October 20, 2023

In the latest sign of House chaos, the temporary speaker is threatening to quit

Source: NBC News via AOL

In a closed-door meeting Thursday, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told GOP colleagues he might resign as speaker pro tempore if Republicans push him to try to move legislation on the floor without an explicit vote to expand his powers, according to multiple lawmakers in the room.

“If you guys try to do that, you’ll figure out who the next person on Kevin’s list is,” McHenry told the room, three sources said, referring to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy's secret list of GOP lawmakers who would serve as temporary speaker in the event of a vacancy.

McHenry's comments underscore the quandary Republicans are in: They can't really do anything until they choose a new speaker, but they can't agree on someone who can get the votes to be that new speaker.

And McHenry is unwilling to set a precedent that would give future temporary speakers the full power of speakers who are elected on the House floor. It could mean that the House wouldn't need to elect speakers in the future.

Read more: https://www.aol.com/news/latest-sign-house-chaos-temporary-214103424.html

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hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Clown car shit show!

October 19, 2023

Florida cop charged for alleged sex acts with jaywalker in exchange for letting her go with no ticket

Source: Fox VIA AOL

A Florida police officer was arrested Tuesday after officials said he stopped a pedestrian and told her he would not cite her for jaywalking or charge her for sexual misconduct in exchange for sexual acts with him.

Nicolas Paloma, 29, has been charged with sexual battery and false imprisonment, Clearwater Police Chief Eric Gandy said during a news conference. Paloma has been with the department since 2018.

"I had to check myself before coming in here, because I'm exceptionally upset at the betrayal of trust in the level of confidence that people have in our officers," Chief Gandy said. "It's exceptionally damaging to our reputation and the reputation of everyone in law enforcement."

The pedestrian stop of a 32-year-old woman happened early Sunday morning near the Clearwater Beach roundabout, Chief Gandy said. Investigators determined the woman was a tourist, FOX 13 News reports.

Read more: https://www.aol.com/news/florida-cop-charged-alleged-sex-114607827.html

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I know. . .Fox. . .but,

October 18, 2023

Places in Thailand to go off the beaten past that are better than the normal four

Everyone goes to Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, and Chiang Mai.

Here are better places to go that are, at least for me, more enjoyable.

1: Krabi: One ferry ride to Phi Phi Island and the harbor in Phuket Town away, Krabi will remain small due to the limestone karsts and how spread out it is. Cheaper than its more popular neighbor to the west with the same sunsets and amenities, with one of the best, albeit expensive places to stay, The Grotto.

2: Surat Thani: Another beach town in Southern Thailand. Small, quiet, and one ferry ride to #6.

3: Rayong: Mid-sized city in southern Thailand with some of the best beaches I've ever seen.

4: Hat Yai: Quiet beach town on the Gulf of Thailand.

5: Chiang Rai: Smaller version of Chiang Mai, almost unspoiled by tourists. The way northern Thailand was before the mass influx of tourists.

6: Ko Samui: Expensive island paradise, but worth EVERY penny.

October 18, 2023

Nightmare for legal immigration if Trump is elected again

October 17, 2023

My interracial marriage in China and what it's like - a perspective

Has anyone seen the move "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" It came out in 1968. It came out after the Loving V. Virginia decision.

In it, a black man and a white woman fall in love and plan to get married. While the bigotry is only hinted at (the old fashioned maid, the white art gallery assistant, the black man's father), we know after the final credits role what Sidney Poitier and Katherine Houghton will go through for the rest of their lives, as well as any children they may have.

After all, race has been a major part of American society since the colonial era. Native Americans were brutalized, Africans were (to use the textbooks Ron DeSantis wants) "imported," and pretty much anyone that wasn't WASP has been marginalized and shunned until they assimilated well enough for the majority to accept. It took until 1960 for the country to have a Catholic president (we've had enough since then) and until 2008 for the country to have a non-white president.

And yet, as George Carlin said, things changed, but only on paper. The "rights" most minorities have are transparent. There is now a more soft racism than overt. Cab drivers will ignore potential black customers to take white ones, black people will be denied loans and mortgages more than white people, and punishments for similar crimes will be worse for black people than for white people.

When it comes to marriage, society accepts more if a white man marries a minority than a minority man marrying a white woman. Thanks to Agent Orange and his cabal of troglodytes, this is now more in for face like it was in before.

So, looking at the title of this thread, what is the point of all of this and why am I gasing?

汉奸，香蕉人. . .this are things my wife is called on the street. People see us together and these are the things they hiss and whisper loud enough for both of us to hear it. The first is "han jian," which means "race traitor." The second, "xiang jiao ren," is calling her a "banana." I actually heard a few old men and women say something similar to "中国男人配不上你这样的妓女吗," which loosen translates to "chinese men aren't good enough for a whores like you?"

Add to the face that I am referred to as 洋垃圾 (yang la ji) which means "foreign trash" or 白皮猪 (bai pi zhu) which means "white skinned pig" and you see where I am going with this. "Jews deserved what they get because all they do is cause problems" was something else I've been told. 希特勒是一个伟大的人 meaning "Hitler was a great man." All of this simply because when I step outside, I stick out like a sore thumb. Everyone knows I'm not Chinese.

The phrase 洋垃圾 (foreign trash) is extremely racist, because it implies the only reason I am in China is because I am an LBH (loser back home) and that I came here because the only thing I have going for me is my language ability and skin color. It doesn't matter I came to China originally to research for screenplays I was writing and looking to setup the ground work for my PhD dissertation which would be on the the aftermath of the Rape of Nanking. All that matters is how I look and where I am from.

Being Jewish, I got that in the US too because I proudly wear my Star of David everyday. Here, it's because of how I look. And my wife gets it even more. She gets anonymous emails and WeChat messages threatening her and her family's safety if I don't ‘离婚那个外国猴子’ （divorce that foreign monkey）.

So, when I watch "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," it is personal. I'm living the life Sidney Poitier and Katherine Houghtons' characters will life when the ending credits are over. I get the taxi treatment. I get people getting up from their seats in on subways, curling their lips in disgust, and moving away from me. I get the "why is that thing here" attitude. I've been told "we don't serve foreigners here" in of all places Shanghai. When my wife and I are in public together, we get the looks of disgust and hatred. "How dare that foreigner steal one of our women!"

I guess what I am saying is racism and bigotry aren't solely American. And it's ethnocentric to think that. The Han treat their minorities like dirt, and they are 92% of the Chinese population. Yet, in the Chinese caste system, foreigners are the "untouchable." I used to joke that foreign men were a Chinese woman's dirty little secret. Nice to look at in the gym, fun to talk to in the bar, enjoyable to take home and have sex with (so long as they do in in a way where no one knows, similar to how white women were with black men pre-modern times), but don't be seen in public socially with one. Professionally is okay, but socially will cause problems.

It only gets worse because the CCP has ramped up the racism and xenophobia to 1000 since COVID19. Every problem in China is because of foreigners and if you're married to one, you not only turned your back on the motherland, but you help destroy China from within. And your children will be half blood, half-breed mutants that no Chinese person will accept because the foreigners blood is in that mutant offspring.

Sounds like how things where when black and white people had a baby before it became socially indifferent. The biggest difference is American racism is private. Chinese racism is government sponsored and sanctions. And the Chinese have a government sponsored pogroms against the foreign population in its past. . .the most recent being the Boxer Rebellion of 1898. Under the CCP with Winnie the Flu, it's gearing up.

Now do you all in DU family see why I were are leaving and switching my wife's IR1 visa interview from Guangzhou to Bangkok and I took at temp job in Phuket until we head back to the US？

October 13, 2023

From the US Embassy in Beijing via Citizen alert email: Israeli Diplomat stabbed in Chaoyang

We Jews are now targets all over the world.

October 13, 2023

Update on my wife and our separation due to COVID and her Green Card - recent news again

WARNING: EXTREMELY LONG POST

I know I promised to keep my DU family up on the green card and the bullshit with "legal immigration." I haven't had much to report on this end from China until now. And it's a little bad news and a lot of good news.

1: We are leaving China early. Apparently, teaching economics (which is really capitalist centric in the CIE, AP, and IB) pisses off these jingoistic people so my school trumped up charges against me and I lost my position teaching here. Got pissed, realized the tenor of the times in Winnie the Flu's China where foreigners, specifically Americans, are the bad guys and since the Chinese think economics is all about studying money and not scarcity, resource allocation, standards of living, and trade offs/choices, they complained I wasn't teaching "real economics." Guilty until proven innocent in China (you have to prove you didn't do something rather than they having to prove you did) and since the country is really communitarian and not communal now, I'm out. No biggie. They also breached my contract four times in a month but that's acceptable as the foreigner must abide by the contract but they can break it at will and the foreigner must accept it because "this is China." So I'm out of a job here.

2: When they broke my contract, I started looking for a new job and I found one. . .in Phuket, three miles from Patong Beach. Free, fully paid for apartment where they cover all utilities, American curriculum, real international students from all over the world and not just lots (85% of the 1200 students are from other countries), free laptop, free meals at the school, and 20 minutes from anything on the island I want to do except the airport and waterpark, which is an hour away on the northern tip of Phuket Island. So the only bills my wife and I will have will be phones, sundries, gas for the bike or rental car if we do that, and going out to dinner money if we want to do a real restaurant and not street food (for those who want to go to Thailand, do the street. Same food, cheaper, better, and the ambiance is great). What I lose in salary I get in peace of mind. I have a bad day, we hop on the bike, go to the beach for ice cold coconuts, massages on the beach and the sunset over the Andaman Sea. Also, weed is legal there so I can use that except my drugs for my bipolar disorder if I start feeling an episode coming on.

3: While I have interviews in China in Guangzhou and here in Qingdao today and Monday, I am leaning more and more towards the offer I accepted in Phuket so we are out of here next week. Which is good, because my wife, during the pandemic ran up about 80,000 USD in debt she hid from me and if she default, she loses her social credit score and will never be allowed to leave the country until it's paid off.

What does this all have to do with the green card?

We contacted the NVC since we are waiting for the interview to be scheduled asking if we can do a change of venue from Guangzhou to Bangkok. Their answer is below:



So no, she can't, but yes she can when we prove she's left China and living in another country. She will be on an O-dependent visa until she finds a job there. She just passed her Chinese early elementary and elementary teacher certification exams so she is fully certified here. We will use a reciprocity service to get it accepted as American teacher certs and she can teach in the US. I'm taking my principal certification exams soon and she will start a master's in elementary education after we're all settled in the US.

Instead of going to AZ, my parents are going to buy us a mother/daughter home and put it in the family trust outright in New Castle. We just pay the insurance, upkeep, bills, and maintain it as it will be bought without a mortgage. When we start working, we build up the funds to outfit it, and then move in. It is a mother/daughter style because my wife has already determined she will keep her green card until she is eligible to become an American citizen and then will do it. Being married to an American with a green card, it's only three years. After she is an American citizen, she can sponsor her parents on an IR5 visa for their green card and we get them out of China so the grandchildren have both grandparents. And her mother has already told us she will be our babysitter (Chinese mothers want grandchildren. Watch Futurama and see how Amy Wong's mother acts. It's not far from the truth).

My father is doing this as his way of apologizing for all the abuse he put me through. Suffering two major heart attacks in five years has really woken him up.

She is still nervous about the social credit score and we're discussing everything, but we have a way out of China and I am 85% mentally and emotionally ready to do it and leave "the world's largest insane asylum" in the dustbin of life memories.

INTROSPECTION ON POLITICS

There has been a huge change in the NVC and immigration even though the laws are still racist as shit written by two racists at the height of McCarthyism. Until the 45 mistake, they dragged their feet and were under orders to, if in doubt, deny. If there is 1% doubt, deny." And I believe certain countries were targeted, China being one of them. Same at the border which is why they were so hostile to everyone at the BP checkpoint Charlie.

Under Biden, it appears they have been told "if there is only 1% sure it's legit, approve and let the embassy do its job. NVC, it's your job to make sure documents look legit and are in order, not to make immigration decisions." And I believe the embassies have been told to not separate Americans from their families longer than they need to be separated.

Even with the 5th go around with our marriage cert, it was approved in three days. I find it funny that it took me ten days to get my spouse visa to return to authoritarian, xenophobic China to her in 2022, but we're going on three, almost four, years to do the same in the land of immigration and freedom.

Things are changing with legal immigration though all we hear about is undocumented immigrants. Those going for document qualification, are put through the ringer and we hear nothing about it. It's like we hear nothing about all the successful flights where nothing happens, but one plane falls out of the sky and it's news worldwide. Doing it legally and getting run through Hell isn't as important as those undocumented.

I always say "I can understand why people just hop the border. It's easier, faster, and people will fight to keep you here." Few people fight to BRING people here unless they make rich people or corporations wealthier or more powerful. A nameless Chinese teacher from the farms of Jiangsu isn't worth fighting to make the changes we need. She doesn't get attention. But the 20-25 million that are here do because of the logistics and costs of finding, processing, and deporting.

We need real, comprehension immigration reform for ALL immigration. Marriage to an American citizen should make a green card automatic the longer the American and the foreign have been married. We had our nine year anniversary last month, the first we were together after three years. We went to a simple hotpot and we were both happy just to spend our anniversary together. Our tenth will be in the US.

October 6, 2023

Kyrie Irving's new Chinese shoe company is linked to human rights abuses, U.S. Congress warns league

https://sports.yahoo.com/kyrie-irvings-new-chinese-shoe-company-is-linked-to-human-rights-abuses-us-congress-warns-league-201137681.html

This guy is just one of the biggest pieces of crap in the NBA and proof money means more than people.

September 30, 2023

McCarthy's last-ditch plan to keep the government open collapses, making a shutdown almost certain

Source: AP via AOL News

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open collapsed in dramatic fashion Friday as a robust faction of hard-right holdouts rejected the package, making a shutdown almost certain.

McCarthy’s right-flank Republicans refused to support the bill despite its steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to many agencies and severe border security provisions, calling it insufficient.

The White House and Democrats rejected the Republican approach as too extreme. The vote was 198-232, with 21 hard-right Republicans voting to sink the package. The Democrats voted against it.

The bill’s complete failure a day before Saturday’s deadline to fund the government leaves few options to prevent a shutdown that will furlough federal workers, keep the military working without pay and disrupt programs and services for millions of Americans.

Read more: https://www.aol.com/news/mccarthy-launches-last-ditch-plan-151436090.html

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Speaker Weak and Stupid