What do people want from their government? First of all, security. No foreign troops on their soil, no gangsters or warlords requisitioning their farm animals and their daughters. Check. No one is going to invade China now. Second of all, prosperity. There is a nice graphic comparing China in 1975 to China today in terms of income -- I can't quickly find it, but it's easy to describe. 1975: China is a pyramid. A broad base, tapering up to a tiny top. At the bottom, people living on $2 a day (PPP), above, slightly narrower, $5 a day, and so on up to the top, where it's maybe $25 a day. (Of course, in a socialist tyranny, direct income is not the only measure of wealth.) Today: that pyramid is turned right upside down. There is still extreme poverty, of the two dollars a day level. But so few people are there. As you up and up, to higher and higher levels of income, the pyramid gets broader and broader. A government that can do that rests on very solid foundations. BUT ... no one should think the Chinese people are just passive robots. When I travelled there, about 15 years ago, our taxi driver was fearless in criticizing the government. That's how you become, when your income is no longer $2 a day. So prosperity. Check. Busloads of Chinese tourists visiting the Grand Canyon. An enormous leap up. So the next thing people want, after they've got security, and prosperity, is the environment to enjoy their prosperity in, including the intellectual environment. This will come. But not through outside threats. This is the oldest civilization on earth. They're not going to be treated like naughty children forever.
Wasn't Trotsky with Lenin when over 20 million Christians were killed, more than 30 thousand churches were burned, many with people inside, and over twenty thousand bishops, monks and priests were killed in Russia? Christ said that a tree should be judged from the fruit it bears. I don't think Trotsky's fruits are worthy of emulation do you? HEAVEN HELP US FROM SUCH!
We could have a long debate about the Russian Revolution, the terrible atrocities on both sides, what should the Czar have done in 1905, etc. as advised by smart men like Stolypin. About what conditions in Russia drove so many of its best, most idealistic, most dedicated young people, to become revolutionaries, just as they did in China. But probably not in this thread.
Its is our business but that does not mean we must have all-out war with china over Hong Kong As you may or may not know we do a lot of business with china and other parts od Asia through Ong Kong and have considerable investment there Not to mention how a brutal communist dictatorship treats its own people is the same way they will treat us if they get the chance
Ah, first let me clarify, I’m not fighting for democracy; its nothing more than the tyranny of the mob, the majority. I fight for Individual Rights, for liberty, for capitalism, for the right to live and to breath, as I choose for the reasons that I determine are important to my life. China's authoritarian dictatorship is an objective existential threat to my liberty. Perhaps not now, but perhaps sooner than anyone can imagine. Much in the same way Ebola is a threat to each human life on the Earth; it's deadly to all who come in contact with it. Best to have it eradicated, permanently. As for the Yellow Vests, they are a reaction to France's progressive technocrats, much like Trump's election is. They are a revolt against the repulsive, without a clue as to how and why. As for who is manipulating whom, China wants an extradition law to circumvent the autonomy agreement it signed with Great Britain in order to silence the dissidents before the agreement ends in 2047, and as a path to hi-jacking Taiwan. It is the Chinese dictatorship manipulating Hong Kongs law to end their independence. And as to special privileges, when did living free become a privilege? I thought it was a right? In final analysis, all the smoke mirrors, and defections and name-calling, one thing remains true: Xi Jinping wants control over Hong Kong and will silence dissenters with all the force needed. He wants to murder liberty by cutting her throat and silencing her mouth. Shame on those who refuse to stand by what's right in Hong Kong, the right to speak freely their own minds.
What do people want from their government? The honest ones? The idealistic ones? The moral ones? To be left the fck alone to live their lives as they see fit--just like the Hong Kong protestors. And the rest of humanity? They're looking for handouts at their fellow human beings expense provided for by the government's gun. Go figure.
The record is quite clear all throughout the USA in that all minorities suffer from this type of police abuses. Strangely (no, not really) the right wing which normally demand 2d Amendment protection against such government abuse is either silent about this truth or they support the government abuses.
That communist dictatorship was the beneficiary of multimillion dollars from Trump who gave it to ZTE without the slightest objection from the far right who buy those MAGA shirts & caps that were all created there.
You bet, and not only racial minorities. Check out this poor fellow: And after that happened ... whoa, mobs of white people went out and burned and looted ... went on for days.
One thing is for certain, the Hong Kong protestors don't want a tyrant telling them to shut their mouths, any more than the American Progressives did when Trump told the Squad to shut theirs.
His tariffs and China's reaction; it certainly isn't about his principles and idealism concerning a free press, a free market, or free speech, is it?
That was a year and a half ago when china and the US were closer to a trade deal Which is no longer true today
Consider that those policemen have the same reflex that you do when faced with young Black males: You're walkind down the street at night ....you hear footsteps behind you ... you turn around ... and see that the young men walking behind you are white, not Black. You feel relief, don't you? (You do, don't you? But before you answer, remember that everything you write on the internet is being recorded, that the people doing it can work out your real identity easily, and that the 'wrong' [ie Politically Incorrect] answer could be used against you ten years from now when you're going for a job -- THIS MAN IS A RACIST! -- don't want that) Anyway, you have been warned. Now .. do you feel relief at seeing the people behind you are white? Now imagine a policeman in Oakland or South Chicago or Detroit or Dallas or ... Here, after you've answered my question -- CAREFUL!!! -- have a look at these men and women. Hard to see the image for some reason, but ... they all died this year, many killed in the line of duty. And the year is not out, by any means. Would you like their job? Lots of vacancies there. A principled anti-racist like yourself would no doubt be a nice fit as a replacement. Just imagine ... you're by yourself, on night patrol in the ghetto. You could have a big sign on your patrol car: I AM AN ANTI-RACIST! Christ, have a drone following you with a video camera, you -- or your widow -- could probably sell the film rights for some serious money. Don't know whether it would be classified as comedy or tragedy. I'd suggest going for both markets.
But his non-idealism about a free press, a free market, or free speech says everything about how he will treat the Hong Kong protestors and the coming Chinese slaughter does, yes?
What other nation would allow such "demonstrators" to shut down an international airport with such restraint as China? Just asking. And it is a "riot" when public services are blocked. Thus spaketh Moi Meanwhile, India's activities in Kashmir remain relatively ignored. How do "we" pick and chose our causes?
Years later, I learned to spot the ones that were. Like the poor, perpetual college student changing majors to extend his college career. How did he afford it, being so poor and all. Witnessed over and over.
Now go into a trailer park in the rural South ~ who is likelier to gun you down? As for the ghetto scene -- Preventive medicine is best ~ Eliminate the racism and social injustices and there will be no ghetto.
No. This is all Chinese and if there is a tragedy it will be treated the same as such a tragedy anywhere in the world. It will be universally condemned, whatever pressures that can be brought to bear will be and the world will keep turning.
