NewCharlesInCharge
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User ID: 89
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
Chinese protests are a top story in Western news media. I don't think they're entirely organic. Some are likely intelligence agency ops.
Here's the first thing that made me think something was off: https://twitter.com/quanyi_li2/status/1596784472740937728
First, some of the signage doesn't look right. They use traditional characters instead of simplified. They also sometimes use pinyin, seemingly unable to recall the "qi" in "Urumqi," the biggest city in Xinjiang, even as they were protesting on Urumqi road. Mainlanders wouldn't do this. This is beyond mere misspelt Tea Party protest signs, I'd say it's akin to protesting against Biden with an English-language sign with Cyrillic characters accidentally slipped in. It's a clear signal of "not from around here."
Second, the protests don't make much sense if your goal is to reach other Chinese folks in China. You can't share such protests on social media, and news agencies won't cover them. However, contrary to popular narratives, demonstrations are allowed in China. You can't call for the downfall of the national government, but you can plea for the national government to come in and fix local issues. You can also take to the streets because you're really worked up about foreigners insulting China.
So, the intended audience is probably Western news media and consumers of such media.
Third, advocating against the national government and leaders is punished, and everyone knows it. It's unlikely that Chinese citizens would take such a risk when it's so easy to put on a demonstration that falls short of impugning the national government. I think it's likely that these were non-citizens, perhaps Taiwanese, or perhaps expats, that aren't risking their livelihoods. The use of traditional characters makes this more likely, only Hong Kong and Taiwan use them. Western media are unlikely to take note of such things, or to take note of Taiwanese accents.
This aligns with what we've seen before in intelligence ops.
We've seen evidence that intelligence agencies have helped along color revolutions in the past, including protest leaders in Hong Kong meeting with at least one state department official. Much of this is actually done in the open, with the National Endowment for Democracy sending money directly to dissident groups.
Note that an intelligence op doesn't mean that everyone involved works for the intelligence agency, or that they even know that the agency is involved. Every country has its collection of folks who would like to see the government fall. Intelligence operatives identify and befriend these folks, nurture their revolutionary sentiments, and help to remove hurdles in their way. It's the same tactic used to get a group of right-wing men to agree to kidnap the governor of Michigan, except that no one stops the plot from continuing to move forward.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
Tangential, but there's been a massively successful anti-China propaganda effort in the United States since about 2014.
One piece of evidence: you use the abbreviation "CCP." That's not what they call themselves. In English, they say they're the Communist Part of China, or CPC.
You can also look back in newspaper archives and see the tone of coverage changing. Around 2014 the tone became increasingly negative, to the point where now it would be notable to see a news story on China display any positivity. Prior to then the dominant narrative was about wild economic growth, with a secondary narrative of "these foreigners are weird."
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
You think that Russia would've invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022 if Yanukovych had never been deposed?
Why would they bother?
Without the coup, there would have been no rebel oblasts. With those oblasts continuing to participate in elections there probably would have been no government elected that would seriously entertain the idea that Ukraine join an anti-Russian military alliance.
On Russia and Europe: Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin have all floated the idea of Russia joining NATO. No one in NATO has ever appeared to like that idea, with American Presidents and Secretaries of State dismissing it. It was the Americans that pledged there would be no NATO expansion into former Soviet states after the fall of the Soviet Union, "not one inch eastward." That was obviously a pledge broken, and not even in response to any Russian hostilities.
I'm American and I can't make any sense of our foreign policy strategy in regards to Russia. It all seems like dick-waving with potential nuclear consequences. What do we even get if we "win?"
NewCharlesInCharge
3mo ago
Proxy wars have never been fought with such a serious risk to the homeland of one of the big powers. Also never so close to nations that could trigger NATO's mutual defense provisions.
If Russia gamed out that there was a 97% chance that Ukraine will seize control of Moscow, then what? Russia would have refused to use its most powerful weapons out of respect for international norms?
NewCharlesInCharge
2mo ago
The articles I’m seeing now is that he was killed, under Putin’s orders, to prevent a prisoner swap. For example: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/26/vladimir-putin-had-alexei-navalny-killed-to-thwart-prisoner-swap-allies-claim
This is Nordstream logic. If Putin wanted to stop the prisoner exchange he could have just ordered it stopped. Any subordinate that went ahead and did the exchange anyway would do so at great risk to themselves, since Putin does in fact have people killed.
Navalny’s widow says Putin had Navalny killed because Putin is a “mad mafioso” but I’m not aware of a pattern of such killings by Putin.
If this was a murder intended to stop the prisoner exchange then the most likely murderer is a state other than Russia and Germany. Very similar to Nordstream! The most likely scenario if halting a prisoner exchange was the goal would be that the Americans wanted to prevent the Germans from making a deal with Russia. Perhaps part of the deal even involved gas shipments.
NewCharlesInCharge
9mo ago
I believe that miracles continue to happen and that the Catholic Church documents the ones with substantial evidence. It’s also on guard against hoaxes and mistakes and rarely declares an event to be a miracle.
I know it sounds hokey to a non-Catholic, but look into the Eucharistic miracles. Especially those examined by pathologists .
NewCharlesInCharge
10mo ago
If you really want your bubble burst on Putin, read some of his Valdai speeches and chats. I don't agree with all of his politics or his war, but he's refreshingly direct and erudite. I can't recall seeing an American President speaking in such a way since Eisenhower.
I just randomly scrolled through this 2018 appearance and landed on this, a response to a question on mismanagement of government funds in hospice care:
Firstly, I completely agree with you that our discussions, our internal discussions should be centred on our problems, domestic problems, our people’s lives, which is actually a major part of our work. And as you said, the fact that we are discussing war – and not just war but terrorism and other similar issues – is due to the way our host Mr Lukyaunov organised the discussion, I am not the one who organises it, it is done by the host, so let us put all the blame on him.
As to the problem you raised, it is obviously very sensitive, demanding special attention and tact from the state. Ultimately – you said it yourself – the state allocated the funds. The fact that only 12 or 16 percent were used means the work was poorly organised. I assure you that it does not mean that I will say to you, “The money was allocated and you did not use it, so that’s it, good-bye.” Do not worry, this will never happen.
I know the way money is spent, and very often, funds allocated by the state to handle certain matters of absolute priority do not reach the end receiver. If they are returned to the budget, it does not mean that they will stay there for good and the necessary funds will never be allocated again. We will certainly keep doing it.
Yet we have to admit that whatever the state might do, it is impossible to completely solve any problem 100 percent. Life is more complicated and keeps throwing in more and more of new problems for us. Of course, efforts by the state are very important, as are those by society and religious organisations, by the way. It is religious organisations, and I mean our traditional faiths, that create the internal strength and internal basis for any person to feel secure in this fast-changing and fairly dangerous world.
The state will definitely pursue all the tasks in the context you have just mentioned. Do not worry. I will take your documents, of course. It does not mean we will wrap up the topic just because someone underused the funds. Have no doubt. I will see why such a small percentage was spent. It looks strange.
Maybe he's actually a bumbling fool and the English transcripts are a poor representation of what he's said, but I've never seen anyone assert that.
NewCharlesInCharge
11mo ago
I think in the case of Xinjiang the banality of evil may be that so many will easily consume manufactured consent for war.
There are reeducation camps in Xinjiang, but there is no genocide and no sterilization campaign.
This is how the state is dealing with their Islamic extremism problem. Time will tell whether or not this works better than fighting a war against them, but so far I think there’s probably less evil afoot than in the collateral casualties of the GWoT.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
If the report is true, the probability of number two drops to nearly zero. That's the option that's been pushed by spooks pretending as pundits since the start, and proof of Russian self-sabotage is all upside for NATO and NATO's friends.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
First, you stop being a direct burden on anyone else on the day of your death
I've been personally burdened by the natural deaths of two family members, who had done adequate planning as far as wills and such, but there's still a lot of things that have to be taken care of. I've also observed another family that devolved into petty fighting among siblings over a meager inheritance.
Even a person with no possessions and no next of kin will burden some government worker with their remains unless they die in such a way that a body can't be recovered.
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
Also there's both overt Western involvement that mainstream media portrays as good and proper, along with covert Western involvement, without which the conflict probably wouldn't have happened, that won't be talked about in mainstream sources for decades, if at all.
NewCharlesInCharge
4mo ago
Contract killings can be had at that price. It’s not implausible that kidnap-for-hire would be at a similar price level.
NewCharlesInCharge
9mo ago
Given the available evidence of non-believers that have converted, what makes you so confident you'll never change? I don't think you've really engaged with the faith, the objections you raise are shallow. Maybe you engaged with a hollow version of the faith.
I, too, used to be an edgy Internet atheist. I'm now on the path to Catholic baptism.
That is just what happens when America really doesn't like you and you lose.
If you're a deposed ruler that America never really cared much about either way you can escape to Sweden Switzerland with a plane full of cash and live out your days. Or, maybe America does dislike you but you escape to Russia, like Yanukovych did not too long ago.
If you're a deposed ruler that America doesn't like you may find yourself impaled ass-first on the end of a knife, like Qaddafi. And if you're the ruler of Russia, you can't escape to Russia. If we don't assist your domestic enemies in an extrajudicial killing, we'll still find you, try you in a court for whatever we want, and most likely execute you. Maybe you'll get lucky like Slobodan Milosevic and get a Hague trial so that you die in a Dutch prison instead of being executed in your home country.
NewCharlesInCharge
9mo ago
If that's coercion, then having any requirement for romantic partners is coercion.
"She said must love dogs in her profile, and I had no other choice but to feign a love of dogs, though I am actually a cat person."
NewCharlesInCharge
10mo ago
"Prigozhin accepted CIA bribe, coordinated with Putin to put on a good show until the bribe was paid, then turned back" is apparently popular on the Chinese internet, and fits what we do know pretty well. Russia letting its men be sacrificed in the ruse seems brutal, but it's not unheard of. Also possible that the helos could have have been destroyed without killing anyone, and the deaths manufactured as part of the ruse.
NewCharlesInCharge
10mo ago
It's enemy-of-my-enemy thinking, though Russia as enemy is relatively recent and arguably America's doing. From 2009 to 2014 NATO troops were transiting through Russia in support of the war in Afghanistan: https://usrussiarelations.org/3/geopolitics/map/northern-distribution-network
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
Is publishing a website speech?
What if my website is merely a proxy to another site?
What if I inject a header that insults Congress into every HTTP response?
NewCharlesInCharge
1yr ago
That would fit with a Russian strategy of hammering Ukrainian-Ukraine and then retreating to a more defensible position of just the majority ethnic Russian regions.
NewCharlesInCharge
5mo ago
Perhaps it’s a higher incidence of sexual deviance coupled with a low awareness or care that putting that deviance on display will have negative social consequences.
NewCharlesInCharge
8mo ago
As someone who doesn't believe China is the next big evil to be contained, this makes a lot of sense to me: https://newrepublic.com/post/175020/vivek-ramaswamy-thinks-us-let-china-invade-taiwan
tl; dr: The United States currently has a strategic interest in Taiwanese semiconductor exports and so will defend that interest. Once we have our own domestic manufacturing capacity, it makes no sense to put American lives at risk to intervene militarily in any dispute between the mainland and Taiwan.
I'm not a strict isolationist, but I think we're involved in too many conflicts that aren't at all in our interest and where it's not even clear we're doing any good. If we're going to kill our own children to intervene in a foreign conflict it ought to be Nazi or Imperial Japanese level of evil, and victory should be well-defined and plausible.
NewCharlesInCharge
8mo ago
If your plan is to allow for no survivors, it makes no sense to create more evidence of your false flag operation.
I think it’s likely that the attack was planned by an underling and scuttled by a superior who had no prior knowledge, and that explains why survivors were allowed to live.
NewCharlesInCharge
9mo ago
It does now, the false flag would be Israel trying to make the US believe that an adversary of Israel sank the boat.
NewCharlesInCharge
10mo ago
I think you’re mistaking rudderless inertia for responsibility.
But for the encroachment, coup, and 8 years of shelling rebel oblasts, the invasion probably wouldn't have happened.
Like most wars, this one is not mono-causal. We can certainly blame Hitler for invading the Sudetenland, but we can also blame the Allies for creating the conditions that would lead the Germans to rally behind a strongman.
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