Walker

Here he attempts a ploy: Connect criticism of all dangerous and unsanitary practices in the PRC with simple reactionary racism against traditional Chinese culinary practices. He is trying to walk people into a corner and guilt trip them. He is unaware, either out of simple ignorance or willful ignorance (which are stupidity in either case, since he resists all attempts at education) of the fact that PRC citizens themselves have long been disgusted by the worse-than-Sinclair's-Jungle conditions that have been encouraged to thrive under the extremely corrupt CCP. How many times, in Beijing, was I warned (always by locals) not to eat mutton kebabs lest I be eating reconstituted sewer rat meat? How many times, in countryside locations where I spent more than a year of my life, did I see spray painted advertisements offering to buy stray dogs which would be sold, no matter how filthy, into the food market? How many times did I hear locals tell me they take it for granted that no oil can be bought that can reasonably be expected not to contain sewer oil? How many times did I see photos and documentary footage--back before Emporito Xixi castrated the already weak news media--of things like filthy plants where rotten and diseased chicken carcasses are washed in bleach and other chemicals to be passed into the human food chain as supposedly edible meat? How many times was the melamine milk powder scandal brought into conversation by locals as a reminder that the CCP cannot be trusted in matters of public health--years before the fake vaccine scandals of 2018?! And what of the whistle blowers and lawyers involved, how do they fare now? How many times? Hundreds? Thousands? I never kept count. But none of that made me nearly as sick as C T and Palomides, Two overseas, comfortable shills for the CCP, They never lived there, They got no skin in the game, No experience, No reality, Just fantasy, Eloquent, fake ass fantasy, And unmet emotional needs. The strongman fantasy, The overseas CCP fanboy version. Faker than a college student on an iPhone in a Che Guevara shirt. Fucking 屌絲 pube nerds. Apologists for Xitler. Desperate, weak men, In need of a daddy. Truly, Stomach turning.

The sad thing is that he probably doesn't even receive a dime from them (not that that would make it okay, what he's doing). He's just fulfilling emotional needs from childhood. A sick Chinese-American version of a holocaust denier. Shilling for the CCP, religiously, on a site devoted to discussion of a tradition, That has bled, literally, at the hands of the CCP. Foul.

This dude mad creepy. True that. But evidently it is like pouring nitrous oxide into stupid, so it is not without power...

A bump to describe exactly how I use this method now that it has taken root in my body and I no longer need to do it with regularity. A couple of days ago I went camping at the top of a huge gorge that opens out into the Pacific Ocean 15 km from where I set up my tent. Powerful winds rip up the canyon from the ocean, winding through V-shaped river canyons with nearly-vertical marble walls that rise hundreds of meters through the air. Somehow, as is often said to be the case with canyon and desert winds, these winds seemed especially able to "get into the cracks" in my body's defensive qi (衛氣/weiqi), but unfortunately I didn't heed the initial feelings of discomfort, and instead sat in the wind for a long time after sunset. Once it became clear that the wind had "got in me," I did a bit of baguazhang circle walking to build qi while wearing a strong Goretex windbreaker/raincoat. Although I succeeded at building qi quite quickly, I was still in the wind while circle walking, so I may have made the situation worse rather than better. This is because as soon as I had a bit of internal qi my pores opened and a very slight sweat broke out. Although that is a sign, in TCM, that external pathogenic wind qi will have been pushed out of the body, at the same time it means the pores are open, so more external wind can get in! Overall, it was a stupid move. There is even a phrase in the martial arts that I can't remember the exact wording of, but its gist is "kung-fu masters don't fear human adversaries, but a little wind will kill em dead." I thought about doing zhanzhuang afterwards, as this is a daily practice I very seldom miss, but there was truly nowhere to be out of the wind, which was now really roaring up through the canyon. I stood in position for a few seconds and my body put the kaibash on the idea--I could tell this was not laziness or avoidance, but a warning from within. I beat a hasty retreat to my tent and got ready to sleep. However, by now the wind was really in me, and I had a terrific headache splitting along the left side of my face and temple, going right into my left eye socket. I seldom get headaches, and almost never nasty buggers like this. It was painful enough that falling asleep was difficult and it later woke me many times throughout the night. By morning the headache had grown to cover both eyes and my whole forehead. I felt nauseous, weak, and generally on the verge of "coming down with something." Fortunately the wind had died down to a gentle breeze during the night. I realized I had better do this shaking practice, otherwise my chances of getting a cold or worse would be high. Covid or no covid, coming down with a fever would mean not being allowed back onto a train into the city and all sorts of other inconvenience, including possibly being compelled to hole up for 14 days. So, with no wind to worry about, I dragged my sorry ass out of my tent and found a good place to stand on flat ground. And I began shaking. I am not sure how long I stood for, but I would estimate approximately 30 to 40 minutes. Within a few minutes the shaking loosened up my abdominal discomfort and dispelled the sense of nausea. But the headache remained. The effects of the shaking did not reach my headache until at least 20 minutes had passed. Once they did the headache gradually subsided. Many different subtle variations in frequency and amplitude occurred, as well as spontaneous changes where the different body parts most involved in the movement would alternate. Nevertheless, I simply followed the basic instructions I posted above, with my hands at my side, feet flat on the ground. After a half an hour or so the surface of my body broke out into a light sweat, precisely the kind of "sickly" sweat you might get with a cold, although fortunately because my body's qi was pushing this sweat out before actually getting really sick. On the basis of this sign I decided to employ the "Ha" sound, sending out one very loud HA from the bottom of my abdomen that echoed back at me from across the canyon. This pushed a bit more light sweat out, and left me feeling that my qi had more or less recovered normalcy. I shook for a little while longer and then came to a stop, after which I stood in stillness for several minutes, letting my body return to "normal." I felt quite comfortable, light, and 通. Since I had sweat I quickly changed into a clean, dry shirt and then covered up with my fleece and raincoat, so that drafts could not get into my open pores. I felt thoroughly refreshed and the headache and other symptoms were totally gone. Later that day and the next day I passed several very loose stools. One of the symptoms of cold in the spleen-stomach in TCM can be loose, watery stool. As I had not eaten anything unclean or drank from streams, I suspect that maybe this reaction reflected that the shaking allowed my body to shift some of the wind-cold into the stomach meridian (I am speaking about the meridians Zhang Zhongjing identifies in the Shanghanlun, and not the 12 primary meridians from acupuncture/zang-fu theory, for those who are TCM students and might be curious). This kind of transference of external pathogenic qi is described in the Shanghanlun or Treatise on Cold Damage, but I am not 100% sure that that's what happened. In any case, I did not develop subsequent cold or flu symptoms and was able to board my train the next day without trouble. This is how I use this method. If it has not yet taken root in your body, you will need daily or near-daily practice for a period of weeks or months before it can become something you can "keep in your back pocket" and pull out as needed. Disclaimer, just in case: All of the above is for consideration ONLY. It is not medical advice; it is not a cure for any disease; it is not guaranteed to prevent the contraction of any virus, bacteria, or other type of microscopic pathogen. It is only likely to help with the symptoms of what TCM calls "external wind-cold pathogenic qi," the appearance of which may or may not correspond with what western medicine would call "the common cold." Please do not interpret what I have shared as a call to ignore the advice of any qualified medical professionals.

Falsehood. Many qigong methods do not involve breathing instructions. Many Daoists practice methods that deemphasize or even eliminate breathing. Many Daoists do not practice qigong. Illogical statement. Falsehood. Alchemy can be practiced in total absentia of qigong. Major falsehood. Daoists most certainly do use the term 打坐. 打坐 does not mean zazen. 坐禪 means zazen. I have already corrected you on this before. Stop lying at people. In Daoism, 打坐 does not mean seated meditation. Wang Chongyang (who you pretend to have read but obviously have not) explained this extremely clearly. This has been explained to you before, even years ago by opendao. Stop trying to ruin people's learning with your lies and imaginings, 氣蟲.

It's also a ridiculous last ditch attempt to win a debate by throwing down a flake-O trump card, on some old bullshit like, "well, thus far I have failed at logic, stonewalled to ignore all counterpoints and evidence, temporarily quit the debate, switched opponents, stooped to whining about people having potty mouths, thrown up straw men, tried to veer off into false dichotomies and non sequiturs, and yet I've still failed to convince anybody. Hmm, well, last chance, here's the old, 'you guys are all wrong because you're not enlightened enough' card. This is a spiritual discussion forum, it ought to work a charm!" Wait...

I gather that you do not identify as a CCP supporter. I note that you do not positively appraise their human rights record. And yet I observe that you repeat numerous CCP propaganda talking points here, specifically the three that I listed above. The dissonance between what I gather, note, and observe is your responsibility. It is up to you to resolve, or not, as it were. Kishore certainly can't do it for you, and nor will complaints about my manners make that dissonance go away. Amen! Fuck false dichotomies and false choices based upon them. Ah, yes. First manner policing, then goodbye, then back again for more, but still no reply to any point I made before. Now an attempt to bait me into a philosophical discussion. No, first deal with what was said before if you want to play philosophy.

Very dramatic eyebrows and wild gesticulation. But, Within the first two minutes alone he has already uttered so many half-truths and falsehoods that I am finished with him. @C T, I can clearly explain what they are, but not until you address the other points that have been made to you. I do not need to waste my time writing to explain things to a man who will not read and contemplate. The old "I am just going to ignore everything people write and start replying with YouTube link potshots so that talking heads can do my thinking for me" routine is close to the epitome of intellectual laziness. Again, you were smarter when you stuck to talking about things you have actually studied and experienced.

Good publicity that fills some deep-seated-but-liminal psychological yearnings...

False. Nowhere have I weighed, compared, or contrasted the various "evils" of this world. I have nowhere here said that the CCP is more or less wrong than any other group. Nowhere have I said that being realistic about the CCP requires ignoring or otherwise being unvigilant about any other group. Rather, I have taken great umbrage with your whitewashing of the CCP's past and present behavior, especially since this has involved nonsensical claims such: Your specious claim that the invasion and ongoing suppression of Tibet being "just a small blip." Your baseless idea that the PRC provides no-strings-attached aid around the world. Tour risible notion that somehow the CCP operates "like nature" and that those living under its dominion can get "all that one desires." Somehow the CCP's brutal, bloodthirsty ravaging of the Tibetan land and its people is just "a small blip" that we shouldn't let color our understanding of their governance, and yet my tendency to drop a few F-bombs and scoff at stupidity means it's time for C T to slam on the brakes and start complaining about manners. Makes sense! Now, as for whether or not I'm a hero, actually, I'm perfectly happy to be labeled just another jackass on the internet. But, Me being a jackass does not change the fact that you have failed to contemplate any of the counterpoints and evidence I have posted, and are instead doing more than: Wasting more time latching onto questions of etiquette.

If you understood the organization you are attempting to talk about here You would instantly realize that that one video Cannot be taken out of the context of the CCP's propagandizing Because what they did there Is par for the course I have walked that course Up close, intimate, and personal I'm saying you need to check yourself Not because of that one minute video But because of everything I just painstakingly said While you have found one little question mark to latch onto A neat little exit To scurry off into No it doesn't. Corroborating evidence stands or falls by virtue or its content, whether it is presented with a cherry on top, or hot sauce. Harping about my tone of voice is a great dodge if you to find a way to excuse yourself form engaging with facts, though, I'll give you that. I'll explain it then, so that we may have surety. Nobody will see a nice demeanor from me if they come on here piping up in un-thought-out support of groups such as: Nazis The KKK The CCP Especially if that support amounts to nothing more than parroting said groups' own propaganda. The trend should be clear now. I'd rather be called an asshole for getting in the faces of people who blithely splash totalitarians' codswallop on these decks, Than win a million bucks in the lottery.

Well, I'm a little petered out from taking the children to school today, and I'm sure they're tired from reading all their homework, so let me switch to a little multimedia presentation instead of writing another essay. Below is video taken in Wuhan of a tea of a team of local CCP cadres who drive around for photo ops in front of hospitals and clinics. The person who makes the video narrates in Chinese that they show up every single day, when they get into formation, hold up a big red flag, take a photo, and then get into their cars to drive away. Shockingly, the video ends with one of the cadres taking the big bundle of hazmat suits and throwing them into a trash can--what unbelievable and utterly unconscionable waste, and yet par for the course, given that observers of some of the warehouses holding PPE sent from overseas donors early in the pandemic said that cadres were coming and commandeering the donations meant for hospitals for their own use! Anyway, I cannot say, @Earl Grey, that there are no good-hearted, noble doctors amid the team sent to the Philippines. Hopefully there are some and hopefully their contributions will be useful. But to imagine that the CCP is not slavering at the thought of how to use this virus to expand and cement their power, is (as of course I know you know) as naive as imagining that Jeff Bezos is not currently masturbating himself into a frenzy as he thinks about how many Alexas this disaster will help him sell. @C T @SirPalomides @ReturnDragon This video is especially for you guys who need serious a headcheck when it comes to how you see the CCP. I got the link through an article on covid in Chuang--hardly a hotbed of pro-US propaganda.

Wow, more delusion. After years of seeing you share you insights into Buddhism, I had figured you were in the habit of using your mind better than you are here. The CCP is similar to... nature? Work with its principles and attain what you desire? Are you fucking joking? You know what one of Chinese people's biggest complaints about the CCP is? There is no way to really work with it; there is no knowing what its principles really are; and there is no way to feel secure in possession of what one has attained, because it could all be taken away, arbitrarily, at any moment. And when that happens, there is no recourse, because the courts in China are a joke, the laws are merely there to give the semblance of governance, and corruption and greed still reign supreme. In fact, a huge if not the number one reason for China's problems with capital flight, profiteering at the expense of simple concern for humanity, and terribly low levels of social trust lies precisely in the fact that nobody there knows if the money in their bank account and the land/real estate they own won't be taken away tomorrow. It is not merely that if your village gets steamrolled to build a useless, crumbling-before-it's-finished skyscraper you will not win in court if you sue the local government. It's that they might just fucking kill you for protesting too loud. Or throw you away in "administrative detention" for two years. Or torture you. All of this results in people desperate to make more money and squirrel it away outside of China, where reasonably functioning legal systems mean they have a modicum of confidence in being able to keep their money. It results in a terribly unbalanced society, and it is just one of many factors meaning that locals are both unwilling and unable to work toward building strong communities. In other words, under the CCP, dead ends come to you. Dude. Your comments are fucking fantasy. "Similar to nature?" Pffffffffffffffft. China has spent the last few years running around to small nations that recognize the sovereignty of Taiwan, offering them aid in exchange for breaking ties with the Taiwanese government. This is sooooooooo well documented, and it's just one example of a widespread pattern with Chinese aid money. Another disgusting recent example is that money was given to the Free University of Berlin by the Chinese government, in exchange for the university agreeing to follow Chinese law! I sure wish you applied the same rigor to other things that you evidently do to Buddhism, now that you're getting all talky and stuff in subject matter that is clearly brand-new to you.

There is no monolithic "the American media,"* regardless of whether the person pointing the finger and boiling everything down to a hypersimplified bugbear is you, or Donald Trump. Media in America contains a panoply of voices, many of which are simultaneously very anti-Trump, very anti-American hegemony and warmaking, and at the same time, very anti-CCP. Perhaps you are new to following the PRC's portrayal in English-language media, and thus it seems to you all-of-a-sudden the PRC is getting a lot of negative attention, just at the same time as Trump is trying to shift blame for his own tremendous culpability for the disastrous US response to the coronavirus. Perhaps that apparent coincidence would make it seem like the anti-CCP tone in mainstream news is a new thing, and therefore reflects that media outlets are falling into rank behind Trump. Be assured that they are not. For one, it takes very little effort to see that papers that lambast Trump every single day are also questioning the CCP's statistics and scientific "facts" about coronavirus, thereby indicating that what you are seeing is not some "pro-war, xenophobic bias" with a drum for open conflict with China being beaten by those who have the wit to point question the statements made by its leaders, who all but the most foolish among us know are as habitually prone to lying as Trump is. For two, anybody who has been a careful "China watcher" will have noticed that the uptick in reporting that paints the CCP in an ugly light began around when it became clear that Xi Jinping's anti-corruption purges were, essentially, purges of the opposition. That is approximately 2015. The upswing continued apace along with the militarization of the South China Sea with fortresses built on top of coral reefs; the unfolding of the human rights catastrophe in Xinjiang; and Xi's elimination of term limits. These things are what finally tore the rosy gauze from the international media's eyes. This gauze was especially thick between the 2001 WTO entry through to 2008 Olympics "look, China is going to join the modern world" propaganda party. Note that the gauze was already falling away well before the Hong Kong protests took off last summer. I read the entire Grayzone piece. It is good to question RFA, and any other source of news, for that matter. Nevertheless, deep familiarity with PRC hospitals and propaganda, as well as contact with acquaintances in China, means that that one article is far from enough to make me take the CCP's numbers and claims about coronovirus with anything other than a tired laugh. As for granularity, if whatever makes you tick is making you tick in such a way that you find yourself emotionally sidling up to a murderous totalitarian regime that stands for the exact opposite of the lifestyle you prove you presently enjoy by exercising your freedom of speech on this forum, then you needs to get granular. Never know when your sack full of opinions might actually become important, when certain real temptations in the real world, with real world consequences, pass your way. If you don't take a granular moral and intellectual accounting of the stuff in your bag now, it might be too late then. And I say this as a man who has walked, more than once. In the words of the poet Billy Danze: But, I done passed up more shit Than you may ever touch *Finally, the irony of your pointing at the American medial like it is some sort of monolithic voice whilst you are defending the CCP is supreme. A few years ago when Xi Jinping began really tightening the choke chain around the necks of the media in China he went around and visited offices personally and declared that "the surname of the whole media in China is 'Party.'" And we ain't talking we likes to party party, either. I was there when that happened, and close friends with many in the media there, including one of the permanent reporters in Xi's own press attache, which follows him around wherever he flies on planet earth. He was then my baguazhang brother, somebody I regularly trained, dined, and chatted with--hell we smoked cigars when his first son was born. He's a member of Xi's press attache... This is no pro-US, "let's see China fail" shill, and even he was disgusted... There's a lot you learn when you're actually there, wherever there is. Around that same time I had tea with the head of a private TCM academy and a young woman she had just hired to do promotion for their company. The extremely intelligent young woman's previous employment? Investigative reporter. After hearing her describe her previous work with obvious love, I asked why she was now writing marketing copy. She replied that there is now no longer any way to have a viable career as an investigative reporter in China... In fact, after Xi's rise, the total number of investigative reporters in the entire country had dropped to less than one hundred. Fewer than 100 investigative reporters in a country of 1,400,000,000 people, with literally thousands of TV stations, newspapers, and online portals? What a fucking joke.

Yes, and it regularly threatens to invade the island with the military. Communist China claims to own Taiwan, even though the country has never for even one minute been a part of its territory. In fact, this obsession on the part of the PRC is a major part of the reason that the WHO continued to repeat the lie that there was no human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus long after this fact was discovered and brought to their attention by Taiwanese public health officials. Even though the PRC only pays a paltry part of the WHO's budget, its political power nevertheless stifles Taiwan's voice on the international stage, and thus Taiwan's warnings went mostly unheard while much of the world continued to be led astray by the communist party's wishful thinking/lies.

Ummmm, a simple, unadorned "nope" would have sufficed. I have been "practically neighbors" with Malaysia for 13 years. Reflecting upon what I have learned about Malaysian politics by virtue of being a short flight from Malaysia for a dozen years tells me that being "practically neighbors" with a country means very little. Ditto for being "practically neighbors" with Mexico for decades; I can scarcely describe how that country runs. Nobody magically absorbs detailed knowledge of history and politics by virtue of geographical location. And if people did, then you probably would not have said... Are you joking? When, ever, has any CCP mouthpiece said anything along the lines of, "well, you see, the invasion of Tibet was just a straightforward land grab and power grab. We sent our army in there, killed a shit ton of people, shelled and dynamited and smashed tens of thousands of religious sites ranging from small shrines to majestic monasteries, threw shit tons more of people into gulags for torture to keep the population well subjugated, and now we're busily eliminating the vestiges of their traditions by attempting to erase the Tibetan language and nomadic lifestyle whilst filling the country with surveillance and snitches as we strip its natural resources. Easy peasy, nothing special here!" If you actually have seen CCP mouthpieces describe the invasion of Tibet in this way, please provide a link or a bibliographical reference. Because so far as I know, it's sugarcoating alllllll the way. The typical exuses: -We did invade Tibet, yet, but you see actually we owned Tibet all along and forever. Therefore it was ours to invade and subjugate. This is a Chinese "internal affair," foreign interlopers needn't get involved. -We did invade Tibet, which was a separate country. But it was for their own good. We had to liberate the Tibetans from feudalism. They are grateful to us. -We did not invade Tibet. There was never really any invasion, very few Tibetans ever died, we merely brought order to our unruly province, everything else you hear is lies from the CIA and the "wolf in sheep's clothing" Dalai Lama separatist. Are you joking? "One small blip?" If Malaysia got invaded by another country tomorrow, would that be "one small blip" as well? Now, I am welllllllllll aware of the common PRC propaganda refrain, "we Chinese, what with our grand 5000-year-old civilization, never commit aggression outside of our borders, unlike those other evil civilizations out there." I have heard this chorus be sung by glassy-eyed parrots more times than I can count. Yet... Are you aware, for instance, that within the span of time that the nascent US existed, while its European colonials were committing genocide against American Indians and holding Africans as slaves, the Qing dynasty conquered Xinjiang and also committed genocide there? Are you aware that this is why Xinjiang is part of the PRC map? Are you aware, also, that the Chinese military has in very recent years militarized the South China Sea (despite repeated public promises not to install any military hardware whatsoever on what it originally claimed were "research stations"); claimed international waters as well as other nations' territorial waters; and has a belligerent fishing fleet that is fully integrated with its navy, thereby amounting to a maritime militia that is already involved in violent clashes? If you are not well aware of what I am describing above, this would explain your strange ability to glibly repeat standard CCP propaganda talking points vis a vis Tibet. (Although I acknowledge that you negatively appraise the invasion as well as the PRC's lack of human rights). If you wish to dig into the possibility of a relationship between the vaping-related hospitalizations and the novel coronavirus, why not. You might find something interesting. But keep in mind... -That event was not actually swept under the rug. It was widely-reported on while it was occurring; I read numerous reports in mainstream outlets with great interest as the problem unfolded last year. -If the coronavirus we are seeing now was somehow placed into vaping juice in order to start a pandemic, why would it not have started an epidemic in the US? The pandemic did not reach the US until after there was already a pandemic affecting China and elsewhere? Occam's razor seems to render the argument that the vaping deaths in the US somehow transported a virus to central China as part of a malignant master plan rather untenable. -Is the wumaodang involved in spreading this rumor/conspiracy? -If it still seems likely to you that this is all a big conspiracy, then there remains the question: where is most of that off-brand vaping juice imported from? Same place as all those deadly bath salts and deadly novel THC derivatives, I believe... I'll let you guess where that is.

I repeat: be sure that I post what I do having considered what I witnessed over three thousand days over there; what countless friends and acquaintances in China have and do tell me; and what I read about China, which is a considerable amount coming from a wide variety of sources, for years. The CCP is, fortunately, unique in its evils. Just as the US is unique in its. Both governments are worthy of intense scrutiny and reflection, especially if you are to go about speaking defensively either of them here. The CCP's monstrous treatment of its own people is extremely well documented, even if you divide every figure by 2 or 10 and convince yourself that there are actually no concentration camps in Xinjiang and no Falun Gong organs have been sold. That they are recently expansionist and that that phenomenon is a threat to democracy and Enlightenment values beyond the PRC's borders is a reasonable worry for anybody who has paid close attention to high quality reporting on China since Xi took power. For instance, on this board Earl Grey has regularly discussed the ways in which the CCP's expansionism has negative effects in the Philippines. I see the SirPalomides crystal ball is out again. I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, thanks to work experience that involved reporting on China and knowing foreign reporters posted in China personally, that there is plenty of negative press about China that is produced on the basis of noble goals. Some of it actually does help the Chinese people. I note that this is the second time when defending the CCP you respond to posts with unthorough potshots. Step your game up.

A moment after posting this, I realized that Xi Jinping's official catchphrase is 復興. The meaning is essentially the same as Make China Great Again. Two different colors of Kool-Aid. Same fucking drug. Mad heads drinking the juice in 2020...

Palomides, if you have suffered because of American racism--and there is nobody in America who has not, although of course the range of suffering is vast--you have my genuine sympathy. But do not let your negative experiences blind you, or cause you to identify with something you do not actually understand. And beware presuming you understand anything about the regime ruling a country you have only visited briefly. What I have presented is hardly hysterical, and while I can't promise there is no propaganda element in any link I post that details the mistakes and evils of the CCP, be sure that I post what I do having considered what I witnessed over three thousand days over there; what countless friends and acquaintances in China have and do tell me; and what I read about China, which is a considerable amount coming from a wide variety of sources, for years. Furthermore, note that I have been extremely careful to point a finger at the CCP, never the citizens of the PRC or members of the Chinese diaspora. Note also that many others are similarly cautious with their tongues. You should take care with your eyes and ears, too. Note also where the photo of those urns come from. The people most harmed by the CCP are the Chinese people, but the CCP was doing that long before there was a President Trump, and will continue long, long after there is a big stone on the ground bearing the name of Donald Trump. If idiots discriminate against Chinese people or people of Chinese descent because of negative news about the government of China, that is and will be unfortunate. Idiots have a tendency to do stupid and mean things. The fact that idiots exist, however, is not a good reason to pretend that the CCP is an honest or humane player on the world stage or in its own borders. Nor should reporting on their transgressions be hushed up. After all, failing to pay attention to what is going on in China is proving to be a deadly mistake. Note also, and you too @C T, that plenty of sources of anti-CCP news are among Trump, et al's harshest critics. Finally, if you actually think the CCP is an honest and humane player, Palomides... Wow. Indeed some are. I do not think you are. My hunch is that you were traumatized by racism. (There is no shame in that. Discrimination is inherently traumatic; it is meant to be that way.) I think one of the effects of your terrible experiences with racism is to identify with Chineseness and to focus on the ways in which racism is and has long been aimed at China, Chinese people, and people of Chinese descent. This identification seems to be insufficiently examined. Because it comes from your emotion it is not a product of the intellectual rigor you're clearly capable of. Thus, it involves too much fallacy and delusion and it is blinding you to the simple fact that: One can hate the CCP while loving China and Chinese people at the same time. Let me rephrase that: Sometimes, one can scarcely love China and the Chinese people without hating the CCP. I do not think you are paid 5 mao for your posts. But I do know that the CCP spends millions and millions and millions of dollars to create the narrative and psychological reflex which says that CCP=Chinese. They are desperate for this narrative to govern the minds of those in the PRC's borders, and some asshole in a computer lab in a basement in Henan creams his pants everytime a person of Chinese descent in the west or a citizen of Taiwan buys the lie. It would be a pity if a man as smart as yourself lets his genes, skin tone, last name, and family lineage convince him that evil men in power have his and other common people's interests in mind. But such mistakes are common, and, for many, hard to see, hard to avoid, and hard to correct. That is why plenty of seemingly intelligent pink-skinned folks who ought to know better will be voting Trump in November. Same disease, slightly different manifestation, Palomides. #MAGA #MCGA

https://fortune.com/2020/04/01/china-coronavirus-cases-deaths-total-under-report-cover-up-covid-19/ “The claim that the United States has more coronavirus deaths than China is false,” Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, said in a statement after Bloomberg News published its report. “Without commenting on any classified information, this much is painfully obvious: The Chinese Communist Party has lied, is lying, and will continue to lie about coronavirus to protect the regime.” Deborah Birx, the State Department immunologist advising the White House on its response to the outbreak, said Tuesday that China’s public reporting influenced assumptions elsewhere in the world about the nature of the virus. “The medical community... interpreted the Chinese data as: This was serious, but smaller than anyone expected,” she said at a news conference on Tuesday. “Because I think probably we were missing a significant amount of the data, now that what we see happened to Italy and see what happened to Spain.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-27/stacks-of-urns-in-wuhan-prompt-new-questions-of-virus-s-toll In photo #8 in the link below, one can see ~2000 urns. The caption says the line to pick up ashes takes 5 hours to wait through in Wuhan. A Beijingese ex told me today the most common rumors she hears put the dead in Wuhan at 50,000. Her mother works in management at a hospital. Rumors are rumors, but considering the source... http://m.photos.caixin.com/m/2020-03-26/101534542.html ------------ According to a political scientist at National Taiwan University who runs a think thank devoted to reading between the many, many lines of CCP propaganda (明居正教授... I've seen him speak a few times at public lectures around Taiwan, the man is brilliant, engaging, level-headed, and very plugged in), since the beginning of the year there has been a loss of over 20 million subscribers by the three major mobile phone carriers in China. During the same period last year, in contrast, these companies reported net gains in subscribers. He pointed out that some of this may be because many Chinese people have multiple SIM cards and/or phones. As many rural migrant workers are stuck in their villages, it is logical to conclude that countless of these workers have lapsed on their phone bills for local numbers in cities they no longer live and work in. However, the professor concluded this caveat by pointing out that even if you divide 20+ million by 2 or 3 or 5, you still get a massive number.

Most of this strikes me as pretty innocuous, not-likely-to-cause-harm-might-help-just-a-little-bit TCM stuff. Slapping the elbows is a common folk remedy for strengthening the lungs. I honestly don't know if it really helps. I have stood in rooms with dozens of people slapping their insides of their elbows purple. I tried once. It hurts like hell and there are better ways to improve immunity, so I never did it again. For whatever reason this particular method indeed does seem to capture the imagination of middle-aged mothers more than anybody else. The clockwise rub around the stomach is supposed to promote good digestion, the whole "don't do counter-clockwise, that's western" is hilarious and reminds me of the stupidity at TCM university. Most of the doctors who say shit like that aren't actually so stupid as to believe it--they just feel like they have to say something, and whoop-dee-doo pull stuff like that out of their asses when asked questions (they generally don't like questions, I should add). #2 is not surprising. "Look at TCM, the CCP created TCM, TCM is going to save the world" is a major soft power propaganda initiative. I'm more disgusted by the WHO adviser you posted about earlier. What a spineless, gutless little pube of a man. Naifs from countries with low levels of corruption are sooooooo easily taken in when they visit China. Wine em, dine em, give them a $15 porcelain tea set with a dragon motif, and they will drive through any Chinese Potemkin village and politely refrain from asking why the windows are painted. Hopefully one good thing that will come about of the covid calamity is people becoming more cynical about PRC propaganda. If they don't, what fragile and poorly-distributed Enlightenment values we enjoy are fucked.

Translation: Howzabout some free mansplaining from an omega male who created false-but-insidious sense of identity by living vicariously though various strongmen on TV? Analysis: This is called "the strongman fetish." Translation: No! Analysis: It can be hard for a guy who habitually calls other men beta males to admit that the vaginas of the world would prefer to monologue rather than dialogue with him. Prediction: But soon enough he'll tell us what a lothario he actually is/was/would be if women were worthy. Translation: He is afraid of rejection! Analysis: Chances of rejection nearing 100%. Conclusion: This fear is reasonable. Translation: More interested in hearing sound of own voice than communicating with human woman. Analysis: This is the best time in Faffforever's life. There are fewer people in the cafes, and Pornhub is free. It's like God finally answered his prayers. He can mumble to himself in McCafe while watching porn on his phone and nobody even notices. Prediction: Now that there are almost never kids in McDonald's, Faffforever is planning to relocate to playroom. Recommendation: He should put down the phone and go to the playroom. This may be his one and only chance before death to engage with residual baggage from the awful childhood that he blames the world for. Reminder: Death comes sooner than most expect. Seize the day, omega male! It's your only chance! Answer: Addicted to miniscule dopamine surges, deprived of oxytocin and serotonin. Probably has body issues, performance anxiety, and either sexual dysfunction stemming from poor lifestyle habits, and/or a thick-headed inability to get anybody off. Developed fetish for strongmen to make up for ominous sense of lack of agency and inability to influence environment in positive ways haunting own life. Finds it easier to maintain imaginary friendships within authoritarian daddy figures than actual humans, whether online, or off. Therefore... Prognosis: Recovery unlikely. Prediction: Will soon reply with milquetoast retort, nobody will be impressed, but Gatito's dickriding will be sufficient to convince Faffforever that he has won the day. Recommended course of treatment: Burn him off like the genital wart he is. Advise holding nose and squinting, the smell and sight of burning papiloma is known to upset the stomach.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/america-learn-new-york/608875/

Buncha straw dogs, poop cats, cherry marmots... When I was young I worked for the ACLU and marched with King... Then I got turned down by this lady in accounting... Saw the wisdom of the KKK... That Bolsonaro is a fine leader... Burn the natives out of the Amazon, I always say... Who finished my coffee, why is my cup empty... Why do they change the free Wi-Fi password every day... The font on this phone is too small... Where was I... Oh right, I was telling you how my dantian got enlightened... Look at those terrible children over there... Did you know they sell discount shoes at Tesco? They comfortable, they're stylish, and they have STREAM LINES!