What's in the News? 2.0

[Haibane]

Yeah. I don't get why this is a thing. Unless of course they pay politicians to do it.

It was the same in the 2009 crash; govts bailing out the banks who f****d up in the first place. Screw the banks, let them fail and let other entrepreneurs set up new ones and blacklist the idiots who screwed up before from ever holding posts above teller. Oh wait... and now those same banks are paying their fat cat CEOs millions in bonuses again. Is there a problem here or what? Why does this happen? Someone in power must be allowing it.

What annoyed the heck out of me was all through COVID it was the British airlines and travel companies moaning and bitching about lost money here, lost money there, oh woah is me ... and meanwhile Johnson's govt has spent BILLIONS on supporting British companies during the pandemic. The UK's financial debt is now 99% of our GDP. I am certain there is a govt bail-out scheme for every company that has suffered financial loss in 2020-2021.

Talk about cake and eat it.

/rant. Sorry. On my second G&T and just fed up with greed.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/26/uk-rejects-eus-northern-ireland-moves-saying-brexit-deal-must-be-renegotiated

Boris Johnson has rejected Brussels’ latest attempt to iron out problems with the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, insisting that the withdrawal agreement signed last year must be renegotiated.
If Britain wants to resolve the Northern Ireland protocol, this is not the way to do it
Anand Menon
Read more

A series of proposals published by the European Commission on Monday with the aim of easing implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol were said to be insufficient for the scale of the problems.

A UK government spokesperson said the two sides instead needed “comprehensive and durable solutions”. David Frost, the minister responsible for Brexit issues, has said that without a major change to the legal text of the protocol, the government will consider triggering article 16 of the EU-UK agreement to suspend parts of the deal.

Such a move would be permitted where it can be shown that “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties” are arising. But the commission would probably challenge such a decision. It would be likely to go to arbitration, raising the risk of trade sanctions down the line.

Wait, the deal he worked so hard to get and was bragging about is now in need of changing.. after.. really no time at all? What a bucket of clownshoes.

[Haibane]

Farce with a capital F.

[Lustful Bride]

China looking to make a deal with the Taliban, that they will attack Uighur fighters in the region instead of them.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-seeks-taliban-promise-to-wage-war-on-uighur-fighters-in-afghanistan/ar-AAMFEJm?ocid=msedgntp

[Haibane]

Good heavens. The stench of pure evil. As if they are not happy to do ethnic cleansing within their own borders they have to get others to do it as well.

[Haibane]

Oh my... Dusty Hill has died aged 72 :( :(

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58006978

[Mechelle]

The RNLI (the Royal  National Lifeboat Institution) has had a great upsurge in donations after coming under criticism from Nigel Farage, who now presents a programme on the little-watched GB News.

Farage, backed up by right wing commentator Darren Grimes, has said he does not want to pick a fight with the organisation, but has picked a fight with them by saying they are acting as a taxi service for migrants by rescuing people in danger on the seas. Farage hasn't actually said he would prefer people be left to drown, by which I mean certain people, of course, but that does seem to be the inference.

I am going to the seaside this weekend, by coincidence, when I will make a point of making a donation to the RNLI, if I can.


https://www.indy100.com/news/rnli-nigel-farage-donations-migrants-b1892762

[Oniya]

I explained the situation to the Little Oni, and her comment was 'So, the Coast Guard is rescuing people.  Next thing you'll tell us is that the Air Force has planes.'

[Mechelle]

Little Oni talks a lot of sense, but she might have not realised that, unlike the Coast Guard, which is  a government organisation, the RNLI is crewed by volunteers and is there just to save people's lives.  In fact, the RNLI have turned down government funding as it would compromise their independence.

I think you can legitimately criticise people who go into the seas unprepared, whatever their nationality, and cause the lifeboat crews to risk their own lives, but not the crews themselves.

[Oniya]

Little Oni talks a lot of sense, but she might have not realised that, unlike the Coast Guard, which is  a government organisation, the RNLI is crewed by volunteers and is there just to save people's lives.  In fact, the RNLI have turned down government funding as it would compromise their independence.

I think you can legitimately criticise people who go into the seas unprepared, whatever their nationality, and cause the lifeboat crews to risk their own lives, but not the crews themselves.

That would have been my bad, as I assumed that 'Royal' designated something more officially backed and compared it to something she and I are more familiar with.  Our Coasties have to deal with unprepared folks (from game-fishermen on down), and I can agree with some criticism - at the same time, those unprepared folks (who are definitely not game-fishermen) might be taking the safer of two bad alternatives.

Calling the rescuers a 'taxi service' is just plain rude.

[Haibane]

The BBC has issued a very early report of two crew killed on a tanker off the Gulf. Apparently a British and a Romanian. The tanker is owned by a London-based company but under the umbrella of Israeli ownership.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-57977702

Other sources on You Tube mention an Iranian drone that fired a missile at the bridge of the ship.

This could get very messy.

[Lustful Bride]

This would be funny if it wasn't so aggravating.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/islamic-state-supporters-are-reportedly-using-trumpworld-social-network-gettr-as-a-safe-haven-for-extremism/ar-AAMQEyF?ocid=msedgntp

[Haibane]

Seems legit. Fundamentalist violent fanatics will gather where they feel safe and protected in a like-minded community.

Meanwhile in the UK a police officer is convicted of common assault while arresting two innocent black men on two consecutive days in April 2020. He was suspended in May 2020.

We have racist thug cops in the UK but at least they ... usually ... don't get away with their sick violence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-58058831

[Haibane]

Belarus activist who helped people escape to Ukraine found hanged in park after going missing yesterday while out jogging.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58065313

Almost certainly a simple murder by the Belarus security forces. The evil of these people knows no limits.

[Annaamarth]

Belarus activist who helped people escape to Ukraine found hanged in park after going missing yesterday while out jogging.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58065313

Almost certainly a simple murder by the Belarus security forces. The evil of these people knows no limits.

Belarus seems to have gone full-bad.  I wonder if Poland is heading that way as well - and I wonder how safe those Belarussians who have or are seeking asylum in Poland will be.

Not sure if this is ... uplifting enough to go into the uplifting news bit, but this is metal - a 71-year old vicar of the Church of England showed up at the NewsCorp offices in London.

With his lips sewed shut, in protest of NewsCorp etc. treatment of climate change.

TW: There is are photos of a man who sewed his lips shut.  It's a little messy.

Hell of a way to flip the bird to the guy who owns Fox and Sky (&c.) though, so respect.

[Haibane]

This is depressing. The Taliban are overrunning Afghanistan as quickly as the North overran South Vietnam in 1972. Afghanistan is going to be a horribly repressive extremist regime in a year or two with almost no rights for women and a huge network of radical terrorist training camps. NATO/the west seriously fucked up this one. We are going to suffer for a long time because of this. Pulling out our military was a stupid idea.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58127407

[Humble Scribe]

What's the alternative? An endless deployment where half the population hate you and money is sucked into funding corrupt local warlords? Maybe if you could stop Pakistan (and to a lesser extent Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and maybe even Russia) supporting the Taliban you might be in with half a chance, but basically the whole place has been a playground for other countries' greater ambitions for more than a century. It's a shame for the people, especially the pro-western women of Afghanistan, but if the past 20 years has taught us anything its that you can't govern a country if the populace don't want you there.

If its any consolation, Vietnam has become a much nicer country since it won the war and post-fall of communism reintegrated into the international community.

[TheGlyphstone]

Vietnam is still a communist state, isn't it?

[Humble Scribe]

Vietnam is still a communist state, isn't it?

Next you'll be telling me China is communist. Officially, maybe, but authoritarian capitalist (see also Singapore) is closer.

[TheGlyphstone]

Next you'll be telling me China is communist. Officially, maybe, but authoritarian capitalist (see also Singapore) is closer.

Right, that's what I meant. One-party authoritarian, but the Communist Party is still that official one party. So I was just confused when you referred to the 'fall of communism'.

[Haibane]

What's the alternative? An endless deployment where half the population hate you and money is sucked into funding corrupt local warlords?

Yes. What else can we do? I am not convinced about the "local warlords" comment as there is a half-decent and capable Afghan government and nor am I convinced that "half the population hate you" either. But yes, keep military presence there to keep a lid on it and keep working towards an international solution. It costs millions, yes, but the alternative - what we are seeing now - is a much more terrible price to pay in lives and suffering and Trump-style isolatoinism won't be any protection.

[Haibane]

And there is no comparison at all with Vietnam. We live in a post 9/11 world now and that makes all the difference. Vietnamese communists tended not to send people half way around the world to behead you or murder dozens at pop-concerts if you insulted their religion. Afghanistan is a much, MUCH more dangerous place to leave unsupervised that 10 Vietnams.

[Humble Scribe]

You made the comparison with Vietnam, not me. The Vietnamese government also got rid of the Khmer Rouge, so arguably a good thing on balance.

I reiterate - you can't win the war against the Taliban so long as you permit the Pakistan government to keep supplying them. But widening the war to Pakistan is not going to save lives, quite the reverse (just as widening Vietnam to include Laos and Camobodia caused untold deaths and the rise of the Khmer Rouge). Some situations are just shit and there's not much you can do about it. The west would do well to learn the limits of interventionism. Something Must Be Done-ism falls at the hurdle of realpolitik.

[Humble Scribe]

Right, that's what I meant. One-party authoritarian, but the Communist Party is still that official one party. So I was just confused when you referred to the 'fall of communism'.

Post fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet Union, the Vietnamese government instituted Doi Moi (their equivalent of 'Glasnost') and effectively transited to a capitalist economy. It also sought rapprochement with the West, getting the US embargo lifted in 1994. It is now a member of ASEAN and a middle income country with a stable government and only a few foreign policy niggles (mainly with China). It is by no means an earthly paradise - there are of course all manner of human rights concerns, but no more so than most southeast Asian countries. The government calls itself communist, but that shouldn't fool you - it's just a single party state. So are Malaysia and Singapore, in effect.

[Tolvo]

It should also be mentioned just how much the current state of the Middle East has been set up during the 60's-90's by Western powers such as the USA and Russia. The USA supported and trained and armed their anti-communists who eventually fractured then unified under new banners we recognize now such as Al-Queda. The Mujahideen which the USA supported during the Soviet-Afghan war, and more. People living through generations of wars tearing apart their countries slaughtering their people, who have seen horrors that many of us could never even fathom all so some people across oceans could make more money and gain more power. With generations of children born with disorders due to the use of chemical weapons and depleted uranium. I find it hard to imagine more wars there, more fighting, more bloodshed, that the USA strong arming it's way in there again and again is the solution.