“Deeply concerned by reports of the USA’s mass arrests of Native Americans protesting construction of a pipeline that threatens local water supplies & destruction of sacred sites. [America] must respect human rights & freedom of expression and include sovereign tribes in the development & implementation of water and land management policies,” Uzra Zeya could also have tweeted but did not.
It's really hard for the US to have any clout or credibility on human rights issues when the log in our own eye has been ignored for so long it's grown into a tree. While I'm glad we're not entirely silent on the situation there, it would help a lot if we cleaned up our own act first, or at least simultaneously.
The U.S. is nowhere as bad as the PRC on human rights right now. What’s hurt U.S. credibility are Bush, Jr’s Iraq war, Trump and Republicans ditching our allies to cozy up to Putin, the religious zealots abolishing abortion, where they have the power to do so. Forget one more thing: Guns everywhere.
Protestors get arrested or forcibly disbursed like they do in any other democratic country. Over two hundred yellow vest protesters were arrested in France during those protests.
The U.S. has a helluva lot more moral authority to talk about human rights than the PRC does, and the world knows this.
And if you want to dig into the past, there was and continues to be a lot of discrimination in China.
“It was the language of China’s last imperial dynasty which ruled a vast kingdom for nearly three centuries. But 71 year old Ji Jinlu is among only a handful of native Manchu speakers left. Traders and farmers from what are now the borders of China and Korea, the Manchus took advantage of a crumbling Ming state and swept south in the 1600s to establish their own Qing dynasty.
SNIP
Under the Qing, or “pure” dynasty, China saw massive territorial expansion before it weakened in the 19th century, assailed by corruption and pressure from European and other foreign powers. Discrimination against non-Manchu Chinese remained rife and helped fuel a series of rebellions which finally saw the dynasty overthrown in 1911. Republican leader Sun Yat-sen declared: “To restore the Chinese nation, we must drive the barbarian Manchus back to the Changbai Mountains,” their ancestral homeland.“
Not to make too much chauvinistic argle bargle about it but, as a country, California, Oregon and Washington would swamp Canadia. More likely that those three could convince the Western coastal provinces of Canuckistan to seek liberation from us in a United Commonwealth of Pacifica.
"After police beatings, detainees required medical attention."
I hope people are paying attention to the similarities here between what's happening to Taiwanese, Tibetan and Hong Kong protesters and what happened to Black Lives Matter protesters particularly (but not exclusively) while Donald Trump was squatting in the White House
Wanna-be "strongmen" authoritarians are an international problem - they're not JUST a U.S. problem, but they ARE our problem as well
"Tibet was more or less its own country from 1911 to 1949, when the Chinese government decided they owned it and in fact had always owned it"
huh? this story kind of sound familiar if you just replace Gyna with a couple of other countries which are currently busy doing kind of the same and others that have done so in the recent past.
I think the second date should be 19*5*9 fwiw.. Patti Smith has a story about how that school year students in her class had to pick a country to follow and report on anything that happened and she picked Tibet - only to have her teacher tell her she couldn't do that, because 'nothing ever happens there'. Then came the Chinese and she had her report. (59 is also when I came into the world, so the date stuck with me).
I had a Free Tibet! sticker on my '71 VeeDub Bus in the '80s. Santa Cruz, CA. Bought at a performance of the Gyoto Monks doing their throat-breath-chanting thing. lol. I forget what it's called.
So great that every American corporation, especially the archetypical ones like Levis, Nike and Apple, decided to manufacture their products in China. With the hundreds of billions they've squirreled away in offshore accounts, they could have paid American workers a decent wage to do the work here.
But the $$$ has to flow in only one direction, doncha see. Up. Otherwise civilization as we know it would collapse. Come to think if it, "collapsing as we know it" could be a good thing, since stuff ain't working out so well so far. My personal freak-out is that the two largest land masses on Planet Earth are run by ruthless fascist, authoritarian, and violent overlords. I am afraid the bad guys are winning. Terrified, really. And very bummed at the inhumanity... that really is just... very human. Might makes right, and everyone else can just go fuck off. "T'was always thus, and thus it shall always be"... to paraphrase a pretty good phrase.
Minerals. Deep canyons for hydro power. Tourism. There is already a train out to Lhasa (and other places probably) as a tourist destination. The Chinese like to learn about the quaint maroon-clad bald-headed folks who always seem to be chanting.
Among other reasons, it's strategically valuable as a boundary zone; it's symbolically valuable to Chinese nationalism; it's a major watershed; and it has some significant mineral and metal resources that China would like to exploit.
The Moon's current phase for today and tonight is a Waning Gibbous. During this phase the Moon can be seen in the early morning daylight hours on the western horizon.
After working in a hospital for about twenty years I have to say that there were a few shifts during which I would've really been grateful for the sudden onset of a case of short term anosmia.
Don't do the thing that Republicans do when they say "OH, why don't you feminists protest things happening in OTHER countries that are worse for women!" — we protest things here that our elected representatives have some power to change. I don't think the US's policy towards China and Tibet is great, but we're not actively participating in it or offering them any support.
Also, people actually did do that during the Clinton administration. The Free Tibet thing was HUGE for a minute, right up until we invaded Iraq and had our own shittiness to deal with.
It is terrible that Hamas started a war with horrific atrocities, holds hostages they refuse to release to continue the war, and rejected a ceasefire. It is a horror.
The public criticism is the only tool to hold the administration accountable. If the Palestinian American and Palestinian expat community were silent on the issue, then they would likely be easily ignored. Pro-Israel lobbying groups many backed by wackadoodle evangelicals control the narrative in DC on these issues. I very much support the existence of the nation of Israel but I absolutely detest the policies of the Likud party which border on genocide. Biden should and can take a stronger stand in reigning in Netanyahu, up to threatening or imposing sanctions if need be.
Sorry, I'm posting on a phone and while I try to review and edit my posts, I do sometimes miss things. That's a simple failure to catch a spelling error.
Regardless, Israel as a sovereign nation is dependent upon us for their security. Most of the weapons they are using in their current military action were provided by the US. We could threaten to take the aid money and guns away if they don't play a little nicer. Security aid money always comes with strings attached. We as Americans should certainly be demanding that our tax money isn't going to fund brutal crackdowns on civilians. The US doesn't control Israel, but Israel has a national security interest in not losing US funding, support, and our willingness in the UN to protect them via veto from any consequences to their actions. So, Biden and his administration's language and perhaps actions could be a little more stern in demanding Netanyahu and his ultra-rightwing pals not use this as an opportunity to steal more land and massacre civilians. My feelings are the same about Saudi Arabia and their proxy war with Iran in Yemen that we choose to largely ignore unless shipping gets disrupted while Saudi Arabia uses those same weapons from the US to terrorize their own Shiite religious minorities.
A different country over which we hold huge leverage. We use our leverage either through aid, or supply of weapons and military support to influence countries all the time. If they don't want the money, guns, and UN vetoes, then they can refuse it at any time.
He is working on it. Better than anyone else here. He has the long term relationships. Plus he's sanctioning re: violence from settlers on the West Bank
No I clearly do know fascist banning LGBT flags, banning LGBT books in school, and harassing gay people while teaming with Moms for Liberty. Fuck them all.
I read "My Journey to Lhasa" last year. It's by Alexandra David -Neel, the first Western woman known to have entered Tibet in 1923. That and one other book of hers are my only experience of that world besides television, but the Tibetan people obviously had and have their own unique culture that is not Chinese. Free Tibet.
To get an idea of the kind of government overreach they are experiencing in China we talked to Libs of Tik Tok annd Moms for Liberty about woke bathrooms and pronouns here in the U.S.
On the plus side, Chinese communism is doomed, so there's that.
The population is about to go off a cliff, and the economic growth with it, and the economic boom that's gone on pretty much since the 80s is the only thing that's kept the populace relatively quiet for all that time.
I think that's why they are more on the "forceful assimilation" side ... they need workers/people. The failures in their real estate market recently and the population nightmare they are facing will be a real reckoning.
But I will note that SO MANY industries rely on raw materials from China. Pharmaceutical manufacturing would essentially halt without them, sadly. We could all survive without cheap shoes, but not without medicines.
I can not heart this but thank you for covering it.
Jim McGovern knows how hard the first push can be . . . look for more as soon as he thinks it will gain traction . . . he's a good politician.
“Deeply concerned by reports of the USA’s mass arrests of Native Americans protesting construction of a pipeline that threatens local water supplies & destruction of sacred sites. [America] must respect human rights & freedom of expression and include sovereign tribes in the development & implementation of water and land management policies,” Uzra Zeya could also have tweeted but did not.
It's really hard for the US to have any clout or credibility on human rights issues when the log in our own eye has been ignored for so long it's grown into a tree. While I'm glad we're not entirely silent on the situation there, it would help a lot if we cleaned up our own act first, or at least simultaneously.
Whatabout!
BothSides!
Are you an op or just so foolish as to be indistinguishable?
The U.S. is nowhere as bad as the PRC on human rights right now. What’s hurt U.S. credibility are Bush, Jr’s Iraq war, Trump and Republicans ditching our allies to cozy up to Putin, the religious zealots abolishing abortion, where they have the power to do so. Forget one more thing: Guns everywhere.
Protestors get arrested or forcibly disbursed like they do in any other democratic country. Over two hundred yellow vest protesters were arrested in France during those protests.
The U.S. has a helluva lot more moral authority to talk about human rights than the PRC does, and the world knows this.
And if you want to dig into the past, there was and continues to be a lot of discrimination in China.
“It was the language of China’s last imperial dynasty which ruled a vast kingdom for nearly three centuries. But 71 year old Ji Jinlu is among only a handful of native Manchu speakers left. Traders and farmers from what are now the borders of China and Korea, the Manchus took advantage of a crumbling Ming state and swept south in the 1600s to establish their own Qing dynasty.
SNIP
Under the Qing, or “pure” dynasty, China saw massive territorial expansion before it weakened in the 19th century, assailed by corruption and pressure from European and other foreign powers. Discrimination against non-Manchu Chinese remained rife and helped fuel a series of rebellions which finally saw the dynasty overthrown in 1911. Republican leader Sun Yat-sen declared: “To restore the Chinese nation, we must drive the barbarian Manchus back to the Changbai Mountains,” their ancestral homeland.“
https://amp.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1982570/quiet-battle-save-dying-language-chinas-last-emperors
I had very similar thoughts as I read the article.
Hey Canada, howzabout a peaceful liberation of COW (California, Oregon, and Washington)? But no beatings, unless we agree on a safe word first.
Not to make too much chauvinistic argle bargle about it but, as a country, California, Oregon and Washington would swamp Canadia. More likely that those three could convince the Western coastal provinces of Canuckistan to seek liberation from us in a United Commonwealth of Pacifica.
I like this idea a LOT.
"After police beatings, detainees required medical attention."
I hope people are paying attention to the similarities here between what's happening to Taiwanese, Tibetan and Hong Kong protesters and what happened to Black Lives Matter protesters particularly (but not exclusively) while Donald Trump was squatting in the White House
Wanna-be "strongmen" authoritarians are an international problem - they're not JUST a U.S. problem, but they ARE our problem as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yzA-Pcbuqs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4qcPW55tqU
"Tibet was more or less its own country from 1911 to 1949, when the Chinese government decided they owned it and in fact had always owned it"
huh? this story kind of sound familiar if you just replace Gyna with a couple of other countries which are currently busy doing kind of the same and others that have done so in the recent past.
I think the second date should be 19*5*9 fwiw.. Patti Smith has a story about how that school year students in her class had to pick a country to follow and report on anything that happened and she picked Tibet - only to have her teacher tell her she couldn't do that, because 'nothing ever happens there'. Then came the Chinese and she had her report. (59 is also when I came into the world, so the date stuck with me).
No, it started in 1949, was done by 1951 and then in 1959 there was a major uprising in which the Chinese government killed over 80,000 Tibetans.
on a side note, I remember "one million dead Tibetans"-stickers from the nineties but I don't know if that number is based in fact.
1.2 million is the number given by the Tibetan government in exile.
I had many of those stickers! They gave them out in Students for a Free Tibet!
I had a Free Tibet! sticker on my '71 VeeDub Bus in the '80s. Santa Cruz, CA. Bought at a performance of the Gyoto Monks doing their throat-breath-chanting thing. lol. I forget what it's called.
also, thank you so much for confirming the numbers! :)
Indeed. I should've trusted that Robyn knew her stuff.
I lived in Germany during that time and they were everywhere over there as well.
So great that every American corporation, especially the archetypical ones like Levis, Nike and Apple, decided to manufacture their products in China. With the hundreds of billions they've squirreled away in offshore accounts, they could have paid American workers a decent wage to do the work here.
But the $$$ has to flow in only one direction, doncha see. Up. Otherwise civilization as we know it would collapse. Come to think if it, "collapsing as we know it" could be a good thing, since stuff ain't working out so well so far. My personal freak-out is that the two largest land masses on Planet Earth are run by ruthless fascist, authoritarian, and violent overlords. I am afraid the bad guys are winning. Terrified, really. And very bummed at the inhumanity... that really is just... very human. Might makes right, and everyone else can just go fuck off. "T'was always thus, and thus it shall always be"... to paraphrase a pretty good phrase.
Real question: Why the fuck do they want Tibet so bad? I can see Taiwan being a valuable asset but isn’t Tibet mostly rural mountains?
Minerals. Deep canyons for hydro power. Tourism. There is already a train out to Lhasa (and other places probably) as a tourist destination. The Chinese like to learn about the quaint maroon-clad bald-headed folks who always seem to be chanting.
Those mountains are loaded with gold, silver, and other minerals. The most beautiful quartz in my rock collection are from Tibet, too.
Among other reasons, it's strategically valuable as a boundary zone; it's symbolically valuable to Chinese nationalism; it's a major watershed; and it has some significant mineral and metal resources that China would like to exploit.
Buffer zone with traditional enemy, India
Yep.
From Wikipedia: "China viewed incorporating Tibet as important to consolidate its frontiers and address national defense concerns in the southwest."
So many here aren't getting this basic geopolitical point. China wants to clear ALL borders so any attack on them would be difficult
Quite so, and the Tibetans and Uyghurs could conceivably be minorities that might be subversive behind the lines if war breaks out.
THIS
Late edition:
Today is February 27 (Tuesday)
🍓 Anosmia Awareness Day
🇮🇹 International Polar Bear Day
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic Independence Day
🍓 National Kailua Day
🍓 National Pokémon Day
🍓 National Protein Day
🍓 National Strawberry Day
🍓 No Brainer Day
🍓 Retro Day
🍓 Special Ops Forces Day
🍓 World NGO Day
🍳 The BIG BREAKFAST Week
🍳 World Spay Day
🌚 Moon Phase for today: Feb 27, 2024
The Moon's current phase for today and tonight is a Waning Gibbous. During this phase the Moon can be seen in the early morning daylight hours on the western horizon.
Phase: Waning Gibbous
Illumination: 92%
Moon Age: 17.41 days
Moon Angle: 0.49
Moon Distance: 403,592.05 km
Sun Angle: 0.54
Sun Distance: 148,164,729.75 km
After working in a hospital for about twenty years I have to say that there were a few shifts during which I would've really been grateful for the sudden onset of a case of short term anosmia.
🍳 The BIG BREAKFAST Week
I knew there was something I missed this morning.
We hit a great new place on S. Congress: Toasty Badger. Highly recommed!
What city?
Austin.
Looks like Austin TX
https://www.loboshospitality.com/toastybadger-menu
Can it be coincidence that I saw this article while 'For What It's Worth' was on the radio?
I'm gonna guess that Biden's public appearances won't be interrupted by protests of "Free, free Tibet!" though.
(Nancy Pelosi probably right about Russia propping up the pro-Palestine protests.)
Don't do the thing that Republicans do when they say "OH, why don't you feminists protest things happening in OTHER countries that are worse for women!" — we protest things here that our elected representatives have some power to change. I don't think the US's policy towards China and Tibet is great, but we're not actively participating in it or offering them any support.
Also, people actually did do that during the Clinton administration. The Free Tibet thing was HUGE for a minute, right up until we invaded Iraq and had our own shittiness to deal with.
The Palestinians that live in MI are sincerely pissed and heartbroken. They came here for a reason.
That is all I will say.
It is terrible that Hamas started a war with horrific atrocities, holds hostages they refuse to release to continue the war, and rejected a ceasefire. It is a horror.
Blaming Biden is ridiculous.
So, publicly attack Biden and withhold votes for Biden. That will make things so much better.
(Biden knows that Israel needs to restrain itself, and he is working on it.)
You know that vote total is a complete historic norm and an immense nothing-burger.
The public criticism is the only tool to hold the administration accountable. If the Palestinian American and Palestinian expat community were silent on the issue, then they would likely be easily ignored. Pro-Israel lobbying groups many backed by wackadoodle evangelicals control the narrative in DC on these issues. I very much support the existence of the nation of Israel but I absolutely detest the policies of the Likud party which border on genocide. Biden should and can take a stronger stand in reigning in Netanyahu, up to threatening or imposing sanctions if need be.
*reining. He's attempting to control what Net is doing like reins on a horse, not trying to rule over him
Sorry, I'm posting on a phone and while I try to review and edit my posts, I do sometimes miss things. That's a simple failure to catch a spelling error.
Regardless, Israel as a sovereign nation is dependent upon us for their security. Most of the weapons they are using in their current military action were provided by the US. We could threaten to take the aid money and guns away if they don't play a little nicer. Security aid money always comes with strings attached. We as Americans should certainly be demanding that our tax money isn't going to fund brutal crackdowns on civilians. The US doesn't control Israel, but Israel has a national security interest in not losing US funding, support, and our willingness in the UN to protect them via veto from any consequences to their actions. So, Biden and his administration's language and perhaps actions could be a little more stern in demanding Netanyahu and his ultra-rightwing pals not use this as an opportunity to steal more land and massacre civilians. My feelings are the same about Saudi Arabia and their proxy war with Iran in Yemen that we choose to largely ignore unless shipping gets disrupted while Saudi Arabia uses those same weapons from the US to terrorize their own Shiite religious minorities.
Israel is a different country.
What a gross metaphor.
I do not like Bibi but that metaphor was just, ugh.
A different country over which we hold huge leverage. We use our leverage either through aid, or supply of weapons and military support to influence countries all the time. If they don't want the money, guns, and UN vetoes, then they can refuse it at any time.
For me it was the bad grammar first then the odious metaphor that the US somehow controls Israel
He is working on it. Better than anyone else here. He has the long term relationships. Plus he's sanctioning re: violence from settlers on the West Bank
I agree. I just think it's fair to push for more to be done.
He tried to get some of the hostages released for a ceasefire, Hamas refused.
Sigh.
And it's not like the other guy would be any better for their cause.
They are also sincerely fascist religious zealots teaming up with the fascist right to attack LGBT folks. Fuck them all
Clearly, you have not met these people.
No I clearly do know fascist banning LGBT flags, banning LGBT books in school, and harassing gay people while teaming with Moms for Liberty. Fuck them all.
They're to Russia's benefit.
𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐋𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐧: 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐬 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬' 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 '𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐧'
***
Guess when the aliens come and force you to worship Ugulat, the three-toed octopus, you'll just shrug and forget about Jesus, amirite?
Might makes right n' all that.
I for one welcome our cephalopod overlords.
Boers gotta Boer, I guess.
White Might makes right.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh....thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat's what I was missing.
Thanks.
Rethugs go out of their way to point that out.
Tell me more about Ugulat.
I read "My Journey to Lhasa" last year. It's by Alexandra David -Neel, the first Western woman known to have entered Tibet in 1923. That and one other book of hers are my only experience of that world besides television, but the Tibetan people obviously had and have their own unique culture that is not Chinese. Free Tibet.
I have this book, and read it a few years ago. It was a really interesting glimpse into the Tibet of 100 years ago.
To get an idea of the kind of government overreach they are experiencing in China we talked to Libs of Tik Tok annd Moms for Liberty about woke bathrooms and pronouns here in the U.S.
NYT
Tibetans aren't Han. Therefore they are expendable.
Not just "expendable" - the Chinese government would prefer to see them either forcefully assimilated or eliminated.
there seems to be a lot of that kind of thing going around these days. :(
On the plus side, Chinese communism is doomed, so there's that.
The population is about to go off a cliff, and the economic growth with it, and the economic boom that's gone on pretty much since the 80s is the only thing that's kept the populace relatively quiet for all that time.
I think that's why they are more on the "forceful assimilation" side ... they need workers/people. The failures in their real estate market recently and the population nightmare they are facing will be a real reckoning.
But I will note that SO MANY industries rely on raw materials from China. Pharmaceutical manufacturing would essentially halt without them, sadly. We could all survive without cheap shoes, but not without medicines.
Guessing from this post and video that the Tibetans don't like the Mao-ie wowie.