Agree with the rest, but sanctions don't hurt the people who actually came up with this shitty idea. It ends up hurting the normal guy on the road, who will probably not endorse the idea in the first place.
The normal day folks like us bear the biggest (by a large margin) brunt of the sanctions whereas the rich and ruling class go about their day merrily. Sure they'll encounter some inconvenience like not being able to travel to certain countries or being able to expand their businesses as much as they wish to, but they live in secluded districts with 24-hour electricity while us plebes get 12 hour electricity every day (This is just to mention the least annoying effect of artificial scarcity created by sanctions; the government couldn't get parts nor get training on technical know-how to fix/upgrade the hydro generators because of the sanctions).
A lot of people starves and the education system suffer, which sets the entire generation backward by at least 3 decades (while the rich and ruling class send their kids to international schools and then at institutions in nearby neighboring countries; some even went as far as faking their children's identities and sent them to places like Australia, Canada and even US to study).
Sanctions aren't that effective and they only hurt (and kill) the people at the bottom of the society.
Having the mot bags of rice, or the largest cattle herd only makes one feel rich if they don’t know about the existence of other luxuries. Sooner or later, someone will think I’d we simply off the king, we could have power AND an end to sanctions.
The quickest and most effective way to transform an authoritarian country for the better is to let the rich, the poor and the middle class have a taste of what quality living (to some extent, the capitalism) is like. Then their children will get proper education and things will automatically change for the better in a generation at most. I have seen that with the children of the rich and military/ruling class people in my home country; these younger generations are the ones who, using their parents' accumulated enormous wealth and influence, to make changes (some bad, some pretty decent) to copy what they've tasted in other, more developed countries.
What law was broken? Its like saying HBO breaks a law by having their shows exclusive to their subscriber base.
(Though this would all probably swept aside as soon as somebody reverse engineers the vaccine.)
> Americans are not individually responsible for our governments actions any more than a German is responsible for the historical actions of theirs.
It is funny when it comes to Iran, your politicians use the exact opposite logic.
>Agree with the rest, but sanctions don't hurt the people who actually came up with this shitty idea. It ends up hurting the normal guy on the road, who will probably not endorse the idea in the first place.
When you say this in the response of sanctioning the USA, but don't say that when sanctioning other countries, that does only one meaning. You don't care about ordinary people from other countries (although you claim you do). Which makes you a hypocrite.
There'll be plenty of time after the crisis to bring out the guillotines.
This needs to be achieved by the EU leveraging as much cash as it can from other countries with an agreement to distribute the vaccine by some WHO index of need. In this way, you outbid the US by showing collaboration works.
We can't waver on global health priorities, but let the USA admin shout its way into darkness alone and not drag in global cooperation with it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/09/30/trump...
Weaponizing vaccine development in the middle of a public health crisis must violate some German law or another.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/15/coronavirus-germany-tries-to...
Publishing the emails, calls, and efforts Trump made to secure an exclusive virus would just play into his hands and provide a huge boost to his political campaign. As past scandals have shown, there is no such thing as bad press for him.
So deny him the press and the coverage and let this blow over quietly until Nov 4. And then go nuts publishing all the details.
His actions on this matter won't change anyone's mind already opposed to him, but it might get a few supporters off the couch in November.
He can always be exposed again November 5th. As the impeachment demonstrates, the threat of exposure is far more damaging to Trump than the exposure itself.
G'Kar: To the Narn Homeword, of course. You came with ships, and guns, and mass drivers. You plucked asteroids out of near orbit and sent them plunging down onto our cities, killing men and women and children. Onto the sick and the infirm and the innocent.
Londo Molari: It was not my idea. I didn't even know. It was Refa. It was not my fault. I said ...
G'Kar: You said nothing. You said Nothing. You said NOTHING. Nothing.
Londo Molari: Leave me alone.
G'Kar: No. Look at me.
Londo Molari: I can't.
G'Kar: LOOK AT ME.
G'Kar: Do you remember this place?
Londo Molari: Yes.
G'Kar: I was tortured in this place. I as whipped. Emperor Cartasia wanted to hear me scream.
Londo Molari: Yes, and if you did not scream, the 40th stroke of the whip would kill you. And your people would be slaves forever. Yes.
G'Kar: You remember.
Londo Molari: Yes.
G'Kar: You were there.
Londo Molari: Yes!
G'Kar: And you said ...nothing.
Emperor Cartasia: Thirty four. Thirty five. Thirty six.
G'Kar: Nothing.
Emperor Cartasia: Thirty seven. Thirty eight.
G'Kar: Nothing!
Emperor Cartasia: Thirty nine.
G'Kar: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
G'Kar: One word, Molarri. One word was all that was required of you.
Londo Molari: It would not have mattered. It wouldn't have changed anything. It would not have stopped.
G'Kar: You're wrong, Mollari. Whether it was me or my world, whether it was a total stranger, or your worst enemy.
YOU WERE A WITNESS!
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY'D STOP!
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY'D LISTEN!
YOU HAD AN OBLIGATION TO SPEAK OUT!!!
Londo Molari: I couldn't.
G'Kar: And that's why you don't deserve to be Emperor. And that's why you don't deserve to live.
I'm saying they shouldn't release the details right now because right now those details are great for Trump.
Irresponsible disclosure is just as bad as non-disclosure.
You're perpetuating the myth that Trump is invincible, that "there is no such thing as bad press for him", and echoing his enablers who are whining that "now is not the time for finger pointing and talking about the past, there will be a time for that later", at the same time that Trump himself is doing nothing but finger pointing and talking about the past.
If finger pointing and talking about the past is so ineffective and off-limits, then why is Trump doing it so much, why are his allies breathlessly admonishing everyone else not to do it, and why do you think at the same time that Trump is so invincible?
As for paragraph two, it's not a myth. It's been the last 4 years of reality. One more minor scandal won't make a difference compared to the things he's already gotten away with, and in this respect we disagree on whether it's actually a scandal for him (which you believe) or it's pandering to his base (which I believe).
It's not about making the past off-limits, it's about taking away a campaign point from Trump. What Trump tried to do is not a scandal to him. It is not a bad thing to his supporters. THEY WANT HIM TO DO STUFF LIKE THIS. And publicizing that is just giving him free publicity that will make his supporters more motivated to show up to re-elect him in November. Is that what you want?
I mean, there's been almost 5 years of bad press for him (discounting everything before late 2015) and it hasn't really affected how the GOP treat him (like a king) or how his base seem him (like a saviour king.)
> Trump is invincible
Until the media and the GOP start doing a better job, yeah, he pretty much is, unfortunately.
"As an American citizen" - buddy we are not known for our intelligence or our honor so I don't know what relevance you think that has.
And yes there is such a thing as bad press before an election. That's why politicians go to huge lengthsto bury stories before elections.
Speaking as an American citizen, that cracks me up.
What do you think are going to be the actual repercussions, in the US, of learning that the US president is trying to secure exclusive US control of a vaccine for COVID19 for priority distribution in the US?
They aren't going to be any. Indeed, to his base, stuff like this is exactly why they voted for him. (If Trump had succeeded in securing that vaccine solely for the US, he would win in November in a landslide.) And that's pretty much the extent of the calculations that went on in his head when he attempted this stunt.
It's a good thing he failed. But let's be responsible about disclosure and time it so that he can't derive any political benefit from it.
[edit: too many "any"]