China Bans Discussion of Seven Subjects, Including the Privileged Capitalist Class

China (Source: Wikimedia)

China (Source: Wikimedia)

While the economy in China remains strong, it is not booming like it was a few years ago. Economic growth is heading down, the demographics promise a nation that will look like Europe by the 2030s, and repression is still entrenched.

Part of the repression is found in university classrooms where Chinese authorities have clamped down on academic inquiry and freedom of expression. A Chinese law professor reports that instructors are forbidden from discussing universal values, civil society, citizen rights, judicial independence, freedom of the press, past mistakes of the communist party and the privileged capitalist class.

The ban on discussion for these subjects appears to have extended past the classroom. Chinese censors are forbidding discussion of these seven subjects as “dangerous” Western values. Bloggers who write about it are being shut down, and the media is forbidden from discussing the topic.

What makes it difficult for Chinese critics of the government is that the ban has not been openly published. It must make its rounds in an informal way that allows for considerable confusion and distortion.

What is clear is that the Chinese are getting a little antsy about their economic situation. They realize how precarious their situation is. Over a billion Chinese are expecting increasing living standards. It is well known that one of the preconditions for a revolution are rising expectations that are not met.

The Chinese government appears ready to make further economic liberalizations. As it has tried for 30 years, those policies will not include political reforms. The Chinese continue to believe that they can create an affluent society under authoritarian rule. Their model is a Singapore-style economy, but even Singapore gives greater freedoms than the nominal Chinese communists do.

That pretension of communism is what makes China very interesting. The Chinese government doesn’t want any discussion of past mistakes of communism. Allowing that means the government must face open criticism, but they are straddling an awkward line. While defending communism from criticism, they also don’t want criticism of capitalism’s excesses. That is why they are also forbidding discussion of capitalism’s privileged class.

Now why would so-called communists not want to go after the super-rich capitalists? That is because China is full of super-rich capitalists who just happen to be closely tied to delusional Maoists who think communist China still exists in a capitalist economy.

That declining birth rate and aging population may be a demographic time bomb, but there is another bomb ticking in Chinese society. They are conducting one of the greatest illusions in history. Two competing and completely diverse ideologies exist in China. One, capitalism, is the de facto economy. The other, communism, is what the Chinese leadership pretends still exists.

In a way, Chinese society has become a Potemkin village. It stands behind a facade of great economic activity, but the truth of that prosperity remains hidden by official statistics and the failures denied. Propping all this up is a creaky communist political structure.

Tick. Tick. Tick go the time bombs. As China struggles in a race to become wealthy before it becomes old, so is China trying to pretend that it is still a communist society. Like the emperor with no clothes, no one believes that anymore but everyone pretends they do. It isn’t going to be pretty when that charade finally ends.

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Jester’s Court — May 21, 2013

jesterscourt.

provocativeThe White House claim that the Benghazi emails were doctored is taken apart.

newsUtah Sen. Mike Lee sold his home in a short sale two years ago to a friend and then rented a home nearby from the same man, a neighbor, federal contractor and campaign donor.

newsOklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn comes out against federal disaster aid to Oklahoma unless other cuts are made in the budget.

politicsThe number of Americans who view the Republican Party unfavorably has hit a record high.

politicsFollowing months of pressure, Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman Patrick Leahy announced that he is withholding amendments to the immigration bill that would end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender immigrant families.

governmentsNASA has given a grant to make a 3-D food replicator.

miscellaneousWhat to do with all the marijuana waste from Washington state’s legal pot growers? Feed it to pigs and give them the munchies to make them fatter.

foolishNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has changed his mind. He doesn’t believe that climate change is real.

quotesRep. Michele Bachmann: “I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we’ll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare.”

internationalChina keeps ratcheting up the tensions with India.

internationalIn Afghanistan, Many of the 600 women jailed in the last year are victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse whose only crime was to run away from their assailants.

internationalGuatemala’s top court has overturned a genocide conviction against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, returning the case to a lower court.

videoIt’s official. Anthony Weiner for mayor of New York.

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British Same-Sex Marriage Opponents Fear a Possible “Lesbian Queen”

Norman Tebbit (Source: James Robertson Photography (CC))

Norman Tebbit (Source: James Robertson Photography (CC))

You have to hand it to British Prime Minister David Cameron. He knows how divisive same-sex marriage is, and he has seen how it bitterly divided France with widespread protests. Yet Cameron pushed full bore into the issue despite his Conservative Party not being on board.

The House of Commons has approved same-sex marriage by a 366-161 vote that required the Conservative Cameron to court Labour support for the bill to pass.

The Conservatives tried to alter the bill by proposing an amendment granting civil unions to same-sex couples. It was Labour with some of Cameron’s Conservative allies beating back a large Conservative opposition.

This would be something like Barack Obama breaking with some Democrats to get legislation passed but only with the overwhelming support of Republicans.

Cameron’s party is not happy. A former high-ranking cabinet minister and head of the Conservative Party during Margaret Thatcher’s reign, Norman Tebbit, completely blew up over the fear that people of the same sex might marry.

Here’s Lord Tebbit from the Mirror:

In a blistering, foul-mouthed rant, the former Cabinet minister said the Prime Minister had “f****d things up” by pressing ahead with same-sex marriage legislation despite growing resistance from his own party.

Things are going to get saucy when a former cabinet minister starts talking about things getting “fucked up” to the press. However, it gets more than saucy. It gets loony.

Lord Tebbit warned the Government had not thoroughly considered possible implications and the problems arising from passing new legislation in a hurry.

The 82-year-old warned that plans for gay marriage could allow families to avoid inheritance tax.

He told the Big Issue: “It would lift my worries about inheritance tax because maybe I’d be allowed to marry my son. Why not?

“Why shouldn’t a mother marry her daughter? Why shouldn’t two elderly sisters living together marry each other?”

The Conservative Party Chairman also questioned how the gay marriage bill could impact on Royal succession.

He added: “When we have a queen who is a lesbian and she marries another lady and then decides she would like to have a child and someone donates sperm and she gives birth to a child, is that child heir to the throne?

I think this almost makes the same-sex marriage debate in the U.S. sane. Here it is about protecting traditional marriage and the immorality of homosexuality. At least those who oppose same-sex marriage in the U.S. have a philosophical position.

Tebbit is warning that he might be allowed to marry his son and have a lesbian queen. No wonder Cameron broke from the nuts in his party. There’s no way to discuss the issue when lesbian queens are their greatest fear.

Posted in David Cameron, Norman Tebbit, United Kingdom | Leave a comment

Tennessee Congressman Advocates Cuts to Food Stamps While Raking in Millions in Farm Subsidies

Stephen Fincher (Source: U.S. Congress)

Stephen Fincher (Source: U.S. Congress)

The farm bills that regularly pass through Congress deal with a number of agricultural issues, including farm subsidies. They also include funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps.

With the last recession, SNAP has grown from $37 billion a year to $80 billion. Overall, 47 million Americans are in the program. Some collect just a few dollars a month; others collect hundreds. As the income rises, the benefits are cut. It is considered an essential program for the elderly and working poor and the children within those families. To be eligible for SNAP, one’s income must not be higher than 130% of the federal poverty level or about $30,000 for a family of four.

The farm bill also includes billions in subsidies to wheat, corn, cotton and other farmers. The subsidies tend to favor the large farms and are selective on the crops that qualify. While a corn farmer can collect thousands, a cauliflower farmer is out of luck.

In a recent debate on the farm bill, California Rep. Juan Vargas fought against cuts in SNAP with a reference to the Bible.

“[Jesus] says how you treat the least among us, the least of our brothers, that’s how you treat him,” Vargas, adding that Jesus specifically mentions the importance of feeding the hungry.”

That brought a response from Tennessee Rep. Stephen Fincher. Fincher, a gospel-singing cotton farmer, quoted from the Book of Thessalonians:

“The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

That’s the problem with kids and the elderly. They won’t go out and work for their dinner. Let them starve seems the attitude of Fincher.

This Bible bantering could be dismissed as just another round of squabbling between Democrats and Republicans except that Fincher is a hard person to take serious on this subject.

Besides completely ignoring the point that the working poor make up a significant portion of those receiving SNAP, Fincher has his own needy hand in the government till.

Fincher is the managing partner of Fincher Farms in Frog Jump, Tennessee. It is a 2,500-acre farm growing cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat. Coincidentally, those are some of the main crops collecting farm subsidies. Fincher farms has received $3.2 million in subsidies. In addition, Fincher’s father and brother have taken in another $6.7 million.

Apparently, the cutting government waste platform that Fincher ran as a Tea Party candidate for Congress only applies if it means cutting meals for children who refuse to violate child-labor laws by not working.

Many in the Tea Party had doubts that Fincher was “pure” enough to run as one of their own when he sought election in 2010. At least those Tea Partiers could smell a hypocrite, and they were right.

Here was Fincher’s response when the House Agricultural Committee approved the Farm Bill.

“Late last night the House Agriculture Committee approved a bipartisan and fiscally responsible Farm Bill. As a seventh generation farmer, I know firsthand how important a good Farm Bill is in order to provide farmers across the country with the security to plan ahead and know what to expect from our farm programs. I’m proud to say this Farm Bill does just that.”

Let me get this straight. The farmers need security and the opportunity to plan ahead but the poor don’t get those same benefits because they don’t work hard enough. Fincher might be good at Bible-quoting and gospel singing, but he is lacking in some more important Christian virtues.

Posted in Juan Vargas, Stephen Fincher, Tea Party | Leave a comment

Jester’s Court — May 20, 2013

jesterscourt.

internationalRussia is building a terrorist-killing Robo-cop.

internationalNicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega is accused of sexual abuse by his stepdaughter.

internationalCroatia is training honeybees to find unexploded mines littering their country and the rest of the Balkans.

internationalShowgirls dressed as Obama were popular at Silvio Berlusconi’s past “bunga bunga” parties.

internationalTaxes on the rich imposed by Socialist president Francois Hollande meant more than 8,000 French households had tax bills that exceeded their income last year.

internationalBritish Prime Minister David Cameron may have to turn to the opposition Labor Party for votes to pass same-sex marriage legislation after his Conservative Party divided on its support.

northkoreaNow the North Koreans have seized a Chinese fishing boat.

OopsSarah Palin’s criticism of Barack Obama using a marine to hold an umbrella comes back to haunt her.

doubtfulMichele Bachmann said the IRS is “going to be in charge of our health care.”

awkwardOklahoma’s two senators, Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe, regularly vote against disaster aid for other parts of the country. That will make for a difficult situation now that Oklahoma has encountered a major tornado.

chronicledEleanor Roosevelt’s license to carry a pistol.

foolishBenghazi is the 15th issue that Republicans have raised as reason to impeach Barack Obama.

governmentsThe Supreme Court will weigh in on legislative prayers.

newsApple has been accused of being “among America’s largest tax avoiders” by a Senate committee.

newsPortland’s fight against flouridation.

politicsAccording to this nutty poll, half of America wants Obama impeached.

politicsOn the eve of the primary election, a candidate in the race for Harrisburg mayor has admitted to defacing the campaign signs of one of his rivals.

inappropriateVirginia Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli asserted that the state’s freedom of information laws do not apply to the Office of the Attorney General.

videoMaine Sen. Angus King accused the Obama administration of rewriting the Constitution to ignore the Congressional power to declare war.

videoTexas Rep. Louie Gohmert believes the IRS “would have shot the Boston Tea party.”

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Dallas City Council Candidate’s Obscene Outburst to Reporter

After listening to this, there is a reason that Dallas City Council candidate Richard Sheridan only received 28 votes in his race. The guy is not just a raging idiot, but a homophobe too.

Sheridan blasted D Magazine’s Dan Koller in this profanity laced tirade. Sheridan had previously made news in Dallas after being forcefully removed from speaking at public meetings when his time limit expired. Hopefully, his language at the meetings was better than on this audio. And, yes, the removal is from “meetings,” meaning that being physically removed once was not convincing enough. Sheridan had to do it more than one time.

On the voicemail, Sheridan expressed his pleasure that one of his opponents, Leland Burk, lost. Burk is gay, and Sheridan refers to Burk as a “sodomite.”

“You, sir, are cunt, bitch, coward, Mr. Koller. Dan Koller is a cunt, bitch, coward. And I don’t think you have one testicle, sir. You’re a sorry-ass, you’re a disgrace to our city, you’re a propagandist to the Sodomites,” Sheridan said.

As you can see, the video is not for work or around young children. It is also just part of the out-of-control vitroil coming from Sheridan.

It’s not just Koller that Sheridan is spreading his pleasure that Burk lost. Burk was one of three gay candidates seeking seats on the city council. All of them lost. Sheridan is thrilled with that, probably as much as every one of the 28 votes he received in his race.

Sheridan has now resorted to passing out anti-gay flyers at the city council meeting. A columnist with The Dallas Morning News reported on the content of the flyers.

During the meeting, Sheridan began passing out fliers. He dropped one in my office. He gave a few to people in the audience. And then he put one in the hand of former Dallas City Council member Craig Holcomb.

I’m not going to post the flier. But I’ll describe it. It was a distortion of a recent Dallas Voice front page showing the faces of three openly gay council candidates, Vernon Franko, Leland Burk and Herschel Weisfeld.

Sheridan had X’d through each of their faces and scrawled 6s on their foreheads.

“God’s voice was heard in Dallas Saturday. No openly gay LGBT City Councilmember!!” he wrote, in reference to the fact that all three lost their races. (Franko and Weisfeld ran against Adam Medrano in District 2)

Sheridan failed to write that his own bid for council came up a little short too. In fact, he managed to get 28 votes in District 13. That’s 28 votes out of 10,350 votes cast in the district. Burk lost to Jennifer Staubach Gates, but he got 3,584 votes for his effort. Or, to put it another way, Burk got 128 times the votes that Sheridan did.

It’s comforting to know that the hate Sheridan spills is as unpopular as it is in Dallas. There may not have been any gay candidates elected, but that will change in time. At least the haters, like Sheridan, are being reduced to a handful. With the kind of PR attention Sheridan provides, they will eventually marginalize themselves right out of the political system.

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Virginia GOP Lt. Governor Nominee Compared Planned Parenthood to KKK

ewjacksonfoolIn Virginia, the Republican Party selected its candidates for state office over the weekend. To no surprise, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli was selected as the candidate for Governor. Seven candidates vied for Lt. Governor. The winner was E.W. Jackson, an African-American pastor with a legacy of controversy.

Just last fall, Jackson placed a video on YouTube exhorting his fellow African-Americans to join the GOP because of “the evil being done by the Democrat (sic) party.”

Jackson goes on to compare Planned Parenthood to the KKK, even declaring them worse than the KKK. He rattles on about racism, insinuating that the Democrats are the real racists. He also criticizes the support of gay rights as a civil right comparable to the black civil rights movement as racist in itself.

Jackson’s extreme denouncement of gay rights nearly echoes the white racists of the 1960s who didn’t want African-Americans to have equal rights either.

Jackson’s race and alignment with the Republican Party is not the issue here. What is the issue is that he is just another in a continuing line of hatemongering, intolerant extremists who want to change American society from tolerance to a puritanical one-dimensional society. Jackson takes it a step further because he uses his race to cojole and criticize African-Americans who dare to support the Democratic Party. Now if he could only learn that it is “Democratic Party” not “Democrat Party,” he might gain a little respect just from his use of the English language.

“The Democrat Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions. Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was. And the Democrat Party and the (sic) black civil rights allies are partners in this genocide.”

If the GOP wants to outreach to Latinos and African-Americans, then the more power to them. It can only help both of those minority communities to have both political parties paying attention to them, but Jackson’s exhortations are not outreach. It is a distortion, extremism and hate. It’s the kind of intolerance that has destroyed bipartisanship across the nation.

Listen to Jackson and you will understand why his fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson believed that the separation of church and state was so important. If there is any common sense in Virginia, Jackson will go down to a decisive defeat in the general election.

Posted in E.W. Jackson, Republican Party, Virginia | Leave a comment

Jester’s Court — May 18-19, 2013

jesterscourt.

newsPETA wants everyone to know that they have been the target of IRS audits too.

newsNew York Assemblyman Vito Lopez will resign from office after two reports determined that he has been sexually harassing staffers for years.

governmentsUnder Alabama’s 2011 immigration law, medical professionals are now required to prove they are U.S. citizens or in the country legally to maintain their licenses to practice.

governmentsNew York’s 34,000 police officers have been instructed not to arrest women who go topless.

politicsThere’s a heated race in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County for the office of prothonotary. The candidates have a common platform point: explaining what it is.

corruptionThe FBI has contacted two former staffers of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign, adding to the investigations looking into alleged financial improprieties by top officials in the campaign.

internationalFrance legalizes gay marriage despite protests.

internationalIran has determined that its constitution forbids women running for president.

internationalLawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation aimed at strengthening provisions for women’s freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience.

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Jester’s Court — May 17, 2013

jesterscourt.

provocative

The long term federal debt problem is not nearly as bad as those who want to slash the deficit make it out to be.

surpriseJohn Edwards is back.

politicsAn atheist is running for mayor of a Georgia town and wants to repeal the ordinance that forbids laughing when near a church.

newsThe FBI is trying to find the source for the prostitution and corruption charges against New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez.

news

A New York judge has warned bin Laden’s son-in-law, who is facing charges for conspiring to kill Americans, that he should replace his Jewish lawyer who may face prison time for another matter.

governmentsThe Arizona House passed a bill that would allow anyone to discriminate against anyone for any reason, especially on the grounds of religious liberty.

governmentsA judge has blocked an Arkansas law that forbids abortions after twelve weeks.

doubtfulSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid is serious this time about filibuster reform.

internationalAn Australian politician says he has learned a valuable lesson in social networking after he “liked” a Facebook photo without realizing that it showed a teenage prankster exposing himself.

internationalA Japanese party is expelling a party lawmaker who claims Japan has “swarms” of South Korean prostitutes.

fashionableMichelle Obama has retired her bangs.

videoPennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly schools IRS chief Steven Miller.

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Minnesota Lawmaker Calls Climate Change a “United Nations Fraud”

Minnesota state Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen’s is a longtime climate change denier who likes to think that he debunks it with scientific data. He is also certain that there is not a gay gene (it’s an “unhealthy addiction”). He wants Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s work on sex in the 1950s destroyed because it is “fraud and lies” meant to justify adults having sex with children. Gruenhagen is a credible scientific critic on these matters because he sells insurance when not pontificating mistruths in the Minnesota legislature.

Gruenhagen had the opportunity for some more pontificating recently when he spent several minutes outlining why climate change is just another U.N. scam to control the world like black helicopters and Agenda 21.

“And the fact is, members, there’s more and more evidence coming in that it’s just a complete United Nations fraud and lie, okay? The latest facts from CPAC show that in the last 16 years, there’s been no global warming,” said Gruenhagen.

Perhaps there is a climatologist group called CPAC, but the only CPAC that I am familiar with is the Conservative Political Action Conference that meets every year. That is hardly the place to swap scientific papers.

The claim that there has been no global warming in sixteen years is not accurate, especially when considering atmospheric and ocean temperatures with those on land. This video effectively debunks the notion. The earth has continued to warm. That should be evident from the melting ice, particularly in the Arctic.

But, wait, CPAC has new facts, so argues Gruenhagen. Those climatologists can’t be believed because “man-made global warming believes that exhaling causes global warming.”

That might be true, if the climatologists are measuring the hot air coming out of Gruenhagen’s mouth.

Gruenhagen also references the often-used petition signed by 30,000 scientists that dispute global warming. That sounds significant. With 30,000 scientists claiming that climate change is bogus, it grabs the attention of the rest of the world.

If 30,000 doctors signed a petition stating that laser eye surgery was dangerous, then that would be notable too. Of course, who is going to listen to a podiatrist explain the problems with cutting-edge eye care? Or an anethesiologist? Or a psychiatrist?

That’s the same argument this anti-climate change petition makes. With over 31,000 signers, barely one-tenth of one percent of those are climatologists. Specifically, that is 39. The rest of the scientists range from astonomy to hydrology to animal science to mathematics to food science to computer science. After all, who knows better what’s happening to the climate than an animal control officer with an animal science degree?

This is the kind of misinformation climate change deniers thrive on. Gruenhagen and the others aren’t interested in a fair-handed analysis. They use selective exposure to information with a selective perception that is a textbook example of reinforcement theory. They believe only what they want to believe.

Posted in Glenn Gruenhagen, Minnesota | Leave a comment