“The leader of the Haitian gang who kidnapped 17 US and Canadian missionaries has threatened to kill the hostages if he doesn’t get what he’s demanding,” CNN reported on Thursday, October 21, 2021 (read story here). What he wants is $1 million per hostage. Five of those hosta[...]
Archive for the ‘Foreign Affairs’ Category
October 18th, 2021 - 3:55 pm § in China, Foreign Affairs
The nuclear chess game
China asserts it merely tested a reusable spacecraft, but some people suspect it was a hypersonic nuclear delivery vehicle. US disarmament chief Robert Wood said, “We are very concerned by what China has been doing on the hypersonic front,” the Guardian reported on MOnday, October 18, 2021 (rea[...]
October 17th, 2021 - 9:35 pm § in China, Foreign Affairs
A glimpse of life under China’s inept and corrupt communist system
The 55-year-old impoverished Chinese man who lived with his frail 89-year-old mother in this house couldn’t keep his roof on when the windstorm came, and then couldn’t get it back from his wealthy neighbor. Local authorities had previously given him permission to build a new house on his[...]
Calling torture by its right name
Last week, at least four Supreme Court justices referred to waterboarding as “torture.” I would have missed this tidbit if I hadn’t been perusing a Spokane newspaper looking for something else. What does Spokane have to do with this? Oh, only the fact a key facet of the George W. B[...]
Status report: Will China invade Taiwan?
Following a weekend when Beijing flew dozens of sorties into Taiwan airspace, and a Chinese exile blew the whistle on Chinese government kidnappings and torture of Uighurs, President Biden said “he has spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about Taiwan and they agreed to abide by the Taiwan a[...]
China’s jet fighter incursions into Taiwan airspace keep escalating
“China sent 38 warplanes into the skies around Taiwan on Friday, the highest number of Chinese military aircraft to breach the island’s Air Defense Identification Zone in a single day since Taipei began publicly reporting such activities last year,” CNN reported on Friday night, Oc[...]
The stupid stuff Trumpers believe
Better skip the salad dressing at your next outing in a no-masks-allowed restaurant. The government is sneaking vaccine into it. At least, that’s what rightwing conspiracy-mongers like Mike Flynn are saying now. Allow me to let you in on a closely-guarded liberal secret. If we’re going t[...]
Biden is all about China
In Washington, “everything comes down to China.” At least, that’s how CNN sees it. (Read article here.) After describing how Biden’s administration justifies nearly all its domestic policies on a “need to strengthen the country to better compete with China,” CNN p[...]
Should General Milley be fired?
General Mark Milley (bio here), as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is America’s highest-ranking military officer. Following revelations that, after the attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, he twice called China’s top general “to assure him Trump did not have plans[...]
September 15th, 2021 - 8:43 pm § in Foreign Affairs
Americans don’t understand the Taliban
Taliban leaders had a massive brawl after disagreeing over which of them did the most to boot the US out of Afghanistan, report says Two factions in the Taliban leadership fought each other late last week, the BBC said. They disagreed over who did the most to kick out the US, and who should get [&he[...]