Kinda ironic, how Britain managed to organise a trade deal for Iran so quickly with EU neibours and yet utterly unable after years to organise its own trade needs.
Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
221–230 of 315 posts
Re: Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not true. The US is responsible for 14% of emissions, which is unconscionable for a country that only holds ~4.5% of the world's population. You're actually doing quite horribly on a per-capita basis. China is doing far better than the US on a per-capita count.
That is solely because 1/3 of China's population is still living extremely impoverished lives that are equivalent to third world standards. They have 400-500 million people that are still among the poorest on earth. I can't imagine how you think that's an accomplishment that deserves recognition. Their low per capita pollution output due to extreme poverty, is not due to stellar environmental policies by China.
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Re: Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
If there's one thing about Brexit that Britain can agree on, it's that the deal that's being offered by the EU is awful. It lead to the largest House of Commons defeat for a key government bill in history, and it polls terribly with pretty much everyone. That's why the EU (and most of the British press) have been using the fact that May managed to trade some bad parts of their proposal with differently bad replacemen…
> it's that the deal that's being offered by the EU is awful. That's because full membership was already the best deal the EU had to offer. A lot of UK politicians seem to live inside a dream world where they think the remaining EU members are obliged to make major concessions without anything in return because a no-deal brexit surely hurts them, a little bit, too. Also the most disliked thing seems to be the backsto…
The countries of Europe are our allies and friends, the EU as an entity seems to treat the UK as an enemy.
The UK as a negotiating entity has failed to argue coherently, because the political classes are hopelessly divided and opportunistic.
It's important to note that the EU has not agreed to /anything/ in terms of trade as part of this deal, that's why it's a terrible deal. It's a deal to make a deal, but it includes us agreeing to pay massive outstanding budget commitments. So it's pretty much the UK surrendering their only negotiating leverage (and also the ability to revoke article 50) for absolutely nothing in return.
The EU /can/ enforce this on us, because of their relative size and our political disunity/mismanagement, but it seems obvious that they /should/ not.
An agreement which the British people could agree on would be a comprehensive free trade agreement and customs region(with us paying into budget) but no free movement, no deeper integration, and no ability for the UK to make external trade agreements. There are two fictions preventing this - the EU pretending that this is impossible or unfair (there's no law that free trade has to have free movement, it's a convenient political fiction for the EU), and the right Tories pretending that any external trade agreements would even begin to compensate for the cost of customs checks with the EU.
The UK is screwed but the EU is a malign entity, which seeks to treat us as they have Greece- a banana republic to be screwed by committee. A club which won't allow you to leave is ruler. Sorry for the essay, a remain voter.
edit: The backstop is not at all the most disliked part, it gets the most press because it's the sticking point between T May's attempt to shoehorn her bill through because it seems to lean towards a softer type of deal, which loses her the hard-right Tories and the Irish question loses her the DUP. But it's just a fight between the Tory clans who have power, if you polled the UK population or even parliament, it would not be the most unpopular part of the deal, not even close.
Re: Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’ve forgotten how to protest. I recall you guys getting pretty upset over some tea with Britain. Seriously as long as folks are content at home the politicians won’t give a damn about you. Go march in the streets en mass and things will slowly change.
Wasnt the last time this actually happened "occupy" and didn't that get dismantled and side-tracked pretty quickly? IMHO not even a US specific issue, people in a whole lot of "western countries" seem to have forgotten how to meaningfully protest. Sure, there is the occasional "against climate change" or "for this societal issue" marches, but they all have the problem of being incredibly obscure in their goals and de…
Facebook. That’s why. People protest online instead of offline.
Re: Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
#225We should have embargos on the US for pursuing a climate change program that destroys the planet.
Do you also advocate for an embargo of China, which pollutes at over twice the rate of the US?
How about embargo of the EU, which currently pollutes at roughly the same rate?
Did you know that energy production in the US is overall more environmentally friendly than in Germany, for example?
Re: Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We, the people, are pretty powerless here. Most US americans have been voting for Democrats or Republicans or not at all for decades. Of course the politics remain the same: Wars and politics that favor the richest. Please, vote for the Green Party or another reasonable party in 2020.
Maybe it's worth it to first reform the political system from a first-past-the-post system to more proportional representation (otherwise, unless I'm mistaken, those votes go pretty much straight to the wastepaper basket (or trash can, in this case)).
Truth. I like how the young dems are doing in terms of anti-war and pro-privacy stance.
Re: Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
#227Good. I don't know how much longer Americans are going to buy the boogiemen we keep getting fed. Sovereign nations under the the U.S.' thumb, not being able to control their own destiny only works so long as we're complacent. I sense we're growing tired of war for war's sake, leery of ideological battles built for future blowback down the road. We see enough people profiting from these wars to wonder how much global…
No when somebody says something that does not ring 100% TRUE, you question it and have a look into it yourself with multiple sources from contrasting perspectives.
But equally, you can't presume innocence as that's just as bad as presuming guilty.
Re: Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you agree with policies of other two parties? Let take 2016 elections for example, your choices were; Hillary, responsible for a failed country right now and rigged primaries or Trump, the less said about him is better. If enough people voted for a different party, that would keep these two main parties in sort of a check as well, knowing they can't get away with whatever they want.
There are certainly things I don't agree with with the options available. This idea that candidates need to perfectly represent everyone's opinions is just absurd. I don't agree with everything that Hillary did or that Trump is doing. That doesn't mean everything they did was bad or good. But to suggest Jill Stein as a viable alternative when she has some dubious backing doesn't really empower choosing the 3rd party,…
Yeah, thats fair. I'm with you on that. You'll never find a candidate who you agree with completely, you just go with the one that agree the most with or disagree the least with.
Re: Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
We see enough people profiting from these wars to wonder how much global conflict is manufactured. I hope we stop buying in. We, the people, are pretty powerless here. Lobbyists and elected officials have too much power and election cycles are too far apart. So even when recent American military action gets relatively low support from Americans [0], neither congress nor the president has any motivation to do anything…
> We, the people, are pretty powerless here. Most US americans have been voting for Democrats or Republicans or not at all for decades. Of course the politics remain the same: Wars and politics that favor the richest. Please, vote for the Green Party or another reasonable party in 2020.
The war in Iraq was a direct consequence of people voting for Nader over Gore.
Re: Skirting U.S. sanctions, Europeans launch trade mechanism for Iran
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
The green party has terrible candidates and often I disagree with their policies. I'm not going to vote for someone just because they're different from the establishment if they have positions I find ridiculous.
And you agree with policies of other two parties? Let take 2016 elections for example, your choices were; Hillary, responsible for a failed country right now and rigged primaries or Trump, the less said about him is better. If enough people voted for a different party, that would keep these two main parties in sort of a check as well, knowing they can't get away with whatever they want.
There's no evidence any primaries were 'rigged'.
Hillary got more votes, and some DNC people were catty about Bernie over private email.
I even voted Bernie, I just can't stand seeing claims repeated without evidence. Put up or shut up.