Patrick, Governor: Fill & Download for Free

Hello!A republican getting caught committing mass voter fraud? NO way! Interesting how they keep getting caught doing what they accuse Democrats of doing, isn’t it?Looks like the Texas lieutenant governor has more of those million dollar bounties to pay up. Is Texas' Dan Patrick prepared to part with his $1 million reward?Keep in mind it was Texas who sent a black woman to prison for five years because she didnt know she couldnt vote after a felony conviction, and she voted on a provisional ballot, which was never counted! Texas upholds sentence for woman who didn’t know she was ineligible to voteTrump said there was cheating, and always blamed the other side of that which is being done by them. Makes sense, amirite?In other news, dogs and cats always make my day!Aww.. and then there’s always a husky.. pic.twitter.com/ZxMaqFEqDh— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) March 2, 2021Toodles!

This article appeared recently in the Irish Times, written by one of its most respected columnists. I’m taking the liberty of copying it here because the original is behind a paywall, but the reference is Subscriber Only: Fintan O’Toole: Donald Trump has destroyed the country he promised to make great again☘️ 🇮🇪 Irish Times-April 25, 2020-By Fintan O’TooleTHE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY ITOver more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemic.As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted ... like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.” It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated. Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.Abject surrenderWhat used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety. Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses.In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3rd that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order. In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1st, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities”. Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1st, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus. It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralysed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted. The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.Fertile groundBut this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it. There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder. And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here. That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element. As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater.If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.

Foreword - We know Marxism and CCP are not pro-religion, but China knows it is not good nor possible nor politically correct to suppress religion. For thousands of years, Islam is an integral part of Chinese history and co-exist with all in China. However it does not allow radical Islam, extremism nor tolerate separatism or terrorism, any illegal house of worship nor radical teaching of any religion. After a string of mass riots and terrorist attacks, China tightened policies to curtail further deterioration of the situation in Xinjiang, and sought ways to improve the situation.First, is Islam practised? Of course. One of 5 official religions, 21 million Muslims, and thousands of Mosques.Mosque in BeijingId Kah Mosque in Kashgar, XinjiangLooking for Mosques and Halal Restaurants? Not an issue in Chinese cities, East or West.Islam came to China 1400 years ago. They lived and worship freely. And did not suffer the level of conflict in the Middle East between Muslims and other faiths. (*All religions were briefly suppressed during the cultural revolution).Strangely many Muslim tribes were allies of Ming/Han and Qing. Many famous Generals were Muslim. Even one of the best KMT general, Omar Baderludin, was Muslim. Uighurs were even allies under Qing.The top Chinese muslim generals in China's historySo was the most famous Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho was a Muslim. Till today, he is worshipped by Chinese even by overseas Chinese as a deity in many temples. How many Muslim Generals do you know in the West that are ‘worshipped’?Dangers of Radical Islam and Terrorism. Like the West, Russia, Africa and across Asia, China also has challenges with numerous groups as well as threat of separatism. In the Middle East, who nurtured, funded and supported the many proxies and radical groups?Let's Face It: US Policy in the Middle East Has FailedChina Apprehension and Response? After seeing the mess, hatred and suffering perpetuated in middle East in the name of God, liberty, democracy, equality, freedom, liberty, Arab spring, and all, China does its own way to prevent below:And don’t want this to happen again in Chinese cities - riots, violence, murders, terrorist bombings, and this kind of nightmare?Are these not far better pictures?“Vocational Training Centers?”So the big question - Are “a million Uighurs in concentration camps”?No, not “concentration camps” China said, but “Vocational Training Centers” as shown on CCTV for poverty alleviation. Also a core strategy to minimise the threat of radicalism and extremism as well as to solve social discontentment due to socio-income gap.CTV Airs Program on Xinjiang’s ‘Vocational Training Centers’: Criticism & Weibo ResponsesChina Focus: Unveil the truth of Xinjiang vocational, education centers - Khmer TimesChina has asked OIC and Muslim countries to visit, eg . a recent one of 12 Muslim countries. Their feedback was positive.China lauds OIC’s resolution on XinjiangUN - was invited by China as are others. I believe it is useful that more UN and EU should go see for themselves. Below video is from the Indonesian member.Ini Keterampilan yang Diajarkan di Kamp Vokasi Muslim UighurXinjiang Autonomous Region governor Shohrat Zakir (雪克来提·扎克尔) issued a statement to fend off international criticism characterizing the centers as - “people-oriented” facilities built to “fundamentally eliminate the environment and soil that breeds terrorism and religious extremism.”Beijing says the camps are vocational centres intended to combat extremism and teach useful skills. “This protects the human rights of the vast majority, while also saving these people.” Also “It’s another important contribution of China’s to the global counterterror field.”Turkey was skeptical before, but lately, this is what President Erdogan said: “It is a fact that the peoples of China’s Xinjiang region live happily in China’s development and prosperity.” and “Turkey firmly opposes extremism”.China says Turkey president offered support over restive XinjiangUighur Movements? The Uighur groups talk less about separatism (a free East Turkestan state), and unhappy few Muslim countries are even willing to bring up their cause. Uighurs accuse Turkey of betrayal, seek new friends | AhvalChina plans long term and is trying to nip a serious problem in its bud, and detox a possible cancer that China sees as threatening stability and peace.China wants to prevent a Chechnya or ISIS and is wary of Uighur orgs like TIP, or ETIM, etc. We expect many in prison for illegal crossing (left for years, then return - terrorist or separatist suspects?), or returnees from ISIS++ or involved in illegal activities (possession of arms). China did report once about 13,000 terrorist suspects in custody.Besides vocational centers, China builds new factories, greenhouses, unity villages, and huge farms to improve the availability of jobs, social divide, and economy, as part of a pragmatic policy.Anti China views are rather wide and negative - include mass 'concentration camps' , ‘Relatives’ policy (Orwellian), ‘missing’ Uighurs, tightened supervision, etc. To others, they contend that these constitute oppression, ill treatment, brainwashing and suppression of freedom and culture.For decades, the West couldn’t find an answer. China also struggles and is trying to do what she thinks is best for the nation. Issues are political, sensitive and highly complex. At least for more than 2 years, violence has at least been prevented. Right or effective, time will tell.You make your own conclusion.NOTES - extraIs China trying to improve Xinjiang. Are you asking me?Yes, their GDP has increased with lots of money pumped in for development. I rather see more of this:who can live normally and peacefully with all ethnicity.Vibrant, colorful, exotic, living with time cherished culture, peace and harmony.Rather than seeing the radicals tighten a grip on the society there, who would more likely to commit China laws against terrorism, separatism and extremism?https://www.voltairenet.org/article202535.html"Community of 18,000 people. - they have benefited so far from the support of the Turkish secret services. These 5000 Uyghur fighters claim to be al-Qaeda. They refuse to return to China, and Turkey has refused to host them."EDIT/ ExtraChina says 13,000 'terrorists' arrested in Xinjiang since 2014Extract> Beijing - vocational training centers are measures to stem the threat of Islamist militancy. Adopted a policy that “strikes the right balance between compassion and severity”, the government said in its white paper. Since 2014, Xinjiang has “destroyed 1,588 violent and terrorist gangs, arrested 12,995 terrorists, seized 2,052 explosive devices, punished 30,645 people for 4,858 illegal religious activities, and confiscated 345,229 copies of illegal religious materials”, it added.Uighur reported to be in China “detention camps”.2006 - American forces captured 22 Uyghur militants, linked to Al-Qaeda and trained by ETIM. After being reclassified as No Longer Enemy Combatant, they were released from Guantanamo Bay. China denounced the move as a violation of international law and demanded the return of the men to China. Why did US so cynically do that and what is their intention?Ethnic Cleansing?Not according to China, 'Cultural Adjustment' perhaps? Depends on your point of view.Uighurs were converted from Buddhism over a period of many hundreds years to Islam. Radical Islam? from ISIS, the Talibans came to Xinjiang. Society changed, women had to wear niqab. men long beards and TVs were smashed. Add separatism, terrorism and arms and suicide bombing, and the severe distortion of original culture. So China stated such brand of radical Islam is not good for national harmony and security. No to illegal religious schools (thousands), and illegal mosques. This law applies to all religions, not just Islam, and not just to Uighurs either.What is ‘proper’ or ‘preferred’ or ‘moderate’ Islam? (Highly subjective emotional topic…)China prefers the right side, and not the ‘left’, which China considers as foreign, disharmonious, segregating, oppressive in women’s rights, and distorting of social cultural values and norms that are progressive and good for the nation.China prefers below - charming, cultural, colorful in Xinjiang, living in harmony. For thousands of year of co-existence, intermarriages was also common. You will find some Uighurs who look like Hans because their blood were mixed. Look carefully.Oh, Hans love the colorful and cheerful Uighur culture for centuries, and not radical Islam. China is nipping the problem in the bud, and trying to reverse cultural distortions for social harmony.Terrorism in China - WikipediaCHINA Xinjiang’sJamie Cawley's answer to Why do you think no country is doing anything against the Chinese opression against the uyghurs?Jamie Cawley's answer to Why is there not more international pressure on China over Uyghur internment camps in the Xinjiang province?Tom McGregor's answer to Why is the Muslim world silent on China's horrific abuses in Xinjiang, while it is vocal on Palestine, Kashmir, etc.?