Global Events & Politics Überthread

yeah

toxic masculinity only happens in the arab/muslim world

facepalm.gif


btw, none of your posts in the global event thread are global events
 
13 Siblings, Some Shackled to Beds, Were Held Captive by Parents, Police Say

range in age from 2 to 29 — in the foul-smelling house in Perris, Calif., living in the dark without access to adequate food or water, the department said.
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The sheriff’s office said that the 17-year-old girl who called 911 looked to be 10 years old.
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run a private school, the Sandcastle Day School, at the family’s home, a one-story stucco house in a subdivision built in recent years. The school enrolled six students this year, in grades six through 12, and Mr. Turpin was listed as the principal.
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Said to be a good christian home

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/...s&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
 
When you believe in a magic man in the sky there is no telling what kind of nonsense they can be convinced of. The overwhelming majority of the people in prisons are Christians. If I was a judge I would thow the book at people who said they found Jesus to try and get a lighter sentence. "You found Jesus? Well now your getting the max penalty so you should have that bible memorized by the time you get out, your welcome".

I hope it's in my lifetime that we am finally get rid of church's tax exemption. Many of them want to put just about everyone who doesn't follow their beliefs in prison so they should atleast help pay for those prisons.
 
While everyone focuses on Russian influence, China continues to make it's move:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...-card-d:homepage/story&utm_term=.b04bbce67a1b
As part of a broad effort to interfere in U.S. institutions, China tries to shape the discussion at American universities, stifle criticism and influence academic activity by offering funding, often through front organizations closely linked to Beijing.

Now that aspect of Beijing’s foreign influence campaign is beginning to face resistance from academics and lawmakers. A major battle in this nascent campus war played out over the past six months at the University of Texas in Austin.

After a long internal dispute, a high-level investigation and an intervention by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), the university last week rejected a proposal by the leader of its new China center to accept money from the China United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF). The Hong Kong-based foundation and its leader, Tung Chee-hwa, are closely linked to the branch of the Chinese Communist Party that manages influence operations abroad.

https://www.economist.com/news/lead...ision-makers-western-democracies-best-defence
WHEN a rising power challenges an incumbent one, war often follows. That prospect, known as the Thucydides trap after the Greek historian who first described it, looms over relations between China and the West, particularly America. So, increasingly, does a more insidious confrontation. Even if China does not seek to conquer foreign lands, many people fear that it seeks to conquer foreign minds.

Australia was the first to raise a red flag about China’s tactics. On December 5th allegations that China has been interfering in Australian politics, universities and publishing led the government to propose new laws to tackle “unprecedented and increasingly sophisticated” foreign efforts to influence lawmakers (see article). This week an Australian senator resigned over accusations that, as an opposition spokesman, he took money from China and argued its corner. Britain, Canada and New Zealand are also beginning to raise the alarm. On December 10th Germany accused China of trying to groom politicians and bureaucrats. And on December 13th Congress held hearings on China’s growing influence.

This behaviour has a name—“sharp power”, coined by the National Endowment for Democracy, a Washington-based foundation and think-tank. “Soft power” harnesses the allure of culture and values to add to a country’s strength; sharp power helps authoritarian regimes coerce and manipulate opinion abroad.

Like many countries, China has long tried to use visas, grants, investments and culture to pursue its interests. But its actions have recently grown more intimidating and encompassing. Its sharp power has a series of interlocking components: subversion, bullying and pressure, which combine to promote self-censorship. For China, the ultimate prize is pre-emptive kowtowing by those whom it has not approached, but who nonetheless fear losing funding, access or influence.

China has a history of spying on its diaspora, but the subversion has spread. In Australia and New Zealand Chinese money is alleged to have bought influence in politics, with party donations or payments to individual politicians. This week’s complaint from German intelligence said that China was using the LinkedIn business network to ensnare politicians and government officials, by having people posing as recruiters and think-tankers and offering free trips.

Bullying has also taken on a new menace. Sometimes the message is blatant, as when China punished Norway economically for awarding a Nobel peace prize to a Chinese pro-democracy activist. More often, as when critics of China are not included in speaker line-ups at conferences, or academics avoid study of topics that China deems sensitive, individual cases seem small and the role of officials is hard to prove. But the effect can be grave. Western professors have been pressed to recant. Foreign researchers may lose access to Chinese archives. Policymakers may find that China experts in their own countries are too ill-informed to help them.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/soci...yee-who-liked-twitter-post-tibet-independence
US hotel giant Marriott said it is in the process of sacking an employee for “wrongfully liking” a Twitter post by a group that supports independence for Tibet in its latest effort to calm a storm of criticism sparked by a company survey that referred to the Chinese region, and self-ruled Taiwan, as countries, Chinese state media reported.

Craig Smith, president and managing director of Asia-Pacific for Marriott International, made the announcement at a meeting with the China National Tourism Administration on Friday, Xinhua reported.

Wang Xiaofeng, deputy director of the administration, said listing Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as countries was an infringement of China’s territorial integrity and hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.

He said the hotel group should learn from the experience and do all it can to minimise any negative impact.

The message seems clear enough.
 
[tw]955051953935052801[/tw]

I'm going to leave this here but it doesn't seem like any of you care or want to state the obvious reasons.
 
Yeah I couldn't resist although I think people go way overboard based on a joke he made in what he thought was s private conversation.

On another note I take all the foreign events with a grain of salt if it's not a decent source. Random guy on Twitter doesn't have much credibility with me.
 
[tw]956231090007617537[/tw]

Please read this series of tweets and understand how serious the threat is out there.
 
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