At 93, the memoirist Yuan-tsung Chen hopes that her recollections of China’s tumultuous past will help the country confront its historical wrongs — and avoid repeating them.
By Alexandra Stevenson @ NYTimes.com, Jan. 15
HONG KONG — Yuan-tsung Chen, an author, leaned forward in an oversize velvet chair to tell the story of the man so hungry that he ate himself. Once, that tale had seemed unbelievable to her. “I thought that was an exaggeration,” she said. But living in a village during the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong’s calamitous attempt to catapult China into communist plenty in the late 1950s, changed her view on what extreme hunger could drive people to actually do.
“It wasn’t anyone’s exaggeration, it was as true as real life, but nobody would say it,” Ms. Chen said, recalling the desperation and starvation caused by Mao’s experiment. Historians estimate that up to 45 million people died over the course of five years.
Now, sitting at a restaurant in one of Hong Kong’s most opulent hotels, Ms. Chen, 93, says she has a warning for the world. Having lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in China’s recent history, Ms. Chen disputes the Communist Party’s sanitized version of its past and worries it has allowed it to continue making mistakes with global consequences.
Her voice drops, barely audible among the din of cutlery and diners in the restaurant: “When you do things in the spirit of Mao, that scares me,” she says, referring to China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.
Her books, she said, are meant to add “blood and flesh” to the official party account and help readers empathize with the Chinese people who have suffered under an authoritarian system. But her efforts have raised questions about whose voice matters when it comes to narrating Chinese history [....]
Thousands faced evacuation orders or warnings on Saturday, and the authorities temporarily halted the search for a 5-year-old boy who was swept away in floodwaters this week.
@ NYTimes.com, live feed, currently updated (and headlined) Jan. 15, 2023, 2:01 a.m. ET, and ongoing
the latest: Another storm is soaking California. Here’s what to know.
SACRAMENTO — A fresh wave of storms inundated California again on Saturday, swelling rivers, downing power lines and imperiling travelers during yet another holiday weekend as a procession of atmospheric rivers continued to wallop the state.
At least 19 people have died since late December, with the toll expected to increase, in a series of powerful storms that unleashed destructive downpours from the North Coast to the southern border over the last two and a half weeks, [....]
While Democratic leaders seem content to let Speaker Kevin McCarthy stew in his party's disarray, liberals are excited to launch a new headache-causing House tool.
By Nicholas Wu @ Politico.com, Jan. 12
Kevin McCarthy’s concessions to conservatives did more than win him the speaker’s gavel — they empowered House progressives to wreak havoc. And they’re eager to mess with him.
Republicans’ new rules allow just one member, regardless of party, to force a floor vote on deposing the speaker. And liberal Democrats, some of whom are part of the progressive “Squad,” are warning they have no problem with using the move against McCarthy, even if they don’t expect it to succeed.
“Why not? You know, that sounds like a good idea. I mean, you’re still going to need what, 218 for passage, right? But listen, man, he has a very slim majority,” mused Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). “Whenever we want to cause complete chaos, we’ll do that.
The gambit, known as the motion to vacate, would almost certainly fail this early in the new Congress, as Republicans can use a procedural move to toss the motion before it actually gets a vote and Democrats would need GOP support to reach the required majority. But progressives’ zeal confirms a fear from McCarthy’s allies — that a rule he greenlighted to assuage conservatives could easily cause frequent headaches.
Still, while progressives dream of stirring trouble for their cross-aisle colleagues, Democratic leaders seem happy to let him stew in the speaker’s chair for a bit amid divisions in his own conference. They say they aren’t considering using the move, at least for now. A Democratic leadership aide noted it was clear the party didn’t need to help Republicans with their infighting and suggested such a motion from the minority party could strengthen McCarthy’s hand.
“It’s the furthest thing from my mind at this point,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters. Another senior Democrat, House Rules Committee ranking member Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), said: “I want to get stuff done, and so it’s not where I’m at.” [....]
Previous thread HERE includes news and analysis on McCarthy becoming Speaker of the House. (And recent news on George Santos is HERE.)
Residents hope that Jaylen Smith’s youthful energy and sense of purpose can improve the fortunes of Earle, Ark. — or at least attract a supermarket to the small city
By Rick Rojas @ NYTimes.com, Jan. 10
EARLE, Ark. — The shoe factory closed and the supermarket pulled out. So did neighbors whose old homes were now falling apart, overtaken by weeds and trees. Likewise, the best students at Earle High School often left for college and decided their hometown did not have enough to lure them back.
Jaylen Smith, 18, could have left, too. Instead, when he graduated from high school last spring he resolved to stay put in Earle, a small city surrounded by farmland in the Arkansas Delta, where his family has lived for generations.
Not only that, but he ran for mayor. And won. “Why should I have to go somewhere else to be great when I can be great right here in Earle, Arkansas?” Mr. Smith said a few days after his inauguration last week. [....]
By James Pollard @ apnews.com, 30 mins. ago
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina ban on abortions after cardiac activity is no more after the latest legal challenge to the state’s 2021 law proved successful.
The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the restrictions violate the state constitution’s right to privacy. The measure banned abortions after cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks into a pregnancy, with exceptions for those caused by rape and incest or endangering the patient’s life.
“The State unquestionably has the authority to limit the right of privacy that protects women from state interference with her decision, but any such limitation must be reasonable and it must be meaningful in that the time frames imposed must afford a woman sufficient time to determine she is pregnant and to take reasonable steps to terminate that pregnancy. Six weeks is, quite simply, not a reasonable period of time for these two things to occur, and therefore the Act violates our state Constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable invasions of privacy,” Justice Kaye Hearn wrote in the majority opinion.
South Carolina bars abortion at 20 weeks [....]
I think of how it used to be common for conservatives to say Love it or leave it! to boomer protesters.
Could Mark Showdown Between Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh
By Elura Nanos @ LawandCrime.com, Jan. 4
New York State Attorney General Letitia James (D) asked the Supreme Court Tuesday to keep its new Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA) in effect while a lawsuit works its way through the courts. The emergency filing marks the justices’ first chance to decide a major Second Amendment dispute since it ruled last summer in New York State Rifle v. Bruen.
The 2022 statute was the result of the state legislature’s emergency session which immediately followed the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bruen. The case had been a successful challenge to New York’s century-old handgun licensing regime. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the Court’s opinion that the statute was an unconstitutional violation of the Second Amendment that unduly interfered with New Yorkers’ “special need for self-defense.Thomas also noted in his opinion that gun laws must be “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
New York’s legislative response to the Bruen ruling made it a felony to possess a gun in “sensitive areas” [....]
US military forces and their allies in Iraq and Syria killed almost 700 Islamic State operatives, including several of the organization’s leaders, in 2022, according to the US Central Command.
“The emerging, reliable and steady ability of our Iraqi and Syrian partner forces to conduct unilateral operations to capture and kill ISIS leaders allows us to maintain steady pressure on the ISIS network,” Major General Matt McFarlane, commander of a combined task force in Syria and Iraq, said in a Centcom statement released Thursday
According to the statement, 466 Islamic State operatives were killed in Syria, and another 220 in Iraq. A total of 374 militants were captured in both countries. “No US forces were injured or killed in these operations,” Centcom said.
Last February, Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in northwestern Syria when he detonated a bomb in his apartment as US forces closed in, eliminating what President Joe Biden called a “major terrorist threat.” Al-Qurayshi had taken over as leader of the terrorist group after his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US raid in 2019, also in Syria.
In July, the US military said it had killed a top Islamic State leader and seriously wounded another in a drone strike in Syria. [....]
It's an oped and one may not agree with all the points, it makes one real great one: politicians don't ever write the legislation/rules properly when they throw money at airlines! They basically don't understand what they are doing besides throwing our money at problems, see if it helps or makes it worse.
What once was a health care system that was better than lots of alternatives is no more. (Careful not to get too high & mighty about alternatives before a poll is done and leaked for those, too - I have a sneaking suspicion that this unhappiness is not just happening in the UK, and is not just about pay - tho in the olden days getting rich from a profession probably did soothe a lot of unhappiness.)
Exclusive by Rob Hastings @ INews.com, Dec. 26
Nearly two thirds of junior doctors in England admit they have looked into alternative jobs in the past year and appear increasingly likely to vote for strikes next month, deepening the NHS winter crisis.
The results of a British Medical Association (BMA) survey of 3,819 junior doctors in England during November and December, shared with i, show that 79 per cent “often think about leaving the NHS”, and 65 per cent “have actively researched leaving the NHS in the last 12 months”.
The BMA, the trade union for junior doctors, is urging the Government to reconsider the 2 per cent pay rise its members in England are receiving – more than 8 per cent below CPI inflation and less than half the rise other NHS staff have rejected – ahead of their ballot for industrial action on 9 January. Most doctors are classified as ‘junior’ until they are consultants, GPs or specialists, and can run departments [....]
