So. Morning news. Hospital nothing new, really, still trying to discover what kind of eldritch abomination hides in our kitchen. So far the guard holds. I still don't have numbers, which is easy to see why. And today is the next Control Session so it's gonna be a political shitfest. From what I heard government has started strong by pointing out all the more right-wing esque small business grants and economy-minded policies they have pushed through to destroy the PP's claims of inaction but we know it's gonna devolve into namecalling as soon as the opposition gets the mic. Again, that's not a critique of the current opposition, though they certainly deserve it for doing so in THIS fucking time, it's more of a criticism of the format because when the roles were reversed it ended the same way, this shit's worthless and actively annoying. But we'll see, honestly I think if the opposition does the predictable thing they will hurt themselves. So far they've done nothing but backstab and screech, if they don't have actual proposals and concrete criticism after the government pointed out all they've done they will look like a buncha hooligans in suits, and that's starting to become a stereotype for good reason.
Fun fact: the most gorrupt elements of spain and the most close minded part of the higher class are OBSESSED with image. They literally insult people that don't own expensive suits by calling them "perroflautas" (dog-and-flutes, a reference to mendicants that only owned an adopted stray and some musical instrument and went from place to place begging and looking for work during the dictatorship) and they even tried to use that against Podemos, with predictable results, by calling Iglesisas "el coletas", insulting him for not going to the hairdresser, meanwhile our scientists, like Fernando Simon, have been convinced being a scientist means making a vow of poverty, and own no suits. Preferring whatever is confortable. So it's caused the hilarious effect of having THE most uncultured, idiotic, ignorant, insulting dregs to all have exoensive suits and long family names while our actual smart people look and act nothing like them. This dissonance has been a massive source of pain for the right for a while now, as you can imagine how well it fits with more communist anti-burgeoise stereotypes. So right now they CAN'T afford to reinforce that stereotype, not when the left is looking more and more like an actual center with so many pro-capitalism measures. But of course, much like the burgerland left, the spanish right is moronic, so we'll see.
I hate to say this because one of the really good things about working in medical research is being able to work with smart people from all over the world. And working with people from all over the world is fun, and educational, and often leads to great breakthroughs because people come at problems from a standpoint you might not have thought of. And there are really good researchers and medics from China just as from everywhere and now they will all be tarred with the same brush.
But: it’s very obvious that a proportion of foreign students (from various areas tbh, not just China) are spies, both political and industrial, and I think we will see increasing scrutiny of foreign visa applicants in certain fields.
It certainly puts some moments from earlier in my career in perspective, when I’ve seen senior figures warn UK students against working in predominantly Chinese labs/programs. The older I get, the more I think on a few moments from years back with that ‘ooooohhhh... THATS what that was all about.’
I would almost agree to the first part. But thing is. The "bolsas" are at least conceptually fair. They certainly got their quirks I talked about one such issue here and I have many, MANY more, specially when corrupt elements try to bend the law, we've had a lot of fights. But they sure as shit don't messure nationality. And spain does a literal metric fuckton of studies in cooperation with all of the west and most of the east every fucking month. Yet you'll be hard pressed to find a single fucking chink over here. It seems as soon as you measure their merit they disappear never to be seen again. So I have to wonder why that is, I mean, we literally even got god damned south africans that managed to pass the culling, and as I said before they are *the worst* even by african standards so really if even those guys can pass what the fuck is going on in china to suck this badly?
Edit: so the first round of right wing critique has been "you lie, you improvise, you have no predictions, you caused uncertainty, oh won't someone think of the economy", the second point was correct. The first one wasn't, the third one was HILARIOUS as the left wing speaker had just explained their predictions. They've been mostly respectful but it's still scripted and obviously so, so half props. Then the left wing took the stand with more thorough prediction explaining and hilariously enough giving props to the business owners that have taken measures to help the pandemic effort and reduce economic impact. Then she rightfully pointed out just how much the curve has flattented and how other countries are handling this. I gotta say, props to the PP for refusing to shitfling, they're taking a beating ideologically but to be honest the left wing 3rd vicepresident (our ministers are also vicepresidents as to make sure the line of command stands, resulting in such hilarious charges) had prepared well so she was winning this one no matter what. I think this might signal the PP dropping the conspiratards and focusing on being the reasonable opposition, which could earn then right wing votes soon enough. They also keep pushing the "we'll deal if you're honest" narrative which means they haven't YET decided to blame the government for everything and be actively worthless, so I think we'll see them aid the Moncloa Pact soon enough, they're being more intelligent than usual, which is good. Seems we're getting out of this one boys.
Edit2: 2nd round is both better and worse. The right wing at least has proposed real measurable shit, which is good. But they've also resorting to commie namecalling and blaming everything on podemos again, so they sure as shit didn't drop their plan to possibly backstab us. The left wing has yet to respond again.
Left wing answer has been inadequate. She's focused too much on the namecalling part, denied improvising wich is hilarious and entered some namecalling of her own. At least I technically agree with the 3 types of people thing it's something I've said here in the past and it is a call for action calling out the PPs inaction, but it was not the place and time, this is breaking down into the usual shit and Vox has yet to intervene...
EDIT: Nevermind that was the end next one is on the 15th! Well. That was better than expected and ending in a call to action while the execution has been shit is at least a good idea. Gotta say, could've been much worse. Props to the right for not shitting it up too much and not props to the left for lowering themselves to their level! Overall, gets a passing grade for spain as a whole!
Also, on the live chat Vox has been spamming F. They're really fucking desperate...
