China on Trump and Taiwan, GOP Plans to Cut Social Security, Labor Rising Up in Argentina, , GOP Hates Young People, and NYC's Edifice Complex
Roundup #5
China Says Trump Would Give Them Taiwan- Why Isn’t the Media Treating It as a Bigger Story?
In an article titled, “China Says Trump Could Abandon Taiwan if He Wins US Election,” Bloomberge quotes a top Chinese official on the matter:
“The US will always pursue America first, and Taiwan can change from a chess piece to a discarded chess piece at any time,” Chen Binhua, spokesman for the office in Beijing that handles matters related to the island, said at a regular press briefing on Wednesday.
That China feels this way is hardly surprising, given Trump wants to hand eastern Ukraine to Putin. But with a functioning media, every network and major outlet should be screaming for a Trump denial on this in response. But it’s been crickets from most major outlets in the wake of the Chinese comments.
It’s Official: GOP Policy is to Cut Social Security Benefits
We know Republicans would slash social security if they could, but usually try to avoid saying that’s their position - except behind closed doors when talking to donors (as Senator Mike Lee was caught doing on tape).
But at a Senate hearing, the nominee proposed by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell flat out admitted that his preference was to cut social security benefits. Click through to the video where he first tries to evade the question but finally admits that is the end policy goal.
Labor Rising Up in Argentina Against Anti-Labor President- and the Courts Are Taking Note
Last week, major unions in Argentina launched a one-day strike, shutting down transit, banks, and other public services, including forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights out of local airports.
This week, a three-judge court panel struck down the decree by newly elected President Javier Milei that would have strengthened the ability of employers to fire workers. The court ruled that Milei had violated the constitution by bypassing the Congress and trying to impose the rules unilaterally.
Milei is a fromer TV pundit know for rightwing anti-union libertarian views and came into office vowing to use a chainsaw to defeat all opposition.
Between the unions and the courts, he is seeing his chainsaw blocked repeatedly. Now Milei is pushing for a new law in Congress that would hand him unilateral power for a year to implement new radical economic policies by decree. So more strikes seem inevitable in Argentina’s future.
GOP Really Hates Young People
House Republicans have a plan to “overhaul student-loan repayment and make it harder for Biden to get relief to borrowers”
There are lot of parts to the billl, but the key provisions would make it harder for young people to borrow money to go to college — without increasing grants as a subbstitute- while making it harder to get them relief from debt later. Key provisions include:
Limit of $50,000 in undergraduate loans
Blocks any new relief to student debtors
Debt relief can't cost govt any money, killing most of it
No relief even for students defrauded by schools - or where the schools shut down leaving them with out a degree.
Whatever problems Biden has with young voters, the GOP seems dedicated to giving them a reasons to turn out for Biden in the fall.
NYC’s Edifice Complex Sucks Up the Money That Could Actually Fix the Transit System
Why is New York City so devoted to spending insane amounts of money on humongous buildings with giant empty spaces in the middle of them, rather than spending the money on making the actual trains, subways and buses faster and more functional? Here you have the announcement of a planned $10 billion replacement for the Port Authority, an insane amount of money even for New York City real estate.
A Look at the $10 Billion Design for a New Port Authority Bus Terminal
The Port Authority unveiled a revised design for a replacement of the much-reviled transit hub, which opened in 1950.
It feels like this modern era of edifice excess really took steam after 9-11, when there was an understandable desire to show that New York City would rebuild, so spending $4 billion on the rebuilt World Trade Center transit hub seemed an excessive but politically understandable excess.
But then you had projects like the $8 billion revamp of LaGuardia airport or the $4.45 billion spent on the few miles of the 2nd Avenue Subway line, largely because the subway stations are oversized and wasteful. You have the $11 billion East Side Access project connecting the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central in a massive new underground station. And Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to drop another $7 billion to revamp Penn Station.
All of this money spent and commuters are still stuck on subway trains that stop and break down constantly. A number of years ago, the then-head of the subway system, Andy Byford, estimated it would cost $19 billion to finally modernize the signal system throughout the New York City subway system, fixing a system where signals break down constantly. It was a bold plan that would get subway trains moving within five years, rather than the fifty years, the repair schedule then in place assumed. Two years later, Byford was gone, pushed out by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and repair of the signal systems seem to still be on the slow track, even as giant edifices keep getting commissioned.
It’s just completely frustrating to ride in a creaking subway system only to arrive sometimes a half hour late at giant, shiny stations whose cost almost mocks you with their idotic excess.