2012-04-19, 18:49 | Link #20981 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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I think .... its likely the Vatican is just on a race to make itself completely irrelevant to the world at large. The only question is will the spiral down be incremental or will there be a critical mass tipping point...
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2012-04-19, 19:17 | Link #20983 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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2012-04-19, 20:38 | Link #20984 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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In minor news but might be interesting to some:
RIP Jonathan Frid (age 87, died Friday the 13th) - the *original* Barnabas Collins in the tv series Dark Shadows on which the recent Depp film is based. Mr. Frid has a cameo in the new film. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...pTT_story.html http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/...-vampire-dies/
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2012-04-19, 21:21 | Link #20985 |
Juanita/Kiteless
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 40
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What is this news coming out of China about a politician committing murder and his wife was involved?
I'm not clear on the details. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Can anyone explain what is going on to me?
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2012-04-19, 23:28 | Link #20986 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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Quote:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/anale...power-politics http://www.economist.com/blogs/anale...litical-demise
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2012-04-19, 23:44 | Link #20987 | |
思想工作
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Vereinigte Staaten
Age: 31
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The first one is headed by Hu Jintao (president of China and general secretary of CCP) and Wen Jiabao (premier), and is known as the "reformist", "populist", or simply "Hu-Wen" faction. The second group has its origins in the leadership of Jiang Zemin and his subordinates. Though Jiang is now old and near death, the people he promoted to high positions are still alive and well and seem to be their own faction at odds with the Hu-Wen group. I call this faction either the "Jiang group" or the "elitist faction". The guy you are asking about is Bo Xilai, who was an aspiring Party official in league with the Elitist Faction who had held posts as two major cities' local CCP boss. In theory, he promoted a return to socialist ideals and moderation of capitalism, but in practice this just meant threatening and harming rich people and expanding his personal power. In doing so, he had a lot of people arrested, tortured, and murdered to serve his interests. His wife seems to have been complicit in some this, as we see in the news regarding the death of the Briton. A couple months ago, Bo Xilai's crimes were called into question when one of his henchmen, a police chief Wang Lijun, escaped to the US Consulate to seek asylum. Evidently Wang Lijun was frightened that he was soon to be done away with (perhaps to erase evidence) for participating in various illegal deeds. Anyhow, after getting to and staying at the consulate for some time (where he is supposed to have unloaded A LOT of critical information on the inner struggles in the CCP to the Americans), the Americans kicked him out and he was immediately arrested and sent to Beijing. Hu and Wen proclaimed him to be a traitor and began to criticize his boss Bo Xilai as well, and kicked him out of his position as a Party official. Now because Bo Xilai was a very prestigious upcoming official, one who had had a real chance at gaining a seat in the Politburo, his sudden denunciation and subsequent expulsion was a massive slap in the face to the Elitist Faction, which Bo Xilai was a part of. Now, Wang Lijun is awaiting trial (and probably being interrogated), Bo Xilai's position is gone, and his wife has been arrested. In short, the Hu-Wen faction is doing all they can to milk the incident in way that they can discredit and strike at the Elitist Faction. The whole affair has shown us that the CCP is not as stable or coherent as they would like to have everyone think, and that change in China* is a little more likely. *= Of note is that on the day that the scandal happened, Zhao Ziyang (a politican who are put under house arrest for supporting the students at Tiananmen in 1989) had his name unblocked from Chinese search engines. Shortly afterwards, many other politically or socially sensitive websites were also unblocked. One theory is that these sites have already been discussing the crimes of the CCP, and since most fingers are pointing at the elitists like Bo Xilai, letting ordinary Chinese people read these sites will make them more supportive of the Hu-Wen faction and blame human rights abuses and other ills on the Elitist Faction, as opposed to the CCP as a whole. |
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2012-04-20, 00:02 | Link #20988 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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I've been kind of mentally labeling the "elitist" faction a variation on the "robber baron" class (ultra-wealthy, Wall St.) in China. Their prime motivation under their rhetoric seems to be aggregation of wealth and power within their inner circle - rules and process be damned. I don't know if that's valid analogy though. Feedback on that?
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2012-04-20, 00:23 | Link #20989 |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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The 2 faction, one led by Hu and Wen and another by Jiang is correct but the rest is quite slanted.
Hu/Wen are the reformist Liberal/FreeMarket faction Jiang faction faction is made up princeling - sons of Former Revolution leaders. They are generally more populist then the Hu/Wen faction Bo is Princeling as his father was a Vice Premier Under Mao. At least until the culture revolution when Mao purge almost all his old comrades. During a trial against Bo father, he kick his father hard enough to crack a couple of ribs to prove his party loyalty. That give you guys a good idea of how ruthless this guy could get. A few months ago Bo's handpick chief fled to US Consulate in ChengDu just a step ahead of being arrested by Bo's personal security. And NO the US didn't kick Wang out. They rejected his application for Asylum but did let him stay and help get in touch with some people in Bejing. Wang turn himself over to security forces form Bejing when they arrive the next day. There was actually a bit of a face off between Bo's security force and the Bejing Security force outside the US consulate. Both Bo and Wang is currently under house arrest. I seriously doubt Wang needs to be interrogated. It is in his best interested to spill everything he knows about his old boss to take him down. It is his only chance to live through this. One of the big mystery is what happen to cause a fallout between Bo and Wang. i seriously doubt anyone bought the story that Wang was investigating Bo's wife involvement in Heywood''s death as the cause.
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Last edited by Xellos-_^; 2012-04-20 at 09:34. |
2012-04-20, 00:32 | Link #20990 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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Quote:
Who knows, maybe even Bo's wife is plotting against him, and she feared a double-cross for double-profits from Heywood and thus silenced him.
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2012-04-20, 05:07 | Link #20992 | |||
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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2012-04-20, 05:25 | Link #20993 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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Protests rage as Bahrain Grand Prix practice begins
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...83J07R20120420 Something will probably go wrong about this...
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2012-04-20, 08:02 | Link #20994 | |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Quote:
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2012-04-20, 10:43 | Link #20995 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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North Korean Missile Launcher Appears Based on Chinese Design
The Chinese launcher was designed after the institution of UN sanctions against the DPRK, so technically the Chinese might be in breach despite being a Permanent Member of the Security Council. The BBC commentator seems to think this will all be swept under the rug with a claim of "dual-use" technology. The BBC is also running a story about the Bo case on its world news telecasts that includes an interview with a tearful ex-billionaire now in hiding who says he and his family were tortured by Bo's minions and his brother murdered. The thrust of the story is that Bo was targeting wealthy Chinese and seizing their holdings. In this context it makes me wonder whether Gu's efforts to move substantial sums out of the country via Heywood was an effort to keep her husband from getting his hands on the money. Perhaps she worried that if Heywood talked, Bo might try to have his wife killed. (The story has not yet appeared on the BBC's web site.)
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2012-04-20, 11:08 | Link #20996 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
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http://chovanec.wordpress.com/2011/0...ip-transition/
A very clear (but old) article explaining Chinese political structure.
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2012-04-20, 12:06 | Link #20997 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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George Zimmerman Tells Trayvon Martin's Parents 'I Am Sorry'
http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimm...9#.T5GMge2XPXS
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2012-04-20, 12:36 | Link #20998 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: classified
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Quote:
Nevertheless, that does not excuse his disobeying the 911 dispatch officer and chasing down Trevon. Even though he had no legal obligation to listen to the dispatcher, common sense should have told Zimmerman that the police would handle it and his part in the situation was over. Instead, he chose to take matters into his own hands and that is why he is guilty of at least involuntary manslaughter IMHO.
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current affairs, discussion, international |
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