According to the article, they’re selling it for ¥97 billion but will lease it back, so they will post a ¥73.9 billion gain from the sale. But in the first half of 2025, they posted a loss of ¥221.9 billion. So selling their HQ will offset about two months’ worth of losses.

I do not claim that. The Chinese government absolutely lies when they need to. I am just saying that they have a track record of not lying in this manner, because they don’t need to.

You are half right and half wrong.

The Government controls all media. There are no major independent news organisations in China. Therefore, they won’t allow negative press about it to spread.

Because the news and social media only ever have good or at worst neutral news about the Government, never critical news, the result is that people think the Government does a good job governing.

At the same time, the poverty alleviation and anti-corruption efforts of the CCP have indeed brought millions out of poverty (even though that poverty is largely a result of bad leadership decisions by the same CCP in the past) and eliminated most forms of petty corruption. That is something that the Government makes sure everyone knows about and is always talking about. And to their credit, it isn’t wrong.

I do not and will not suggest that popular support for the Government would be anywhere near what it is now if it weren’t for the Government’s propaganda efforts and the suppression of speech, dissent, and criticism.

In China, the level of trust people have in the Government is very high compared to the US and Europe. That is the reason why this policy would work and would have reasonable public support.

In the US or Europe, a policy that seems reasonable but could be exploited by the Government for political control is a bad policy. In China, people have already sort of accepted that the Government is pretty secure in its position so it really doesn’t need to suppress speech in roundabout ways; if the intention is to suppress speech then they will be explicit about it by using the words “this threatens state security” or “this is offensive to public morals”. The thing about being a secure authoritarian regime with reasonable popular support is that you don’t need to come up with pretexts to suppress speech or dissent. You can just say “this threatens our power” and put a stop to it. If the policy states the goal is to stop uninformed people from spewing nonsense on the Internet then people will accept that to be true, and the reality is that it probably is what the goal is.

This is fantastic news for the Mamdani campaign.

If this had been a right-wing politician’s rally instead, every conservative in the country would be calling for all members of the Democratic Party to be hanged for this heinous crime, regardless of the identity or motive of the perpetrator.

The fact that one side is a piece of shit doesn’t mean the other side isn’t also a piece of shit

The more I hear from this woman, the more I feel like there might actually be a decent heart deep down inside who wants to better her country, but is being hindered by an incredibly stupid brain that is calling the shots.

Nay, once every week for the past four years, I go to McDonald’s and order a hamburger for $3, but they ask me for $3.27, so I only put down $3 on the counter and then loudly proclaim I refuse to pay the sales tax on it. Then I walk out of the restaurant to force them to accept my money.

(I have not eaten a hamburger in four years)

Today I learned that if I buy some Bitcoin, this will prevent the Government from taking money from my wallet and bank account to give to these people

Today I learned that if I buy some Bitcoin, then this will prevent the Government from giving loads of money to these people

I took a screenshot of this page

(Screenshot removed because it takes forever to load and is not interesting enough to waste bandwidth on)

I am connected to a 4K monitor and this picture is also at 3775 × 2119. The total file size:

12.1 MB

I have never had a screenshot exceeding 40 MB. That is humongous.

Seeing that he is French, one would think he should know better than to invite this to happen.

Newsom, probably

When Jean-Marine Le Pen (founder of French far-right political party) died, French people went out into the public squares dancing, waving French flags, popping champagne, and loudly cheering “the racist is dead!”.

I have already procured a bottle of what here can legally only be called sparkling wine, and I’m ready to pop it any day now.

There are eight genders: null, undefined, false, NaN, 0, “0”, {}, and “”.

I think most people already know that flags at half staff is worthless virtue-signalling

Kirk was a complete scumbag, but flags definitely flew at half-staff for school shootings in the past.

Trump ordered flags at half-staff for Minneapolis

Biden ordered flags at half-staff for Allen, Texas

Also, since this took place at a university, this technically counts as a school shooting. A feverent right-wing agitator dies at a school shooting. Ironic.

Isn’t it just strange that a right-wing agitator meets his end… by being shot in a school shooting??

Unrelated quote:

I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.

—Clarence Darrow, civil rights lawyer