Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

In after Baud. Damn.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

All hail the time of the bunny!

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: Happy Lunar New Year!

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146Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    to clarify, Vietnamese people celebrate the cat instead of the bunny

    Wars have been fought over less.

  4. 4.

    JPL

    Because this is America, once again there is another mass shooting.   This one in Monterey Park, CA at a dance club where folks were enjoying the Lunar New Year.

  5. 5.

    David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch

    Captain Andrew Meyer of LA County Sheriffs says 10 victims killed in Monterey Park mass shooting, suspect still at large, no suspect description. There is also an incident in nearby Alhambra, no word if it’s related pic.twitter.com/ebodGzutIO

    — Trash Panda 🗑🐼 (@rduran) January 22, 2023

  11. 11.

    JPL

    from twitter

    .
    @CBSLA
    is showing the 2nd scene in Alhambra being looked at is the Lai Lai Ballroom, no victims but they are reviewing security footage. Unconfirmed if related to Monterey Park shooting

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    @raven:

    “slipped across the DMZ”

    When we visited Korea (12-plus years ago), we went to the Third Infiltration Tunnel, one of the numerous routes NK had constructed to facilitate stuff like that. I do not recall how many infiltration tunnels had been discovered at that point, but it was pretty interesting. Only allowed single-file passage (for adults).

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    That explains the intermittent ragga-fragga fireworks last night. Tonight will probably be the whole shmear.

    Moving, on, undoubtedly linked it previously but what the heck.

    One of my favorite orchestral pieces, Shostakovich’s 9th symphony. 31 minute video, which includes 3½ minutes of well-deserved applause,

    He either really loved or really despised the clarinet. Some very tricky sequences of notes.

    (Leisurely burning in the snazzy new headphones made in Romania I’ve lusted after for quite some time. Finally put together enough spare scratch to gift them to myself for the holidays (at almost $100 off!). Opted for silver accents rather than the gold as pictured. That’s real wood and real metal; no cut-rate plastics involved. Takes around 20 hours to achieve peak audio geek awesomenosity.)

  14. 14.

    SFAW

    @Chris T.:

    I don’t know about bunnies, but we have a cat that drools, when she’s getting skritches.

    ETA: Or even when she’s not, but lying on one of us and content. We need to have a towel around when she does. Fortunately, the other three cats don’t drool.

  15. 15.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    That explains the intermittent ragga-fragga fireworks last night.

    I heard some last night, did not understand (at the time).

  17. 17.

    Ken

    @SFAW: @eclare: Cat is a complicated language. If “dropping a dead mouse in front of you” means “I love you, let me teach you to hunt”, I can hardly imagine what “drooling on you while being skritched” means.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    @Ken

    The dead mouse means “This is payment for the good food. Get right on that, buster. Bowl’s empty.”
    //

  21. 21.

    raven

    @SFAW: We had no idea any of those existed and e wondered how they got across the wire without detection.  The Imjin is just behind the first set of mountains and North Korea is about a mile beyond. Needless to say we were cooked if they came in force. The next day they took the Pueblo. Of course this was all during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam so it was not big news. I also. understand that there were tunnels further east that you could drive a truck through.

  22. 22.

    lowtechcyclist

    @raven: ​
     

    The next day they took the Pueblo. Of course this was all during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam so it was not big news.

    The WaPo gave the Pueblo plenty of coverage at the time.

    Remember when their NK captors decided to put some of the crew in a photo op, and they all made what they told the NKers was a “hawaiian good luck sign”? Yeah, they all gave the finger.

  23. 23.

    raven

    @lowtechcyclist: They blinked “fuck you” in Morse code with their eyes too. All we had was the Stars and Stripes and, since we went out into the field to blunt the North Korean invasion, we never saw that either.’

     

    The seizure infuriated U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. Later, he claimed that he strongly suspected (although it could not be proven) that the incident with the Pueblo, coming just a few days before the communist Tet Offensivein South Vietnam, was a coordinated diversion. At the time, however, Johnson did little. The Tet Offensive, which began just a week after the ship was taken by North Korea, exploded on the front pages and televisions of America and seemed to paralyze the Johnson administration. To deal with the Pueblo incident, the United States urged the U.N.’s Security Council to condemn the action and pressured the Soviet Union to negotiate with the North Koreans for the ship’s release.

  28. 28.

    Princess

    @Baud: lots of China First people in the mentions of the guy who is happy about the Year of the Cat who seem eager to start one.

  30. 30.

    MazeDancer

    The quail egg bunnies are cute, cute, cute. Couldn’t eat them cute.

    Hate crime or not, mass shooting is dreadful. Only good thing about it is it might take 5 minutes off the media what abouting Mr.Biden’s having volunteered the search of his home. DoJ didn’t even ask.

  32. 32.

    raven

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I’ve got a buddy at the dog park who was a grunt in that area. He’s a big dude and he tell the story of a FNG Lt who ordered him into a tunnel and he said “hell no, I can’t fit in there”! A captain came along and asked what the problem was and he told the butter bar “Shit, I’m to going down there either”!  My cousin is there now and they have expanded them so bigger people can fit but, at the time, they were built by and for the diminutive Vietnamese.

  33. 33.

    lowtechcyclist

    @raven:

    They just needed some of Ozark Hillbilly’s caver buddies. You’d be surprised how tiny a space an average-sized man can wriggle through.

  42. 42.

    Brooklyn Dodger

    @NotMax: Yes I do. Still getting by on my over the ear ones that I’ve patched with duct tape. Are these pretty lightweight?

  46. 46.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Happy Lunar New Year to any who celebrate!

    My wife’s maternal side of the family had a get together in a hot pot restaurant today. My wife’s paternal grandmother is in a hospital getting treated for the pneumonia that was the result of the COVID-19 infection in Dec. (she is stable & improving), the paternal grandfather is at home also recovering from the pneumonia that is the result of the recent COVID-19 infection (also stable & improving). One of my wife’s uncles, his wife & their granddaughter are among the handful of people we are aware of who have yet to test positive, so they are being extra careful. My mother’s side of the extended family usually have multiple boisterous gatherings throughout the week. However, one of my aunt’s husband just passed away due to COVID-19 just over a week ago, so the gatherings are much smaller. Therefore, it is a relatively subdued Spring Festival for my extended family.

    Driving Wuhan today we saw many groups of pots of yellow & white chrysanthemum flowers left on street corners, w/ signs that says “take what you need, payment if you can”. There are QR codes below the signs where people can make payment via Alipay or WeChat, but no one there to attend to the flowers. Yellow & white chrysanthemum flowers are traditionally placed on the graves of the deceased during funerals & memorials. In Hubei Province, it is also a tradition to visit the graves of the recently deceased on the day of the Spring Festival. I am not sure who are setting the pots, or their motivation. It is unheard of for vendors in China to leave their wares unattended. Perhaps whoever responsible are doing it for public service & good karma (if they are Buddhists or Taoists), in light of the intense wave of deaths from the COVID-19 exit tsunami. I don’t remember seeing such displays in previous Spring Festivals.

    Judging by the fireworks, however, plenty of people are still enjoying themselves. Many people are still out & about in the shopping streets & malls, but fewer than previous years. It is traditional across most parts of China for people who have lost close relatives to avoid gatherings, outings & leisure travel for several weeks/months, or do anything celebratory, though not everyone follow such traditions.

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    @raven:

    I also. understand that there were tunnels further east that you could drive a truck through.

    I think I heard something like that as well. Until we visited the Third, we had no idea they even existed.

  48. 48.

    YY_Sima Qian

    News about the mass shooting at Monterey Park is distressing. The perpetrator is still unknown, & so is the motivation. However, I think mass shootings targeting Asian Americans have been quite rare, but there now have been 2 in the past 3 years (the other I am aware of was the one in Georgia targeting a massage parlor).

  51. 51.

    PaulWartenberg

    @JPL:

    I am absolutely enraged this morning. More mass shootings, this time targeting Asians.

    We are in a goddamned war zone, under attack by wingnut terrorists who think firearms are necessary for insurrection, and eager to target innocent families to get their body counts for the week.

    It’s the racism, it’s the anger, it’s the goddamned guns.

  52. 52.

    Jeffg166

    This is my current go to cook for Chinese food. She does all kinds of things I never heard of before. She very good breaking the preparation down.

    I watched about half of this and had to lay down.

    Celebrate Chinese New Year with a delicious reunion dinner 10 dish tutorial.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkfUUKE4mAw

    There are lots of other things she does that are very doable.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    @Brooklyn Dodger

    Feather light. Comfy headband construction, fairly float atop the noggin. Using them for music when the Edifier mid-priced computer speakers (which I have absolutely nothing bad to say about) don’t quite cut the mustard so far as enjoying the full scope of wide, expansive sound in concerned. Now hearing individual instruments and stuff in the background on Broadway soundtracks aurally invisible or lumped into the general soundscape before. Still pop on the surprisingly nice sounding for the price rechargeable thirty buck Chinese branded ‘phones via Bluetooth for Zooming and the like.

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    @Amir Khalid

    The relatively new kid on the block Samsons get good, good reviews. People say they’re reminiscent of AKGs from when AKG was independent and a name to be reckoned with.

  68. 68.

    Brachiator

    @JPL:

    Very sad news about the shootings.  Monterey Park is a quiet majority Asian American city in the San Gabriel Valley. Some very nice restaurants in the area.

    In the 1920s, Laura Scudder had a little food company in the city. She was the first to sell potato chips in little wax paper bags, to keep them fresh and crispy. Hers may have been the first company to put freshness dates on the bags.

  69. 69.

    Scout211

    Sundance Film Festival had a surprise entrant: “Justice”

    Once it was shown, the producer realized the documentary was not finished.

    PARK CITY, UTAH – “We’re getting more tips,” Amy Herdy announced Friday night after the Sundance Film Festival premiere of “Justice,” a documentary she produced about the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

    The film’s existence was a surprise, with the festival only revealing on Thursday, its opening night, that it was making a very last-minute addition to the lineup: the first documentary from “Swingers” and “The Bourne Identity” director Doug Liman. Within half an hour of the news getting out, Liman said in the post-screening Q&A, the film team started hearing from people who had sent the FBI tips before Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which the agency did not further investigate.

    Suddenly, what was finished began anew. The tips were compelling enough for the team to start investigating and filming again with plans to add footage to the completed film, Liman said. In a wild and rare move, the finished documentary had converted back to a work in progress.

  71. 71.

    PaulB

    Two feel-good stories for your Sunday viewing. From Rex Chapman, a story about a young cancer patient who gets a huge surprise:

    Delilah has been battling cancer for over 4 years. During treatments her favorite song has been “Hey There Delilah”, by the Plain White T’s. Maybe take a moment…

    And, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

    brb crying because Ms. Jacobs, my second grade teacher, showed up to surprise me at our monthly town hall and kept a note I wrote her over 20 years ago

  73. 73.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    In one of the Jack Reacher books, he gets almost-stuck trying to wriggle through a yards-long opening (through which he had to wriggle, if he wanted to survive). Being mildly claustrophobic, just reading about it gave me the weeblies. As you might have surmised, caving is not a pastime of which I would ever partake.

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    Not on balance a positive but it occurs to me that with the retreat of glaciers there could well be a myriad of ‘new’ caves discovered.

  80. 80.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Ninedragonspot: I had forgotten about that one! IIRC, that one was internecine conflict w/in the community. I suspect this one is more similar to the massacre in Georgia.

    Happy the Year of the Rabbit to you, too!

  82. 82.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: I’ve done a few chest squeezers but only got stuck once. At the time I thought it was for 2 hours but my son says it was 4 hours. Time is funny in those situations, really hard to gauge. I suspect my son is more correct than I was.

  83. 83.

    LiminalOwl

    @SFAW: A similar passage in Cryptonomicon gave me nightmares for weeks. Not that I was ever a big Neal Stephenson fan, but that was the last straw.

  85. 85.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @NotMax: I am sure he will send out a press release w/ standard fare expression of condolences. He will studiously avoid the racism angle (if it turns out to be a factor), & then continue to make China (or the “Chinese Communist Party” in their dogwhistle parlance) an issue to beat over the Dems’ heads until the 2024 election & beyond, irrespective how the toxicity & red-baiting will heighten the danger to the AAPI community.

  91. 91.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @YY_Sima Qian: Monterey Park, Lunar New Year…this isn’t complicated.  I’d be STUNNED if the answer isn’t Sino/Xenophobia/Racism against Asian-Americans.

  93. 93.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Celeste Ng with a heartbreaking Twitter thread a few days ago.  She literally worried about putting up a Lunar New Year ornament on her house:

    – 1 in 8 AAPI adults experienced a hate crime in 2021
    – that’s up from 1 in 10, in 2020
    – 1 in 5 Americans believes Asians are responsible for COVID
    – 1 in 3 believe Asian Ams are more loyal to “their country of origin” than to the US
    – 1 in 3 Americans are “unaware” of anti-Asian discrimination

  94. 94.

    sab

    @YY_Sima Qian: I may have misunderstood my sister, and maybe just not western vaxed, since that wasn’t an option. My understanding is that the Chinese vax is quite effective although not the almost miraculously 95% effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna.  They’re medical professionals so not anti-vax.

  96. 96.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @LiminalOwl: With a slight word change (Jennifer to Jessica), that was our favorite bedtime song for our daughter.

    My wife says it still puts her to sleep if I sing the last line. (“They hopped into bed and closed their eyes / and were fast asleep before the sun could rise.”)

  97. 97.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @JPL: I’m jamming today at 1pm with some other musicians for the first time in a LONG time in…Monterey Park.  I work in Alhambra (the next town over) so my students could have very easily been victims or at this tragic event.  I also have a Chinese-American nephew.  So this is super-personal, for me.  I know there are no easy answers/solutions, but the relative silence on this growing environment of Anti-Asian Hate in America, from even my most progressive friends/family over the past two years has been really pissing me off.

  98. 98.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @sab: Even the bivalent mRNA vaccines no long have 95% effectiveness against Omicron. For the Chinese vaccines, it is important for them to get the booster. China has started offering 2nd boosters to the > 60 y.o. from about a month ago, & it is strongly recommended to take one of the adjuvants subunit protein vaccines. Now that the infection tsunami has receded in Shanghai, it should be relatively safe for them to venture to get the shot. Of course, they probably know all of this since they are medical professionals.

    (You never know, my cousin who is a very experienced nurse at a major hospital did not think much of vaccines, advised the elders in my extended family against taking them, & was only vaccinated herself because she was mandated due to her occupation. I had to fight against her to encourage my uncles & aunts w/ underlying conditions to get vaccinated. Another cousin works in a state media organ, albeit cynical in the extreme, also unvaccinated. Both ended up having very mild cases, which in the latter’s case reinforced his conviction that not taking the shots was the right decision.)

  100. 100.

    Another Scott

    @oatler: That’s the line??!!  Peter Lorre??  I never caught that.  The audio quality on FM is atrocious, especially when played over beat-up car speakers.

    No wonder KissThisGuy.com exists.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  102. 102.

    JPL

    Would anyone be surprised if DeSantis ordered additional food inspections on Asian and black establishments?

  103. 103.

    sab

    @UncleEbeneezer: I share your feelings. My college roommate in the 1970s was Chinese American. My sister’s husband is Chinese. My nephews and niece are Chinese American. All of them fine people and loyal Americans. I had to cheer on Tim Ryan while he ran his awful ads.

  104. 104.

    Feathers

    @Spanky: Lorre had very full cheeks and was famous for profusely sweating when in terror. Have you seen any of his films without Greenstreet? M?

  107. 107.

    Feathers

    @raven:  @SFAW: Recommend the film Joint Security Area, an early film of Park Sang-yeon’s (Decision to Leave) The trailers play up the mystery thriller aspect, but what struck me was the tedium interspersed with moments of sheer terror of the young soldiers stationed at a remote outpost in the DMZ.  Was the highest grossing South Korean film ever when it came out. Not surprising, the mystery works, and the look at ordinary soldiers, good and bad, as well as the bullshit geopolitics involved, makes for a enjoyable film on many levels. 

  108. 108.

    Eyeroller

    @Feathers: Lorre seems to have had a weight problem much of his life (as well as the morphine addiction) which he more or less controlled in Hollywood.  He went back to Europe after WWII due to graylisting, and when he returned a few years later he was quite obese.

  112. 112.

    sempronia

    omg, I was shopping for New Year’s things yesterday at the store next door to that dance club. They share a parking lot. The club has been there for years, and the shop (Tak Shing Hong) is an institution – a combined dry goods store and apothecary. I know the Lai Lai Ballroom too – also been there for years. This is shocking to awaken to, especially on New Year’s Day.

  113. 113.

    raven

    @Feathers: Have you seen Silmido?

     

    Based on a true story of 1968 Korean Republic Army plan to assassinate North Korean president Kim Il-Sung. 31 criminals and death row inmates are recruited into secret training on the island of Silmi; for two years they are subjected to maximum mental and physical abuse before the mission is cancelled and the unit terminated.

  114. 114.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Sadly, there is a long history of terrorism against Chinese (and other Asian-Americans) in the West.  Even my liberal CA:

    “Lynching is a term most often associated with violence against African Americans in the post-Civil War South. But racial hatred has never been quarantined to one American region or confined to a single ethnic group. In Los Angeles in 1871, the victims were Chinese immigrants. Their deaths were part of a wave of anti-Asian violence that swept across the 19th-century American West—and reverberates to this day.

    …”

  115. 115.

    Geminid

    @sempronia: There is reporting that local law enforcement believes that the shooter was an Asian male, and that he was going after a domestic partner. A local community leader said this also

    It sounded like they know who it is. I have not yet seen any of this confirmed yet.

  116. 116.

    karen marie

    @SFAW: My cat doesn’t drool yet but I expect when she gets older she will. As a current youngster (16 months old), she “nurses” on my shoulder, soaking my shirt. She’s so weird. When she does this, she goes boneless, lying completely flat with hind legs shoved forward.

  117. 117.

    raven

    @UncleEbeneezer: So can an asian man commit a “hate crime” against asians? Maybe you should hold your fire before you run off at the mouth.

     

    The sheriff’s department described the shooter as an Asian man between age 30 and 50 but did not provide a name or any other information.

  118. 118.

    sab

    @raven: There have been a lot of hate crimes against Asians in the US over the last few years. Most of these have been unarmed beatings of the elderly.

  119. 119.

    BigJimSlade

    @NotMax: I heard the party brass/Stalin really wanted Shostakovich to right some big, heroic thing for his 9th symphony. He just couldn’t (for the obvious ‘Stalin is a mass-murderer’ sort of reasons), so he wrote something short and light.

  123. 123.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @sab: So you think that’s totally unpossible the attackers aren’t someone from a rival East Asian ethnicity, or perhaps an Asian kid whose part of a street gang and shaking down the merchants, Asian is the one huge New Age monolith of brotherly love? Or it’s unpossible those attack reports are made up by CCP 50 Cents army trolls to make America seem awful to the Chines, and hide the fact that most these Chines trolls own homes in the US?

  124. 124.

    Feathers

    @raven: I’ll keep an eye out. Saw Joint Security Area as part of a New Korean Cinema series and it has really stuck with me. More so than some of the more well known films.

  127. 127.

    UncleEbeneezer

    UPDATE: Main takeaways from Monterey Park press conference: Suspect is still at large. Preliminary description of suspect is of an Asian male, 30-50. White cargo van is of interest. People are encouraged to go about New Year events as planned. Update on investigation in few hrs.

    FBI is investigating possible hate crime. Yes, an Asian-on-Asian hate crime is possible. See Laguna Woods.

  128. 128.

    Geminid

    @UncleEbeneezer: About 30 minutes ago  Jack Healy of the NYT reported that police in Torrance have a white van pinned between two armored vehicles (the suspect was said to have fled the shooting in a white van).

    Healy described news helicopters on the scene so this may be on TV.

  129. 129.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: KTLA5 TV news is updating coverage of this story regularly on ktla.com. They reported on the van being stopped on Torrance 45 minutes ago ago the driver had not yet been identified as the suspect.

  131. 131.

    raven

    It looks like the dude is dead in his van. I just don’t understand why the police have to have guns and armored vehicles? /s

  132. 132.

    Brachiator

    @raven:

     

    Community leader Chester Chong told ABC7 that he believes jealousy may be a possible motive.

    Based on what? Does he know the suspect or anyone else involved?

    The police have surrounded a van in Torrance, about 30 miles away from Monterey Park. An individual appears to be inside. This person may be dead. A reporter nearby claims that the clothing worn appears to resemble that shown as being worn by the person suspected of being the shooter.

  134. 134.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: The report I saw did not say why Mr. Chong believed this, just identified him as the head of the local Chamber of Commerce. Perhaps he knows the dance organizer or someone else with knowledge of the situation.

    If you are really interested you can probably find out because I expect he will be interviewed again.

  135. 135.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Or it’s unpossible those attack reports are made up by CCP 50 Cents army trolls to make America seem awful to the Chines, and hide the fact that most these Chines trolls own homes in the US?

    Seriously?!  The well established & reported statistics on the surge in hate crimes committed against Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic is just a tale spun by the CCP regime’s propaganda? All those Asian American voices (especially women) who have shared their concerns about being targets of harassment, abuse & assault every time they venture out are really victims of the CCP regime’s influencing operation, & its useful idiots? The concerns range far beyond the Chinese (or Taiwanese) American community, and have often been voiced by strong critics of the CCP regime.

    Yes, one should never draw definitive conclusions before all of the facts are out. Yes, both state media & social media (but especially the latter) in China have tended to play up such hate crimes to the domestic audience in China. However, you will have to produce some evidence to your suggestion that the anxiety felt by the Asian American community due to rising hate crimes is being fueled by the CCP regime’s external propaganda.

    In fact, your statement is an ironic echo of the insinuations make during the last Cold War against those fighting for Civil Rights, smearing them as doing the work of the Soviet Union. If anyone needs a reminder that a new Cold War will be greatly detrimental to liberal democracy in America, just like the last one…

  136. 136.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @raven: When someone shoots up a gay club, or an African American church, the first thoughts tend toward hate crimes, & nobody here would charge such speculation as being irresponsible. But, when someone shoots up a Chinese American dance hall, similar speculations become “bullshit”? Why?

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    @raven:

    Based on more than all the bullshit speculation here, how’s that?

    Kinda weak.

    Breaking news coverage here has avoided speculation. For some dumb reason, even some international news crews have descended on Monterey Park where the shooting occurred. But the area has been secured and there is no one to be interviewed who was actually present.

    There is some question as to whether an attempted shooting in Alhambra is connected. There, the apparent assailant was disarmed,  but escaped.

  140. 140.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: I think your gripe is with the reporter who interviewed interviewed Mr. Chong and the TV station that put his comments on the air. But it doesn’t seem far fetched that he knew more about the crime than he could say at the time. Word can travel fast in a tight knit community, and if this man is head of the local Chamber of Commerce he probably knows a lot of people.

    Or maybe Mr. Chong is just a random know-it-all who impressed a reporter.

    Like I said, if you are really interested you can keep following this story. There will be a lot of reporting on the circumstances of these murders that will come out now that the killer is dead. ABC7 will may even talk to Mr. Chong again.

  141. 141.

    raven

    @Geminid:
    MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (KABC) — As the investigation continues into the mass shooting that occurred at a Monterey Park dance studio late Saturday night, a prominent member of the community with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce believes the suspect’s possible motive may be related to a domestic dispute.
    Community leader Chester Chong told ABC7 that the owner of the dance studio on West Garvey Avenue was holding an event there on Saturday. Through talking with friends that were in attendance and other local leaders, he said a woman was invited to the event but not her husband, which made him upset. Chong said he believes that woman’s husband is the suspect in this case and jealousy may be a possible motive for the shooting.
    According to Chong, it wasn’t uncommon for the owner of the dance studio to hold these types of events and only invite certain people. He said people got upset all the time about not being able to attend the events.

  142. 142.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid:

    I think your gripe is with the reporter who interviewed interviewed Mr. Chong and the TV station that put his comments on the air. But it doesn’t seem far fetched that he knew more about the crime than he could say at the time. Word can travel fast in a tight knit community, and if this man is head of the local Chamber of Commerce he probably knows a lot of people.

    I don’t have a gripe with anyone. I see law enforcement trying to keep a lid on information while they investigate. For example, they released a photo of a suspect, but pointedly did not release his name, even though they apparently knew it.

    Mr Chong may know something, or he may be blowing hot air. Right now, there is no point in building speculation on his comments.

    It is possible that the assailant tried to go to a second dance center, in Alhambra. It may have been here that the white van he was driving was identified.

  143. 143.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: Well it seemed to me like you had a gripe with ABC7 reporting Mr. Chong’s remarks when you think he might have been “blowing hot air,” and a gripe with people here for repeating them.

    Personally, I doubt that he was lying about the background of the shooting, and I think the TV station was not irresponsible in reporting what a local business leader who knows the dance hall owner had to say about it.

  144. 144.

    Armadillo

    Going to put up a minor comment about Lunar New Year and ask for the jackaltariat to correct / contribute further.

    My understanding right now is that multiple cultures around the world follow lunar calendars, but that basically only China, Vietnam, and Korea put their lunar new year this month. For example Persian people and Thai people follow lunar calendars as well, but they have their new year in a different month.  And that the original inhabitants of Tibet and Xinjiang also follow lunar calendars, but once again put their new years in a different month.

    Can anyone provide other examples of people who traditionally follow lunar calendars and the months when they declare a new year?

  146. 146.

    Armadillo

    @Steeplejack: ​
     

    Thanks much. It says Mongolian calendars are similar to Tibetan (or vice versa), which I would not have guessed. No information on the Uighur calendar, though. Will keep looking.

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