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The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-094
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
CM – Zero Covidista @xuchuanmei – 9:46 UTC · Nov 20, 2021
I'm sure the since deleted Weibo post by #PengShuai has been translated into En by ppl, but I haven't seen a properly translated version, & sounds like many others havn't read her post yet. Here's an attempt by myself, content in square brackets were added by myself… #WTA
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Many int'l media & commentators claimed #PengShuai accused Zhang Gaoli of "sexual assault", some even say "rape". While Zhang's behavior was dispicable & inexcusable, I don't think his sexual misconduct breached CN's criminal law bc in the end he persuaded Peng into agreeing…
Sadegh Ghorbani @GhorbaniSadegh – 10:36 UTC · Dec 5, 2021
Notice! it's going to be a sort of long THREAD 🧵.
A Senior Iranian MFA official has held a briefing about Vienna talks. Here comes the highlights.
To start, the official says it was predictable that other parties planned to start blame game and accuse Iran of being not serious.
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Other issues:
Covid-19 Omicron:
Doesn't look good at all.
– Infectiousness: Norway, 120 people visit a Christmas party, all vaccinated, 1 superspreader, more than 50 (unconfirmed 80) infected including people who were not at the party but visited the venue.
– Severity: Too early to really tell but probably worse than Delta. South Africa data says currently less people in ICU than with Delta
BUT a. mostly young people infected so far, b. often 14 days time lag from infection to ICU.
John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch – 23:11 UTC · Dec 4, 2021
Okay folks, time for a South Africa update, focused this time on severity of disease.
First up, the report from hospitals in Tshwane (the district furthest along in Omicron wave) is essential reading, as is thread from @miamalan tshwane-district-omicron-variant-patient-profile-early-features
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Covid-19:
- How well masks protect – MPG
A detailed study shows the maximum risks of being infected by the coronavirus for different scenarios with and without masks
Mark Sumner @Devilstower – 19:18 UTC · Dec 2, 2021
Everyone needs to see this. Mask mandates are enormously effective. Shockingly effective. Effective before vaccines were available. Effective in conjunction with vaccines. Effective through the delta wave. Wear a mask, and support mask mandates.
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bigger
Boeing:
There is a new book out about the 737 Max crisis: ‘Flying Blind: The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing’ by Peter Robinson. Links below are to a talk with the author, two pre-published excerpts and three reviews:
Use as open thread …
@112 nobody
Thank you for the Fort-Russ link. I wanted to share that with uncle tungsten but I couldn’t find it. It’s an important essay, personally translated by that great lady, Kristina Rus. I must read it again, but if I recall, the Zionists were talking with Stalin for over 2 decades, at least.
For a time it seemed that everything was going their way and then in the end Stalin thwarted them. One wonders what Stalin thought about all this. Was he ever inclined to them, or was he playing them for time?
I also wonder, quite often, how much memory lives inside the Kremlin walls, that is never heard outside. Has Russia ever been merely ambivalent regarding Crimea, or has she simply been prepared to watch from the doorway, as it were, while the children play on the lawn, and not intervene unless the play gets unruly?
Putin seemed so clear, when the massacre of the innocents was happening in the Ukraine, and was absolutely coming toward Crimea – he seemed so clear, that Russia must take Crimea into its care. This to me was the astonishing thing from the documentary, “Crimea, The Way Home”, that Putin and the security council met all through the night, and by morning the resolve was solid that, if the people wanted it, then Crimea would return.
It seemed to take so little a time to decide, as if all the arithmetic had long been understood, inside the Kremlin walls.
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uncle tungsten, I didn’t realize you had not encountered the concept before. The Sheikh clip is just a fun thing that I love to watch, it’s not supposed to illustrate the whole back story. But Hosein understood well the blow to Zionism, and he articulated it well. The blow to the US too, as others here illustrate, with the US Navy’s loss of Sevastopol, which they wanted, as any sailor would – but god knows what kind of fight would have to happen against the inhabitants, who would never give up that city as long as they drew breath.
And this is the point, of course – that any sailor would lust after Sevastopol, just as any settler would lust after Crimea.
As for today’s Israelis, I think they have as little to do with Zionists as the people of the US – or Norway – have to do with those in their own governments who pursue the kinds of ambitions that we have come to know the Zionist movement for. Zionism may have created Israel, but it doesn’t care for its people – and never did from day one either – any more than we see social concern from the megalomaniacs of any country.
How fervently the Zionists wanted Crimea, I can’t say. But when it was taken away, and forever, I feel sure they must have realized quite keenly, and bitterly, what they had lost.
Posted by: Grieved | Dec 6 2021 21:44 utc | 162
China’s freshly published White Paper, “China: Democracy That Works”, goes beyond being a vehicle for rebutting Biden’s sham democracy summit. Rather, it’s a historical documentation of how Chinese democracy arose and functions:
“This year marks the centenary of the CPC. Since its founding in 1921, the Party has taken wellbeing for the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as its abiding goals, and has made continuous efforts to ensure the people’s status as masters of the country. China is a country with a feudal history dating back several thousand years that descended into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society after the Opium War of 1840. Over the past hundred years, the Party has led the people in realizing people’s democracy in China. The Chinese people now truly hold in their hands their own future and that of society and the country.
“The people’s status as masters of the country is the essence of people’s democracy. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, with a deeper understanding of China’s path to democracy and the political system, the Party has developed whole-process people’s democracy as a key concept and striven to translate it and relevant democratic values into effective institutions and concrete actions.” [My Emphasis]
Those are bold claims that the Outlaw US Empire clearly cannot make for itself. The last paragraph of the narrative prior to its conclusion says the following:
“Political parties in all countries are the major entities of modern governance and an important force for social progress. They should therefore assume their responsibility to spearhead democracy in pursuit of a shared future for humanity, and to achieve greater democracy in their own countries in pursuit of the greater wellbeing of their peoples. They should be open and inclusive, put people first, seek common ground while setting aside differences, and demonstrate mutual respect. The CPC is willing to work together with other political parties and political organizations around the world to increase exchanges, learn from each other, and promote human progress.” [My Emphasis]
It ought to be rather obvious why I bolded the vast majority of this entire segment–the behavior demonstrated by Neoliberal political parties comes nowhere near the above postulates. Instead of working to secure a “more perfect union,” the sole political party within the Outlaw US Empire does the opposite and degrades governance and thus the prospects for the entire nation. It’s as if when they read the Constitution’s Preamble as students they were struck dumb and immediately forgot what it was they just read; yet in every election since I’ve been alive it’s the same old shit, but at least I now know why.
The Chinese White Paper consists of 71 screens or 36 depending on the chosen display format. Yes, there’s self-congratulatory reflection within the text as IMO there ought to be given China’s achievements. BUT, the What Paper’s authors do not claim that the current form of Chinese democracy arose as soon as the Civil War ended. No, they are honest and tell the story of how the current system developed over time and we arrive at this paragraph:
“Since the Party’s 18th National Congress in 2012, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. The CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core has built a keen understanding of how the principal challenge facing Chinese society has changed. It has worked hard to respond to the people’s new requirements and expectations for democracy. After drawing on past experience in maintaining order and stability across the world, and reviewing China’s progress in democracy, the CPC decided to develop whole-process people’s democracy, beginning a new stage of democracy.”
What follows are a listing of ten of what are deemed, “Some of the most important achievements,” one of which is:
“•advancing democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight, progressing electoral democracy and consultative democracy side by side, and expanding the people’s orderly political participation and the scope of democracy;”
We then get to read a discussion about “Whole-process people’s democracy.” It makes it quite clear that the people are the party and the party advances the people in a manner that doesn’t currently exist in the West although it most certainly could.
At the bottom of the linked page that takes you to the White Paper are three additional “Related stories” that expand into more with each additional article dealing with some aspect of China’s democracy. The following is noted in the linked item by FM Wang Yi:
“China has full confidence in its democratic path and process, he said, noting that the socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics is the whole-process people’s democracy, which has won wide endorsement and support from the Chinese people.
“China, Wang underlined, is willing to conduct full exchanges with other countries on democracy and human rights in an open and inclusive manner, and jointly promote the cause of democracy and human rights around the world.”
China’s very advanced democratic system is 100% capable of unseating the neoliberal democracies existing in the West. So, Biden and his minions better beware what they hope for.
Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 6 2021 23:37 utc | 171
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