Sunday, April 26, 2020
Milk Tea Alliance Takes on China's Little Pinks in Meme War
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| Screenshot of a Twitter fight between China's "Little Pink" nationalists, who started trolling Thai users after an online altercation with Thai actor Vachirawat Cheevaari (known as Bright) and his girlfriend Weeraya Sukaram. |
Social media users from Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong have taken to Twitter in recent days to hit back at China's "Little Pink" nationalists, who started trolling Thai users after an online altercation with Thai actor Vachirawat Cheevaari (known as Bright) and his girlfriend Weeraya Sukaram.
The row erupted after online supporters of the Chinese Communist Party, known as Little Pinks, took issue with a tweet from Bright, the star of hit Thai TV show 2gether, who seemed to imply Hong Kong was a separate country from China.
Weeraya also drew their ire by suggesting the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, prompting Chinese netizens to threaten to boycott Thai soaps and not to travel to the country as tourists after the pandemic.
Thai users hit back with video of Chinese tourists piling their plates and shoving each other at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and multiple references to the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, including the "Tank Man" image in a number of guises, including an impromptu sculpture made from fast food.
In a loose confederation of Twitterati known as the "Milk Tea Alliance" and using the hashtag #nnevvy, Weeraya's Twitter username, users from Thailand, Hong Kong and democratic Taiwan also fought back with a string of memes.
Meanwhile, Weeraya commented that she dressed more like a "Taiwanese" after being told she looked like a "cute Chinese girl", drawing down further Little Pink ire on the couple.
While Chinese users hurled insults at the Thai king and called Thais poor, Thai users responded with photos of collapsed apartment buildings due to substandard building materials linked to official corruption in China.
When they claimed Taiwan as belonging to China, Thai users asked why Chinese nationals need a visa to visit the democratic island, which remains a sovereign state as the 1911 Republic of China.
The clincher, according to some comments, lay in the Thai users' keenly developed political humor and their freedom to deploy it, for example, when a Thai user responded to a Chinese insult targeting the Thai government with the words: "Say it louder!"
'Your mother is dead'
The flame war quickly drew the attention of other Twitter users tired of being targeted by Little Pinks, who need to use a banned VPN to evade their own government's Great Firewall of censorship, and whose comments often include the insult "ni ma sile" (NMSL), meaning "your mother is dead."
The alliance was soon joined by users from Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and India.
One meme, posted by Twitter user Amazing, referenced the anniversary of the Boxer Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty on Tuesday.
In a retake of a painting commemorating the Seymour Expedition of 1900, the meme shows an overwhelming force of soldiers carrying aloft the flags of eight nations, including that of Taiwan, and advancing on a lone Chinese who utters the words...
The row erupted after online supporters of the Chinese Communist Party, known as Little Pinks, took issue with a tweet from Bright, the star of hit Thai TV show 2gether, who seemed to imply Hong Kong was a separate country from China.
Weeraya also drew their ire by suggesting the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, prompting Chinese netizens to threaten to boycott Thai soaps and not to travel to the country as tourists after the pandemic.
Thai users hit back with video of Chinese tourists piling their plates and shoving each other at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and multiple references to the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, including the "Tank Man" image in a number of guises, including an impromptu sculpture made from fast food.
In a loose confederation of Twitterati known as the "Milk Tea Alliance" and using the hashtag #nnevvy, Weeraya's Twitter username, users from Thailand, Hong Kong and democratic Taiwan also fought back with a string of memes.
Meanwhile, Weeraya commented that she dressed more like a "Taiwanese" after being told she looked like a "cute Chinese girl", drawing down further Little Pink ire on the couple.
While Chinese users hurled insults at the Thai king and called Thais poor, Thai users responded with photos of collapsed apartment buildings due to substandard building materials linked to official corruption in China.
When they claimed Taiwan as belonging to China, Thai users asked why Chinese nationals need a visa to visit the democratic island, which remains a sovereign state as the 1911 Republic of China.
The clincher, according to some comments, lay in the Thai users' keenly developed political humor and their freedom to deploy it, for example, when a Thai user responded to a Chinese insult targeting the Thai government with the words: "Say it louder!"
'Your mother is dead'
The flame war quickly drew the attention of other Twitter users tired of being targeted by Little Pinks, who need to use a banned VPN to evade their own government's Great Firewall of censorship, and whose comments often include the insult "ni ma sile" (NMSL), meaning "your mother is dead."
The alliance was soon joined by users from Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and India.
One meme, posted by Twitter user Amazing, referenced the anniversary of the Boxer Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty on Tuesday.
In a retake of a painting commemorating the Seymour Expedition of 1900, the meme shows an overwhelming force of soldiers carrying aloft the flags of eight nations, including that of Taiwan, and advancing on a lone Chinese who utters the words...
FBI Director Wray Behind Suppression of ‘Stunning’ Exculpatory Evidence in Flynn Case
The Federal Bureau of Investigations withheld “stunning” exculpatory evidence in the case of President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn at the behest of FBI Director Christopher Wray, the Daily Caller reported Friday.
The Federalist meanwhile reported that FBI general counsel Dana Boente was behind the effort to block the release of the Brady Material.
According to the FBI official who spoke to The Federalist, FBI general counsel Dana Boente led the charge internally against DOJ’s disclosure of the new materials. Boente, who briefly served as acting Attorney General after Trump became president, personally signed off on one of the federal spy warrants against former Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page. The new documents, which were filed under a protective order by DOJ on Friday, will reflect poorly on the FBI, the official told The Federalist. It is not clear when, or even if, those documents will be unsealed and made available to the public for review.
A source with “direct knowledge of the situation” told the Daily Caller that Boente was acting in coordination with the Trump-appointed Wray.
Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, announced on Twitter Friday that she filed the new court documents containing exculpatory evidence.
#BREAKING The government just provided the #Flynn defense with remarkable new & long withheld BRADY evidence. Letter below just filed. Stay tuned.@realDonaldTrump @Techno_Fog @seanmdav @seanhannity @ProfMJCleveland @BarbaraRedgate @JosephJFlynn1 @lofly727 @GoJackFlynn
7,040 people are talking about this
“Since August 2016 at the latest, partisan FBI and DOJ leaders conspired to destroy Mr. Flynn,” she continued. “These documents show in their own handwriting and emails that they intended either to create an offense they could prosecute or at least get him fired.”
Powell said said her team also found more evidence of misconduct by prosecuting attorney Brandon Van Grack.
The government’s misconduct in this case is beyond shocking and reprehensible, Powell said in...
COSTS OF THE SHUTDOWN, QUANTIFIED
Casey Mulligan is an economist at the University of Chicago. Per his web site, he has served as Chief Economist of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and as a visiting professor teaching public economics at Harvard and Clemson. He is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, and the Population Research Center. Mulligan has set up a web page where he estimates, on a daily basis, the cumulative costs of the COVID-19 epidemic. The analysis is based on his own paper dated April 16.
This is the current chart, updated through April 24.
By Mulligan’s calculation, cumulative costs approach $1 trillion. This total doesn’t necessarily include stock market losses, which mostly reflect anticipated future damages that are not part of the calculation.
On its face, Mulligan’s analysis implies that the cure (shutdowns) has been far worse than the disease (mortality), and the margin is growing. Of course, doing this calculation requires...
Two Chinese Firms Blocked From Australia’s Rare Earth Sector
Two Chinese firms have been blocked from investing in Australia’s valuable rare earth mineral sector in the past week.
It comes in the midst of tightening foreign investment rules during the virus outbreak and aligns with the federal government’s ongoing partnership with the United States to ensure rare earth supply chains are secure and not dominated by China.
On April 20, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg blocked a bid by Baogang Group Investment to invest $20 million (US$12.8 million) in Northern Minerals who operates a major rare earths project in Western Australia (WA).
The Chinese group is a subsidiary of the state-owned enterprise Baogang (or Baotou) Group, which runs the Bayan Obo Mining District in Inner Mongolia—the largest rare earths deposit in the world.
Northern Minerals operates the Browns Range Project, which covers a vast 3,595 square kilometre area (1,388 square miles) in the East Kimberley region straddling the border of WA and the Northern Territory.
The site is rich in rare earths, particularly dysprosium—an element mainly used in magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines.
Northern Minerals operates the Browns Range Project, which covers a vast 3,595 square kilometre area (1,388 square miles) in the East Kimberley region straddling the border of WA and the Northern Territory.
The site is rich in rare earths, particularly dysprosium—an element mainly used in magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines.
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| Each F-35 Lightning II aircraft -- considered one of the world's most sophisticated, maneuverable and stealthy fighter jets -- requires approximately 920 pounds of rare-earth materials |
On April 24, Yibin Tianyi Lithium Industry withdrew a proposed investment following advice it would be rejected by the federal government.
One of Yibin’s backers is China’s largest lithium-ion battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology.
Yibin was aiming to invest $14.1 million (US$9 million) in AVZ Minerals, which operates the Manono Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The project is a major producer of lithium.
According to a statement from AVZ Minerals, the federal government advised Yibin that the investment would be “contrary to the national interest” and contrary to the...
#DropOutBiden Trends, Fueled by Progressives and #MeToo Supporters
The hashtag #DropOutBiden trended on Twitter beginning early Saturday morning and throughout the day, fueled in part by progressives and #MeToo movement supporters calling on Joe Biden to drop out of the 2020 presidential race.
Although supporters of Biden tried to blame the hashtag on Russian bots, there were several prominent progressives who were using the hashtag, such as Peter Daou, a former Hillary Clinton adviser.
DIFFICULT THREAD -- #BIDEN SHOULD WITHDRAW
1. I respect the will of the voters.
2. But new information has emerged supporting #TaraReade's account of being sexually assaulted by #JoeBiden.
3. Credible rape accusations are disqualifying or we have NO moral standards.
9,077 people are talking about this
The hashtag coincided with the emergence of an alleged video clip of Biden accuser Tara Reade’s mother.
The 1993 clip from Larry King Live featured a woman calling in to the show from San Luis Obispo, where Reade’s mother reportedly lived at the time. On the show, the woman said that her daughter had just worked for a “prominent senator” and had a story to tell but did not want to go to the press out of respect for the senator.
Reade has alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her when she worked in his office as a staffer in the early 1990s. The Biden campaign has denied it happened and declined to...
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