News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Germany tries to stop U.S. from luring away firm seeking ... by ajross on Sunday March 15, 2020 @01:20PM (#22584805)
> The truth, like with anything, is probably in the middle

The story, really, isn't about truth. It's about trust. The German government clearly does not trust the USA to share a vaccine. And why would they? Everyone who's been watching US foreign policy for the last three years knows the "America First" bent of its chief executive. They know the kind of xenophobic stuff that gets said on its "state television station" every day. They can read polls, and know that the political base of the ruling party would genuinely cheer for a situation where the USA had exclusive access to a vaccine.

So they don't trust the US to control a biochem company. That's a problem, but it's not a problem with this particular event (realistically we're going to get a ton of vaccine variants from different labs -- vaccine development is hardly rocket surgery, as it were). It's a problem with the way US (really republican) foreign policy has been positioned in the modern world.

And it's kind of a disaster.

Re:Germany tries to stop U.S. from luring away firm seeking ... by w_t_payne on Sunday March 15, 2020 @01:36PM (#22584948)
Trust is a key commodity in times of crisis. A commodity that, sadly, has been squandered all to readily in recent years.
Re:Germany tries to stop U.S. from luring away firm seeking ... by syshum on Sunday March 15, 2020 @01:26PM (#22584853)
Well then I guess we are going to disagree on foreign policy, while I am not 100% on board with the "America First" train, I am also opposed to Globalism and losing American Sovereignty, trade deals that favor corporations and disfavor American Citizens, I also dont like my tax money being used to Secure and police other nations.

So far there is not much Trump as done in regards to foreign policy that I disagree with

Re:Germany tries to stop U.S. from luring away firm seeking ... by ajross on Sunday March 15, 2020 @01:55PM (#22585163)
> So far there is not much Trump as done in regards to foreign policy that I disagree with

Except for culturing a situation where one of our closest allies justifiably doesn't trust us to help them out, even in straightforward ways, in the biggest international crisis of the last 70 years, you mean.

We've come a fucking long way from the Berlin airlift, huh? The biggest disaster isn't Trump, really. It's the realization that his poison goes so deep in the american psyche. No one will think of us the same again.

Re:Germany tries to stop U.S. from luring away firm seeking ... by pinkfoot on Sunday March 15, 2020 @02:03PM (#22585245)
> No one will think of us the same again.

Offer a few thousand green-cards at random at embassies around the third world.

You will be forgiven in less than 5 minutes.

Re:Germany tries to stop U.S. from luring away firm seeking ... by ajross on Sunday March 15, 2020 @02:24PM (#22585443)
This is more or less exactly what I meant. Once upon a time, the US was perceived as a world leader and a savior of last resort, by our own citizens as well as the world community. Now we're seeing another crisis, and our leaders and their followers insist, like you do, on viewing the whole thing through the lens of... unwanted immigration. Seriously?

Basically, we used to be the teachers in the schoolyard. Now we're a ramshackle fort of sneering kids trying to keep people out of "our" stuff.

Re:Germany tries to stop U.S. from luring away firm seeking ... by pinkfoot on Sunday March 15, 2020 @03:34PM (#22585997)
> the lens of... unwanted immigration. Seriously?

That is not the lens I am seeing it through.

Rather, where I live NO ONE could care less about your world leadership or whether you are or ever were the teachers, blah, blah, blah.

All of us out here will bitch and moan about the USA, but give anyone of us a ticket to the USA (especially if our family can come along) and we'll take it in a heartbeat.

You aren't our teachers, you are the bank.

Seriously.