Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

This blog will pay for itself.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

People are complicated. Love is not.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / #OWS / #OccupyHongKong: “After A Hectic Week…”

#OccupyHongKong: “After A Hectic Week…”

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From the SCMP liveblog:

After a hectic week, Occupy Central protest sites are quiet on Monday as some demonstrators leave for work, others remain and authorities keep their distance.

Occupy supporters and the government are currently in a deadlock over negotiations. Preliminary discussions to prepare for talks with Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor have begun, but progress has been slow with both sides disagreeing on the guidelines behind the meetings…

From the NYTimes, “China’s Outer Regions Watch Hong Kong Protests Intently“:

… Among Tibetans and Uighurs, beleaguered ethnic minorities in China’s far west, there is hope that the protests will draw international scrutiny to what they say are Beijing’s broken promises for greater autonomy.

The central government’s refusal to even talk with pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong, exiled activists add, also highlights a longstanding complaint among many ethnic minority groups in China: the party’s reliance on force over dialogue when dealing with politically delicate matters.

“We’ve seen this movie before, but when people stand up to the Chinese government in places like Lhasa or Urumqi and meet brutal resistance, there is no foreign media to show the world what’s happening,” said Nury Turkel, a Uighur-American lawyer and activist, referring to the regional capitals of Tibet and Xinjiang. “The difference here is what’s happening in Hong Kong is taking place in real time, for all the world to see.”

Few places are watching the protests as closely as Taiwan, the self-governed island that China claims as part of its territory.
Beijing’s refusal to grant Hong Kong the unfettered elections that were promised when the former British colony was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 — a move that prompted the protests — has sharpened opposition to President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan and his efforts to forge closer economic ties with the mainland….

In recent days, rallies in Singapore, Seoul, Manila and elsewhere have drawn thousands of people expressing solidarity with the demonstrators in Hong Kong….

Reader Interactions

7Comments

  1. 1.

    Hobbes

    That democracy index is a little biased: 4 of the top 5 countries are monarchies, and Iceland barely counts as a country, its entire population could stay in Vegas hotels at the same time.

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    @Hobbes:
    I don’t see how being monarchies makes those four countries in the top five countries any less democratic. Their monarchs are merely ceremonial heads of state. And New Zealand’s ceremonial monarch lives in London, about as far away from New Zealand as one can get.

    Nor do I see how a small population diminishes Iceland’s democracy in any way.

  3. 3.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Hobbes: I was also wondering what the methodology was behind that index, the link in the twitter doesn’t work.

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    Sure I do. But what Malaysia lacks in democracy (and I’ll be blunt, it lacks a lot) is more the fault of the coalition that has ruled since independence, and means to keep ruling no matter what, than of our constitutional monarchy.

  6. 6.

    scav

    I’d wonder about how the rate of voter participation et al factors into the ratings — hint hint. Humungous advertising budgets and perpetual campaigning among the usual clonal subjects does not an ideal democracy make.

  7. 7.

    Kylroy

    @Amir Khalid: Totally agree on the first point – they’re monarchies in name only.

    AS for the second – it diminishes it not in the sense that they’re doing it wrong, but that what they do can’t necessarily scale up. Iceland is comparitively wealthy, ethnically homogenous, and extremely isolated – the international equivalent of a gated community.

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