Shanghai Meets Obamacare

For the past weeks, Shanghai has been enveloped in a choking toxic smog.   This is a tremendous embarrassment to China, so two official news agencies responded by attempting to find the figurative silver lining in the literal cloud:

In online articles, state broadcaster CCTV and the widely read tabloid the Global Times, published by the Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, tried to put a positive spin on the smog problem.

The Global Times said smog could be useful in military situations, as it could hinder the use of guided missiles – giving the example of smoke used by Serbian forces against Nato airstrikes in the Kosovo war.

Meanwhile, broadcaster CCTV listed five “unforeseen rewards” for smog, including helping Chinese people’s sense of humour.

This came to mind when reading this NYT article which makes every excuse possible for the next predictable failure of Obamacare: the dropping of group coverage by small business, resulting in turning over millions of employees to the tender mercies of The Website From Hell, Medicaid, or, if they’re lucky, the government approved Junk Insurance Plans that would be unconscionable if an insurance company sold them to you (according to Obama, anyways).

All in all, I find the Chinese propaganda more amusing and plausible than the NYT’s.

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