that he doesn’t want to give the vaccine technology to poor countries.

While there is plenty of blame to go around—the only reason this pandemic has been a major problem at all boils down to capitalist greed—Bill and Melinda Gates are arguably the primary reason for any vaccine shortages today.

[TheHangedOne]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/06/how-fascists-operate-desantis-signs-anti-voting-bill-behind-closed-doors-fox-news

Governor DeSantis of Florida signed a new bill, aimed at making it more difficult for people to mail-in vote. The media was barred from covering the event, except for Fox News, who was allowed the "exclusive".

[Lilias]

I would like to see this approved, and when it is, I would like to see it called the “‘Fuck Bill and Melinda Gates’ Resolution”.

For those who don’t know, one of the major vaccines being used right now was originally developed by Oxford University, using (almost entirely) public funding. Even cooler, Oxford University was going to open source their vaccine to allow people to manufacture it royalty-free, especially in poor or badly-hit countries.

What’s that you say? You know of the Pfizer, Johnson&Johnson, Sputnik, etc. vaccines, but have never heard of the Oxford vaccine? That’s because of Bill and Melinda Gates. They swooped in and showered money on Oxford, and convinced them to sell their vaccine to AstraZeneca. Oxford immediately walked back their open distribution plans, and Gates has said flat-out that he doesn’t want to give the vaccine technology to poor countries.

While there is plenty of blame to go around—the only reason this pandemic has been a major problem at all boils down to capitalist greed—Bill and Melinda Gates are arguably the primary reason for any vaccine shortages today.

AstraZeneca is still manufacturing and distributing the vaccine at no profit during the pandemic. Yes, they are entitled to declare the pandemic over in July, but even if they do, that would be six months' worth of vaccinating at cost, which is six months more than any of the others have done.

[Haibane]

Bill and Melinda Gates are arguably the primary reason for any vaccine shortages today.

Have you any evidence to back up this claim? The Gates Foundation has poured 60 billion dollars into vaccine development, so in fact the exact opposite of what you claim is true.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2373372/

[Haibane]

In other news in Myanmar the war against military dictatorship continues.

"They have guns, but we have people," one protestor is quoted as saying.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-57016528

[Annaamarth]

Have you any evidence to back up this claim? The Gates Foundation has poured 60 billion dollars into vaccine development, so in fact the exact opposite of what you claim is true.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2373372/

A few weeks later, Oxford—urged on by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—reversed course. It signed an exclusive vaccine deal with AstraZeneca that gave the pharmaceutical giant sole rights and no guarantee of low prices—with the less-publicized potential for Oxford to eventually make millions from the deal and win plenty of prestige.

Note that this says the Foundation, not Bill and Melinda directly. Also, we don't know what incentives there were - maybe AZ wouldn't have rushed the vaccine without the prestige hook of exclusivity, maybe the free-of-charge bit during the pandemic was part of the agreement.

Additionally, Bill specifically did say "No" to sharing the technology withvdeveloping nations, and cited reasons that seem grounded, fundamentally, in safety of manufacturing - which is a reason. I might even believe it - vaccine safety is a thing you don't really want to fuck around with.

However that is my opinion. Saria, I certainly also think yours is justified.

A report by Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network Ltd (AFTINET) notes that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's involvement in the partnership between the University Oxford and AstraZeneca prevented the vaccine from having an open distribution model.

If someone could find this report, it might be telling one way or the other.

Some of the language used in the India Times article is unfamiliar to me, so original context on Gate's comments might also be handy.

[Oniya]

If someone could find this report, it might be telling one way or the other.

Some of the language used in the India Times article is unfamiliar to me, so original context on Gate's comments might also be handy.

*cracks the old Google-fu*

Gotta say, their web-formatting is AOL-level.  Scroll down past the navigation tree to read the report.

https://aftinet.org.au/cms/node/1932

[Tolvo]

This sounds like a situation where Bill Gates did do some shitty things but also people are reacting in a somewhat hyperbolic way, when a lot of people are responsible for these problems. But we tend to find it easier to focus on a singular recognizable name. Especially given also everything the Trump Administration did relating to Covid to put so much blame on Bill Gates, though he can also be quite a shitty person.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.theroot.com/attorney-says-capitol-rioter-suffered-from-foxitus-and-1846845201

Latest defense, the client suffered from Foxitus/foxmania.. ie he watched too much fox news.

That is their defense. I guess if affluenca was a defense why not this...

[Haibane]

Note that this says the Foundation, not Bill and Melinda directly.

The Gates Foundation gets its money from where though?

[Annaamarth]

The Gates Foundation gets its money from where though?

The Gates, a variety of donors and checks Oniya's link possibly a variety of investments that might suggest potential conflicts of interest.

... I'm sorry, did you think I was going to play Devil's Advocate without recognizing the Devil?  That said, the Foundation is not necessarily entirely at the Gates' beck and call - I don't know the extent of the absolutism of their control.

*cracks the old Google-fu*

Gotta say, their web-formatting is AOL-level.  Scroll down past the navigation tree to read the report.

https://aftinet.org.au/cms/node/1932

Thanks Oniya! Haven't had time to do more than skim yet, but that could help give a window into the functioning of the foundation and/or Bill's mind.

Huh. Wouldn't it be a trip if those comments were why they were getting divorced?