canflam

I will need to search for what "Uyghurs" are. We had our own brutal weather conditions here that took out powerlines & trees in the Portland Metro in the past 8 days. Most sitting 30 miles of here do have their electricity back on I think. I learned of Texas having their horrific weather related situation there yesterday. Some here Oregon have died of carbon monoxide this week & me at more have perished in Texas. Best wishes to all.

sunnykerr

Matt, I've posted about the Uyghur situation several times on the Sensitive Topics thread...

Long story short, the Uyghurs are an ethnic minority in the supposedly automous region Xinjiang region in the West of China who have been targetted for persecution by the Chinese government since at least the 2008 Olympics. They're a Muslim group (many historians believe they can trace their religious origins to the Persian migration of the 8-9th centuries) and the first story I remember posting about was how the Chinese government forbade them from using public transportation and forced the men to shave their beards in 2008.

Since then, things have gone much, more worse. But the detailed discussion of how that has happened does not belong on this thread, so I'll put it behind spoiler tags.



Anyway, it's not good. And for the first time since things have gotten incredibly worse in 2017, the U.S. President is at last holding the Chinese government's feet to the fire instead of doing this:

Meliana

So pleased with Biden's policies so far. Great to have the US back in the Climate agreement.

Jen's Herald

you may be right, but right now i have no idea he even exists outside of a few political cartoons and his twitter perma-ban.

~Janice~

True he must be lost without his twitter

sunnykerr

I think this pandemic has taught those who will learn from experience that our human health and our human economy is both related to the health of our environment and to the health of our neighbours. And I think that countries that don't learn this lesson are dooming us all to repeat the experience we're currently having and not in 100 years' time. People like to point at the so-called Spanish flu of 1918 and say "it's a once-in-100-years thing we're going through" but they forget SARS, they forget Ebola, they forget I don't know how many pandemics that perhaps didn't quite reach "us" as much as Covid-19 has.

And who am I to say or know anything about these things, but that doesn't seem like the right way of looking at things.

~Janice~

Dr Fauci said this morning on CNN that more than likely we will still be wearing masks in 2022

sunnykerr

Texas utilities can't stick customers with huge bills after storm: governor As I understand it, U.S. consumers don't have much recourse when a corporation decides to pass the costs to them, right? So the governor here is just expressing wishful thinking.

Saskatchewan First Nation erects blockade after company enters territory without consent I love how the subtitle of this article hammers home that legal experts think the Birch Narrows Dene should have a say in development that will affect them.

First of all, good on Desjardins for having learned the lessons of the Grassy Narrows Anishinaabe, who have been poisoned left, right and centre by pulp mills dumping mercury and who knows what other contaminates in the river that feeds their community.

Second of all, you have to have some hairy balls to wander into a reserve during the Covid-19 pandemic without permission, without protection and without consideration of the impact your presence will have on the community.

Third of all, when it happened to the Wet'suwet'en, people all across the country got pissed that other First Nations communities rose up in support. But at some point we either admit we treat First Nations as no more than homeless slaves, who have no rights and no home, or we start treating them like automous people who have a say in what happens to them and their lands.

Enough is enough.

canflam

Yeah. This is what Utility companies wanted apparently. Skyrocketed heating costs. Oh, Trump reportedly offered Kim Jong un a trip on Air Force One after their summit. I'm somewhat surprised that trip didn't happen.

~Janice~

Yeah, I remember when Trump used to mock Kim and call him rocket man

sunnykerr

Have they already forgotten the tender love letter her wrote to Kim Jung-Un as well?

Trump swoons over letters from North Korea's Kim

canflam

Thanks for that link. 4 board members of Texas power grid ERCOT are resigning.

~Janice~

The love fest they had going was because they were each afraid of what the other would do

sunnykerr

^ If Trump was only acting like a besotted fool because he was secretly afraid of North Korea and what it could do, then that's just further proof of how little qualified he was for running any country, let alone the one that has the nuclear capabilities of blowing up the planet 50 times over. Jesus, imagine setting policy based on a 1980's ideological worldview instead of what is actually going on.

I'd say I'm happy we never have to discuss Trump ever again in relation to U.S. politics and how they impact the world, but it seems that the court appointments he made are bearing fruit: Judge bans enforcement of Biden's 100-day deportation pause

canflam

Well the Supreme Court has ruled against Trump recently. In regards to his Taxed for example & I think in Pennsylvania again about the election last November. Did you see any of that Senate hearing yesterday on the U S. Capital riots fron last month? I saw clips of Republican Senator Ron Johnson spouting conspiracy theories at it. Ugh. He is up for re-election next year in Illinois & I can only hope that he loses. We just had a Quanon believer run here in Oregon run for the Senate vs. Jeff Merkley & thankfully she lost. Johnson reminds me of her.

In other news, Trump could go to CPAC next week.