Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Come on, man.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

I really should read my own blog.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Girls Just Want To Have Fun — China “Red Princess” Edition

Girls Just Want To Have Fun — China “Red Princess” Edition

by | 35 Comments

This post is in: , ,

I’ve not commented at all about Hong Kong and the umbrella protests because I don’t know enough to add anything to what much more informed people have to say.  As noted in Anne Laurie’s post this morning, old China hand Jim Fallows has been tracking the story closely, and has been writing himself and keeping tabs on other smart takes on the situation.  Here I’ll highlight from that list only the rather meta essay Henry Farrell put up at the Monkey Cage blog on the perils of explanatory journalism in cases, like this one, when the explaining journalist can fall afoul of his or her unknown unknowns:

Explainer journalism rests instead on the authority of the person doing the explaining.

The problem with this is twofold. First, the explainers are sometimes going to get things wrong. This is especially likely in international politics, where the explaining journalist is supposed to have expertise in far more countries and far more issues than any human being can possibly know much about. Second, the explainer is going to have difficulty in admittingthat he or she has gotten something wrong. If your authority and livelihood as a writer rests on your supposed ability to explain, you are not going to want to admit that you got things seriously wrong, even if you did.

Very useful correctives to keep on hand as we read just about any source on just about any kind of story.

So, my ignorance stipulated and reiterated, let me just add this to the mix.  If I’m CY Leung, the head of the Hong Kong government, facing an unprecedented level of protest and demands for more transparent, more democratic, and more open government, I really, really, don’t want to read a post on my 22 year old daughter’s Facebook page saying this:

The necklace on my profile pic is not a dog collar, silly!!!” she said. “This is actually a beautiful necklace bought at Lane Crawford (yes – funded by all you HK taxpayers!! So are all my beautiful shoes and dresses and clutches!! Thank you so much!!!!).

Collier,_Evert_-_Vanitas_Still-Life_-_1705

And I’m really, REALLY sure I would wish she hadn’t added this:

Actually maybe I shouldn’t say ‘all you’- since most of you here are probably unemployed hence all this time obsessed with bombarding me with messages.

In the context of stories like this one, this is just so much not what any senior official would want to see splashed across headlines around the world.  I have no idea how this moment of scandal (or simply gaucherie) will play into events on the streets of Hong Kong and in government offices there and in Beijing.  But damn…that’s some spectacular buffoonery from someone who I guess fits the definition of a red princess.

Image: Evert Collier, Vanitas Still Life,  1705.

Reader Interactions

35Comments

  2. 2.

    Mike J

    @Mnemosyne: Paris Hilton has actually had real jobs as an actress and model. There are many people in public life who I believe are paid out of proportion to their talents. I don’t see that Ms Hilton is an especially egregious example.

  4. 4.

    srv

    I suppose you fell for all the cointelpro against Occupy Wall Street.

    Now Obama is using it against China, I guess war with Russia isn’t enough.

  5. 5.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:
    That’s unfair to the Hiltons. As far as I can tell, Conrad Hilton earned his money fairly and tried hard to keep it from turning his descendants into wastrels. And Paris may have inherited a bunch of money, but she’s done a fairly good job of parleying her notoriety into money-making opportunities, so that she’s probably earning at least as much as she’s spending. In contrast, CY Leung almost certainly got his money through public corruption, and his daughter is bragging about spending it on frippery. I think the Hiltons come out better on both sides.

    ETA: I have a soft side for the Hilton family, since they endowed the building where I work.

  6. 6.

    srv

    Ruh-roh:

    Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is lashing out at President Obama’s inner circle for failing to secure a 2011 deal to leave U.S. troops in Iraq, effectively accusing the White House of sabotaging the talks – in turn, opening the door for the region to become a haven for the Islamic State.

    Panetta, who served as CIA director and then Defense secretary during those negotiations, aired his complaints in his forthcoming memoir, “Worthy Fights.” Excerpts on the Baghdad talks were published by Time.

    In them, Panetta explained that Iraqi leaders privately wanted some U.S. forces to stay behind after the formal 2011 withdrawal, though they would not say so publicly. The former secretary, though, said the U.S. had “leverage” to strike a deal, and the Defense and State departments tried to do exactly that.

    “But,” he wrote, “the President’s team at the White House pushed back, and the differences occasionally became heated. … and those on our side viewed the White House as so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interest

    Does not fit the official SOFA meme…

  7. 7.

    Belafon

    @srv: There was no way they could leave troops there without the SOFA. It doesn’t matter if the Iraqi government privately wanted them there. The first time a US troop killed a civilian, he would have to be tried under Iraqi law, not under some secret handshake.

  8. 8.

    Keith G

    @srv: Presidents get paid to make tough decisions. It is entirely possible that Obama made the wrong one in 2011. Though, I am not sure how much difference the long term outcomes would be.

  10. 10.

    jl

    Sounds like his daughter would be perfect for the job. Problem solved. You are welco…

    Oh… wait…

  14. 14.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Roger Moore: The first time I went to Dallas, I stayed at a hotel that was once the first Hilton. Really nice place. I also spent two nights in the Paris Hilton, it’s by the Eiffel Tower.

  15. 15.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    At one stage, she put up pictures of herself sitting in a bathtub with slashed, blood strained wrists while sparking off speculation that this could be the result of her differences with her mother, Tong Ching-Yee.

    “Courage and loyalty are the virtues I value the most. My mother embodies the exact opposites of both,” she said in one another Facebook post.

    She seems nice. And stable.

  16. 16.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Paris Hilton has actually had real jobs as an actress and model.

    @Mike J: She got cut off a year or so after the sex tape. Any money she’s been spending since then is her own. She’s done very well for herself.

  19. 19.

    John Revolta

    Can she actually be this clueless? I dunno from Facebook- is there some way to hack into somebody’s page and leave phony posts?

    Because, holy shit.

  20. 20.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    @Gin & Tonic: A wonderful combination of sociopathy and borderline behavior. I bet the dad falls asleep at night praying for the peasants to come kill them all and put him out of his misery.

  21. 21.

    monkeyfister

    Within 10 days, the Chinese State will lose their patience, and start the killing in the streets of Hong Kong, followed by hunting down and imprisoning the survivors and their extended families. Same as always.

  22. 22.

    Trollhattan

    @BillinGlendaleCA: One must be careful how one words that.

    Regardless of whether one is at or in the Paris Hilton, the video she did in answer to Walnuts in’08 endeared her to me forever.

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mike J:

    Paris Hilton has actually had real jobs as an actress and model.

    That she got through her family connections. Which I realize doesn’t make her that much different than anyone else in nepotism-riddled Hollywood, but let’s not fool ourselves that she got where she is strictly on her talent.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    @Roger Moore:
    And leagues ahead of anything Kardashian, who have truly mastered making money being famous for being famous. My theory: Al Qaeda stole a B52 and carpet-bombed us with Kardashians in the late ’90s, but nobody noticed for awhile.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Roger Moore:

    Speaking of the Hiltons — I am kind of amazed that Zsa Zsa Gabor* is still alive.

    *(or, as I sometimes like to think of her, Elizabeth Taylor’s ex-step-mother-in-law).

  29. 29.

    Roger Moore

    @trollhattan:
    I’d put the Cardassians Kardashians well ahead of this leech, also, too. Sure, they’re making money purely by being famous for being famous, but they’re still doing something vaguely productive by providing entertainment, and nobody is being forced to give them money. In contrast, CY Leung apparently got rich through graft, and his worthless daughter hasn’t even done that much to earn the money she’s spending. They’re paradigm examples of parasites.

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    @Roger Moore:
    We’re down to “Blow to the head, or dose of clap?” territory, aren’t we?

    Horrid people, behaving horridly, with a tra-la and a gift of cake for the masses. Really, truly hope China doesn’t go Tiananmen on those folks. They’ve already tried UC Davis.

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    @trollhattan:

    We’re down to “Blow to the head, or dose of clap?” territory, aren’t we?

    More like allergies vs. Ebola. There’s really a huge difference between somebody who does something I see as socially worthless and being paid too much for it and corrupt and rapacious officials living it up on tax money.

  35. 35.

    Paul in KY

    @srv: I was pretty fucking eager to get the Hell out of there too. The President campaigned on getting us out of there.

Comments are closed.