What a crybaby. Heaven forbid you watch the news before you vote.
lol.
now he knows how Hawaiians and Alaskans feel about “time issues” during an election, where their polls are still open, while news starts counting votes from east coast and midwest states
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I agree. Also, I know a ‘lot’ of people who were off-put on the final message of "vote to support us to stick it to those terribly bigoted Christians’ or some version thereof. Specifically, one woman told me her whole family supports gay marriage but don’t like being called bigots or something similar if they don’t support it.
Deplorable probably wouldn’t work either.
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The way the questions were written was also a big factor. Confusing language, leading results.
And money. And fake news.
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That is what you get when they and China control most of media here. They can literally turn a zero into a hero…or make people believe what they want.
Yes, the way questions are asked can have a significant impact.
For instance do you believe in marriage between a man and a woman . Well the natural inclination is to align with that statement.
As another booster said if they asked , do you believe in marriage equality/fairness in allowing same sex marriage…Putting equality first …Some people will align with the equality part first. Well known psychological tricks. Doesn’t mean it would have passed though.
Well that was kind of nuts.
The only non surprise for me is the KMT’s response in Taipei City. These guys always act like this when they don’t win.
Guy
I never read any if that. But I could foresee insurmountable problems with getting the name changed even though I also detest Chinese Taipei.
Are those referendum results binding…Did they pass the threshold of voters ?
4.8 million people in Taiwan don’t live where their Huji is.
That means millions are disenfranchised (especially folks who move to the big cities from towns)…They should have put THAT issue in the referendum !
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Not really sure where the misinformation part is, we watched this play out under the Chen Shui Bian years.
There was a push under his admin to join the UN, but it was a non starter from the beginning, even if Taiwan could have persuaded enough countries (which they can’t) China had veto power in the UN.
The basic pattern is this, Taiwan will apply to join some international body, China goes bat shit crazy, China will claim that Taiwan is provoking them (despite China being the one making all the threats), the world in general goes along and agrees with China and blames Taiwan.
Repeat this enough times and you have the situation at the end of the Chen Presidency whereby China was frothing at the mouth, saber rattling and the rest of the world had labeled Taiwan the trouble maker. The Taiwanese ended up voting in Ma who was promising to go with one China different interpretations (I know independence guys, he dropped that last part and yes we all know about the phony '92 consensus) just to calm China down. There were other reasons, but that was part of it anyway.
Apparently the one referendum result that is binding is the repeal of the nuclear power law. This means that it is no longer legally required to phase out nuclear power in Taiwan by 2025; doing so remains an option, but it would be a policy choice not bound by law. Less politely put, this referendum result would also allow the KMT and their friends in the nuclear village to reopen this money pit if and when they can.
For those who like irony: the same people who approved the repeal of the 2025 nuclear shutdown thought we should also ban produce from Fukushima and neighbouring prefectures in Japan. I can only conclude that consecutive or linked-up thinking is not part of basic education here.
People please think this through!
Guy
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That’s voters for ya…Personally I’m all for nuclear power given the global carbon crisis and especially the air pollution crisis in Taiwan .
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Given what I know about Taipower’s management style;
And given what I know about their unapologetic and untruthful dumping of low-level nuclear waste on Indigenous folks on Lanyu;
And given the fact that they have absolutely no plan for storing the high-level waste currently sitting with nowhere to go in Xinbei and in Pingtung;
And given the coastal location of Nuke Plant 4;
I think it is frankly speaking a terrible idea to invest more money in this industry. All possible resources should be poured into renewables—right now.
And if you disagree, I have some land in Fukushima I would like to sell to you. : P
Guy
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This I agree with. The voting system is strongly geared to favouring the propertied landlord class, not workers who are renting and working hard to get by. The voting system is heavily class biased and needs to be named as such.
Guy
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We have a terrible environmental AND health crisis right now called air pollution, anybody who lives in Taichung or Kaohsiung is very well aware of it !
Renewables are not abundant enough to make a quick dent in the fossil fuels power demand, nuclear power should be extended for another ten years or so until significantly more natural gas power comes on stream.
It’s not ethical to condemn people in center and south to bad air for another ten years .
Current policy is to ramp up coal power until 2025. This cannot be the right policy.
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Yes, and this was also the case during nuclear power’s heyday, too, right? Supporting nuclear while NOT making other changes to energy policy is what got us into this wretched situation in the first place. It is part of the cause, not the solution.
I wonder if and when reducing energy consumption will become a priority. The same guys supporting nuclear also support the dirty energy intensive industries that have helped make Taiwan’s west coast a filthy place to live. Without changing this entire structure, we’ll keep having problems.
Guy
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Air pollution has gotten worse in Taichung over the last ten years., Ask anybody who has been living there, none of us believe those govt statistics ! Kaohsiung has been pretty brutal too.
I am all for reducing industrial energy use , but this place has a great affinity for polluting industries I.e. jobs !
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Yup, change has been FAR too slow. The voting results yesterday in Taichung and Kaohsiung speak clearly to this.
And while I fully agree that the SYSTEM needs to change, I simply think the nuclear industry here has zero moral/ethical credibility here in Taiwan—none whatsoever. Nuclear power stations in Taiwan also remain (as we all know, even if we deny this fact) an unacceptable security risk given our exposure to earthquakes, etc. Other energy alternatives are needed, now.
/screed over
Guy
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