Thomas Batchelor

A week of AQI 100+ is wreaking havoc on my lungs, how does anyone live with this (and worse)

"One clause says that only the state has the right to promote “a system of symbols of Chinese civilisation”"
civilisational discourse in action: as I've been saying, it's about claiming difference internationally and erasing difference internally.

I don't think I could live here myself. It's quite polluted and dense, and there's a lot of very visible inequality around on the streets.

KMT nominates female candidates for county magistrate elections - Focus Taiwan The Kuomintang (KMT) Central Standing Committee on Wednesday nominated Jian Township head Yu Shu-chen (游淑貞) as its election candidate for Hualien County magistrate, lawmaker Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) for Kinm...

KMT shuffling Chen Yu-jen out to county government so she stops proposing "let's just legalise corruption" bills in the legislature focustaiwan.tw/politics/202...

Unleashing Chiang on the Blue Sky (With a White Sun) Platform, as intended

Eventually finally decide to stay by purging and/or alienating your only talented commanders

We're gonna unleash Chiang (inherit dad's presidency, notice the writing on the wall, die)

We're gonna unleash Chiang (failson mayor elected by name recognition alone whose governance of note over the past 4 years has been to make traffic around a major junction worse)

We're gonna unleash Chiang (lose a winnable war, leave the rump regime ruling over a territory that hates their guts, and cause unresolved geopolitical problems for the next half a century)

I did find it interesting when I visited Matsu and had a few local people even calling themselves Taiwanese there, even with the strong ROC identity and being able to see China's shore pretty clearly. Fascinating read.

I think it's a big problem that an awful lot of people think that the "Taiwan issue" is that it wants to separate and not that it already is separate

You know what yeah that's exactly the language combination I needed (yes I bought)

Such an interesting place, chaotic and beautiful and everyone is very kind

China prepares landmark law curtailing minority language rights Bill to ‘promote ethnic unity’ by mandating Mandarin use would hasten decline of other cultures, critics say

Straight up fascist behavior

On the Olympic front, Ukraine is experiencing part of what Taiwan has been experiencing for decades. The impossibility to be yourself, as being yourself is deemed "political".

So good luck to any small-medium sized country

We don't have to worry about ww3 in the new era of imperialism because none of the imperial powers give a fuck about helping their smaller allies out to cause a cascade of alliances.

Friend on discord showed me this and I thought a few people who enjoyed this person's comics might like to know how they post over on the Hitler site.

First time celebrating Holi and got to do it in Kathmandu

Sure, the US and Israel could militarily "win" their latest war. And what would they get out of it, a renewed popular discontent towards them across the region, suppressed only by precarious dictators?

Inhumane, horrifying, disgusting

We'll have to leave it to the council to decide whether gemination of consonants is allowed (vowels apparently are)

Been here about 10 hours and already picking up the essentials

A lot of people would die! On all sides!

A little known requirement (and tough hurdle for some) for selecting a new Iranian supreme leader is that their name must follow the khVmVnV syllable template

Israel has closed all the crossings into Gaza and reimposed total siege.

A whole lot of people's idea of Taiwan and a potential invasion is that it's a small flat urban island a short ferry ride away and not a mountainous country with major cities across a busy 100km wide sea

I think cursory knowledge of Kinmen has distorted a bunch of people's ideas of what Taiwan and the Taiwan strait is actually like and how easy this would all be

BREAKING — 51 Iranian children are dead after a strike hits Minab girls elementary school in Iran.