• Re: shen yun, was: [OT] China interfering in Canada - again!

    From The Horny Goat@lcraver@home.ca to rec.arts.tv on Sun May 10 19:50:31 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    On Mon, 4 May 2026 23:04:26 -0000 (UTC), BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com>
    wrote:

    Back in the Obama days, he was hosting some economic summit in Palm Springs >with the Chinese president and during the advance preparations, the Chinese >delegation kept asking us what our plans were with regard to the Falun Gong >protesters and how we were going to keep them out of sight of their >president.

    They were not pleased when our answer was essentially, "We're not going to do >anything." As long as they remained outside the security perimeter, they could >protest as much as they wanted. That didn't go over well.

    We've got a situtation much like that in Vancouver where on one of the
    main approach streets to downtown there's a large old house that
    serves as the Chinese consulate - it's a security nightmare since it
    directly faces downtown and it's said that with a fine enough speaker,
    pointing it at downtown windows from 3/4 mile to a mile away
    vibrations on these windows can cause conversations in the offices can
    be eavesdropped on.

    Of course the local Falun Gong chapter has a small booth adjacent
    tothe stone wall around the house where they take shelter from the
    rain in bad weather and chant what I assume are slogans against the
    PRC 24x7.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rhino@no_offline_contact@example.com to rec.arts.tv on Sun May 10 23:29:51 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    On 2026-05-08 2:15 p.m., The Horny Goat wrote:
    On Mon, 4 May 2026 10:50:48 -0400, Rhino
    <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

    I am deeply skeptical that our Prime Minister will take a stand against
    China in this matter. He recently went to China hat-in-hand to try to
    improve our trading relationship with China. Our economy is in the
    dumper after Trump's tariffs were imposed and Carney's been unable to
    move the needle on that. He seems to prefer defending the Iranian regime
    over its people and cozying up to China.

    A big chunk of that has been the tanking of the Canadian dollar (which
    is usually quoted on international markets in equivalent to US dollar amounts).

    There's been a fair bit of kvetching from Whatcom County, WA (which is
    the county adjoining Canada north of Seattle) about this as their
    economy has always been closely linked to Canada's but since Trump II
    getting less so. Some of the Whatcom County are saying some pretty
    extreme things about Canada but the REAL reason is that due to Trump's policies the Canuck buck has dropped 5-7% against the greenback and
    thus ANYTHING priced in US dollars is up that much in price. Whereas
    Canadian vendors have raised prices on certain US goods, it's the
    higher price (in Canuck bucks) that's the "culprit" rather than anti-Americanism.

    My read on the situation is that none of the likely Trump successors
    (in either party) are likely to continue the current tariffs that have
    been so damaging so it's reasonable to expect whatever Canadian angst
    there is to disappear come January 2029. I'm in a Facebook group
    consisting of my cousins and 2nd cousins (about 2/3 of which are
    American) and I certainly do not see the animus that some reporters
    have claimed.

    The legacy media lie as easily - and frequently - as they breathe. From
    the moment Trudeau started giving the media money, money they needed
    because their audiences are shrinking, they've had very little to say
    against the Liberal Party, including Trudeau or Carney, because they
    want them in power. If Poilievre manages to become PM, their funding
    will diminish drastically and they face the prospect of going belly-up.
    So they insist that the Alberta separatists all want to join the US when
    it's only a small fringe that's leaning that way. They largely ignore
    the economy other than vague acknowledgement that people are concerned
    about the cost of living. They ignore the fact that Carney, who was
    supposed to tame Trump, has proven completely unable to do so. They
    ignore that he is cozying up to China or minimize the danger. Etc. etc.


    (Right now the major question in that group tends to be over a family
    history my aunt - born in the US but has lived in Canada the last
    45-50 years - who has compiled a family history which is extremely
    good but doesn't cover anything beyond 2000-2005 - and the discussion
    is (1) over making an electronic version of her book and (2) figuring
    out how to update it given marriages, births, deaths since her 2005
    edition - for instance both my parents are listed as alive in 2005 but
    both have since passed, and marriages and children born since then)
    --
    Rhino
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2