You are the asshole now Donald Trump

 

Remember that Donald Trump betrayed freedom in Afghanistan in February 2020 as coronavirus was about to explode, and in Hong Kong in May 2020 as America was about to explode over George Floyd

 Betraying Ukraine is just another day's work in February 2025, but the question is, Who will it next be, in May 2025?

 

"We just signed an agreement . . . the Taliban will be killing terrorists."

 

"Up until yesterday I still believed Hong Kong has the rule of law."

 

The Vance-Walz debate highlighted yet another case of Tim Walz lying about his past, claiming he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Massacre when he was still in Nebraska

 ‘I’m a Knucklehead’: Walz Gives Disastrous Answer When Questioned on Inaccurate Claims at Debate

Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz stumbled while answering a question about his inaccurate claims about himself on Tuesday night, boasting about his “service” riding his bike as a kid and admitting “I’m a knucklehead” in a rambling answer. ...

Walz says he ‘misspoke’ after unearthed newspaper reports undercut claim he was in Hong Kong during Tiananmen Square protests 

... Walz’s claims that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests have been repeated in media reports. But contemporaneous newspaper reports first resurfaced by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, place Walz in Nebraska around that time. An issue of the Alliance Times-Herald dated May 16, 1989, features a photo of Walz touring a Nebraska National Guard storeroom. In the photo’s caption, the paper notes that Walz “will take over the job” of staffing the storeroom from a retiring guardsman and “will be moving to Alliance,” Nebraska. A separate newspaper article about Walz’s planned trip to China published by a Nebraska-based outlet in April 1989 reported that he planned to travel to China in early August of that year. ...

 

 

 

The always feckless Barack Obama makes speeches abroad for $1 million, blames threat of China on Trump when he himself failed to recognize the new threat in Xi Jinping from 2012

 The vacuum was all his.

Here's Obama:

“With my successor coming in, I think he saw an opportunity because the U.S. president didn’t seem to care that much about a rules-based international system,” Obama said, the Daily Mail reported. "As a consequence, I think China’s attitude [is], 'Well, we can take advantage of what appears to be a vacuum internationally on a lot of these issues.'"

 

It was Obama who never cared about the rules, never challenged China's military expansion in the South China Sea under Xi, and telegraphed nothing but weakness to China. 

Here's Xi Jinping as early as 2014:

Tabled by the popular ultranationalist blogger Zhou Xiaoping, the plan would authorize the assassination of blacklisted individuals—including Taiwan’s vice president, William Lai Ching-te—if they do not reform their ways. Zhou later told the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao that his proposal had been accepted by the conference and “relayed to relevant authorities for evaluation and consideration.” Proposals like Zhou’s do not come by accident. In 2014, Xi praised Zhou for the “positive energy” of his jeremiads against Taiwan and the United States. ...

But the most telling moments of the two-sessions meetings, perhaps unsurprisingly, involved Xi himself. The Chinese leader gave four speeches in all—one to delegates of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, two to the National People’s Congress, and one to military and paramilitary leaders. In them, he described a bleak geopolitical landscape, singled out the United States as China’s adversary, exhorted private businesses to serve China’s military and strategic aims, and reiterated that he sees uniting Taiwan and the mainland as vital to the success of his signature policy to achieve “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese ethnos.”

In his first speech on March 6, Xi appeared to be girding China’s industrial base for struggle and conflict. “In the coming period, the risks and challenges we face will only increase and become more severe,” he warned. “Only when all the people think in one place, work hard in one place, help each other in the same boat, unite as one, dare to fight, and be good at fighting, can they continue to win new and greater victories.” To help the CCP achieve these “greater victories,” he vowed to “correctly guide” private businesses to invest in projects that the state has prioritized.

Xi also blasted the United States directly in his speech, breaking his practice of not naming Washington as an adversary except in historical contexts. He described the United States and its allies as leading causes of China’s current problems. “Western countries headed by the United States have implemented containment from all directions, encirclement and suppression against us, which has brought unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development,” he said. Whereas U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has emphasized “guardrails” and other means of slowing the deterioration of U.S.-China relations, Beijing is clearly preparing for a new, more confrontational era.

On March 5, Xi gave a second speech laying out a vision of Chinese self-sufficiency that went considerably further than any of his previous discussions of the topic, saying China’s march to modernization is contingent on breaking technological dependence on foreign economies—meaning the United States and other industrialized democracies. Xi also said that he wants China to end its reliance on imports of grain and manufactured goods. “In case we’re short of either, the international market will not protect us,” Xi declared. Li, the outgoing premier, emphasized the same point in his annual government “work report” on the same day, saying Beijing must “unremittingly keep the rice bowls of more than 1.4 billion Chinese people firmly in their own hands.” China currently depends on imports for more than a third of its net food consumption.

In his third speech, on March 8 to representatives from the PLA and the People’s Armed Police, Xi declared that China must focus its innovation efforts on bolstering national defense and establish a network of national reserve forces that could be tapped in wartime. Xi also called for a “National Defense Education” campaign to unite society behind the PLA, invoking as inspiration the Double Support Movement, a 1943 campaign by the Communists to militarize society in their base area of Yan’an.

In his fourth speech (and his first as a third-term president), on March 13, Xi announced that the “essence” of his great rejuvenation campaign was “the unification of the motherland.” Although he has hinted at the connection between absorbing Taiwan and his much-vaunted campaign to, essentially, make China great again, he has rarely if ever done so with such clarity.

One thing that is clear a decade into Xi’s rule is that it is important to take him seriously—something that many U.S. analysts regrettably do not do. When Xi launched a series of aggressive campaigns against corruption, private enterprise, financial institutions, and the property and tech sectors, many analysts predicted that these campaigns would be short-lived. But they endured. The same was true of Xi’s draconian “zero COVID” policy for three years—until he was uncharacteristically forced to reverse course in late 2022.

Xi is now intensifying a decade long campaign to break key economic and technological dependencies on the U.S.-led democratic world. He is doing so in anticipation of a new phase of ideological and geostrategic “struggle,” as he puts it. His messaging about war preparation and his equating of national rejuvenation with unification mark a new phase in his political warfare campaign to intimidate Taiwan. He is clearly willing to use force to take the island. What remains unclear is whether he thinks he can do so without risking uncontrolled escalation with the United States.

Speaking of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, she was the one responsible for backing down on Hong Kong, giving it back to China in 1984

 She won in the Falklands, but folded on China.

Thatcher later recounted that Deng had told her directly "I could walk in and take the whole lot this afternoon," to which she replied, "There is nothing I could do to stop you, but the eyes of the world would now know what China is like."

More.

Here's hoping the new head of state of the Solomon Islands doesn't roll over and give it up to the Chicoms like the last one did Hong Kong

 

LOL, the blog of the St. Louis Fed gaslights you on gasoline prices by jumping through hoops to make the current outrageous prices disappear

 While nominal gas prices have increased rapidly over the past few months, real gas prices were still lower than they were for most of the 2006-2014 period.

More in "Gaslighting gas prices", April 21, 2022.

They don't pay those economists the big bucks for nothing:

[W]e compute by dividing the nominal price by the consumer price index (CPI) and multiplying by 127.5, the value of the CPI in January 1990.

Talk about gaslighting.

Look, US Regular All Formulations (GASREGW), which is what the blog post used, peaked around the 4th of July in 2008 around $4.11/gallon. 

Here's what a popular inflation calculator says about that:

We estimate it would take $5.54 on June 12, 2022 to have equal purchasing power with $4.11 on July 4, 2008.     

Just using a simple CPI calculator here puts $4.11 in 2008 at $4.94  . . .  already IN 2020.

We are mostly certainly paying the highest prices ever for gasoline.

Be happy, right? At least we're not Hong Kong.

 

 

Pro-Peking hardliner becomes leader of Hong Kong in rigged election

 

Hong Kong's John Lee: Ex-security chief becomes new leader

Mark Krikorian hits on the sorry truth about Trump and Elise Stefanik

MAGAworld pans Stefanik :

...

“She ties with a couple other Republicans for the worst career voting record on immigration in New York,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the anti-immigration Center on Immigration Studies, ticking off a few of her previous positions: a yes on H-2B visas, the Farm Workers Modernization Act, and the Hong Kong Refugee bill, and a no on Trump’s child border separation policies.

“Obviously, Republicans in New York are likely to be more liberal, just because that's the environment they're in,” Krikorian said. “I think everybody understands that. But even by the standards of New York state Republicans, she's bad on immigration.” ...

Krikorian, whose institute is not weighing in on the conference chair election, noted that while Cheney’s downfall was sparked by her criticism of Trump, what had truly tanked her was her ideology, bolstered by her family name: The Wyoming congresswoman’s neoconservative beliefs have no place in today’s GOP.

Stefanik’s positions weren’t much more palatable to the party base, in Krikorian’s view.

“Trump, in his gut, does think we should get out of Afghanistan, he does think there's too many illegal aliens coming over the border,” he observed. “It's not that he doesn't believe any of that stuff. It's just that he's kind of a narcissistic guy. And if people flatter him, he's for them, regardless of what they believe. And so the question is: Do you go for Trumpism? Or do you go for Trump?” 

The system which protects us from tyrants has done so only because we are, when all is said and done, still loyal to it. There was never any danger of a tyranny from Trump, who was easily the weakest president in living memory.

But Trump's character is clearly of the sort Aristotle warned us about. The thing is, we do little worrying about the proliferation of wretches like Stefanik who eventually make the rise of actual tyrants, dangerous men of strong, determined, and ruthless character, more likely.

"And for this reason tyrants always love the worst of wretches, for they rejoice in being flattered, which no man of a liberal spirit will submit to; for they love the virtuous, but flatter none."

COVID-19 vaccines and Bell's Palsy: Nothing to see here . . . so far

Normal rates of Bell's Palsy in the world range between 100-400 cases per million of population (1-4 per 10,000 / 10-40 per 100,000).

Hong Kong has been abuzz over some cases of Bell's Palsy after Sinovac injections. So far there have been 11 cases from 278,200 vaccinations with Sinovac, which is the equivalent of 40 cases per million of population. But the normal HKG rate is reportedly 230 cases/million.

Similarly in the UK recently the Pfizer vaccine was reportedly responsible for 9.8 cases per million vaccinations, again far lower than the minimum threshold of 100 cases/million.

VAERS data for the US so far shows 81 cases of Bell's Palsy and 420 cases of facial paralysis, for all types of COVID-19 vaccine. Given the vaccination totals in the US so far, you'd have to have 9,500 such cases reported to date just to match the minimum normal rate of 100 cases/million. The US typically has 40,000 cases a year anyway, which is a rate of 122/million assuming population of 328 million.

So . . . nothing unusual is going on anywhere as far as I can tell.

VAERS is rumored to be overwhelmed by a reporting backlog, and there is a relatively small discrepancy between CDC statements of deaths and VAERS data from week to week, but I can't imagine how there would be tens of thousands of Bell's Palsy cases unaccounted for in the reports, which, it must be remembered, can be filed by anyone.

If there were that many they'd be all over the tabloids by now, accusing the government of injury.

Given that the official cause of Bell's Palsy is still debated, it's not implausible that the stress associated with the pandemic in combination with vaccination has been a trigger for cases, just as for other reported adverse effects. People faint, shit their pants, any number of things after they get a jab. Stress is also a trigger for death in some instances.

Most cases of BP resolve, but it is important for sufferers to seek immediate medical attention and get treated with a steroid like Prednisone, which seems to speed recovery from the inflammation affecting the nerve in the face involved in the condition.

Dr. Gabriel Leung of Hong Kong University advocated for limiting mobility because he had worked out by Jan 27 how the coronavirus had already spread in China by rail

He was already warning of a global epidemic on Jan 27.

He was specifically worried on Jan 27 that flights out of China would seed the infection globally.

He was already aware of and demonstrated on Jan 27 how the novel coronavirus had spread in China by rail.

He was already stating there was clear evidence of human to human spread on Jan 27.

He was already advocating for "substantial, draconian measures limiting population mobility" on Jan 27.

He was already advocating for ending mass gatherings, for closing schools, and for requiring work from home arrangements on Jan 27.

And what were we doing?

The US Senate was finally hearing the House's impeachment case after Nancy Pelosi sat on it for weeks.

A country full of fools, run by fools.

The earliest example of someone advocating for a global flight stoppage was Hong Kong University's Dr. Gabriel Leung on Jan 27: "Substantial draconian measures limiting population mobility should be taken immediately"

Hong Kongers embrace Trump as their Rocky Balboa after Trump signs The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act

It's Trump statements like this on Hong Kong and Xi Jinping which keep me from supporting his re-election

"We have to stand with Hong Kong, but I'm also standing with President Xi," Trump said. "He's a friend of mine. He's an incredible guy. We have to stand, but I'd like to see them work it out."

Why stand with these brutal oppressors of freedom? Just so that we can trade with them?

Peggy Noonan thinks the purpose of conservatism is merely the preservation of the free market system, yet she supports Trump's impeachment.

She and Trump have more in common with each other than either of them does with real conservatism.

They are both thimble deep and symptomatic of the poverty of America's two party system.

More here.

Globohomo helot prays to his god for freedom fighters in Hong Kong and Iran

Spineless, servile Houston Rockets GM apologizes for tweeting “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”

The National Basketball Association is now China’s most popular sports league and has formed partnerships with some of the country’s biggest tech companies. It also opened NBA retail stores there.

Texas Democrats and Republicans alike are quoted ridiculing the cowardice, here.

Now that's what I call bipartisanship: China attacks the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House

Notably missing from the attack is President Trump. None dare call him Quisling.

China accuses Pelosi and McConnell of inciting ‘chaos’ in Hong Kong

Snowflake presidency: China threatens Hong Kong, Trump delays threatened tariffs until December minutes later

Making money from China is more important to Trump than freedom for autonomous Hong Kong

White House Told Officials to Go Easy on China Over Hong Kong:

“It was made clear down the chain that we need to be measured on Hong Kong,” one administration official said, noting that the guidance came from “the top” over concern that fragile talks with China might be jeopardized by any outward show of support for the protests.

Obama did nothing to support Iranian democracy in 2009, and Trump is doing nothing to support democracy in Hong Kong in 2019

Once upon a time we were the leaders of the free world, and of the world which wanted to be free.

No more.