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- Taiwan
- Why China-Taiwan Relations Are So Tense | Council on Foreign Relations
- ROC = Republic of China = Taiwan – 23 million people (~98% want status quo)
Taiwan is the world’s top contract manufacturer of semiconductor chips.
Companies in Taiwan were responsible for more than 60 percent of revenue generated by the world’s semiconductor contract manufacturers in 2020.
TSMC = Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chip maker and the top supplier for US companies. It is one of only two companies in the world (the other is South Korea-based Samsung) that has the technological know-how to make the smallest, most advanced chips.
- KMT = Kuomintang party that ruled Taiwan (1949-1987) under martial law
- DPP = Democratic Progressive Party - President Tsai (Taiwan)
- PRC = People’s Republic of China = mainland China (Beijing)
President Xi (CCP PRC) reiterated China’s long-standing proposal for Taiwan: that it be incorporated into the mainland under the formula of “one country, two systems.” This is the same formula used for Hong Kong.
China rejects Taiwan’s participation as a member in UN agencies and other international organizations that limit membership to states.
No government has ever simultaneously maintained formal diplomatic ties with both China and Taiwan.
Xi has emphasized that unification with Taiwan is essential to achieving what he calls the Chinese Dream, which sees China’s great-power status restored by 2049.
PLA = China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
- CCP = Chinese Communist Party
- CPTPP = Trans-Pacific Partnership
RCEP = Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
IPEF = Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (Biden)
- World Air Quality Index (AQI) Ranking | AirVisual
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Politics
- "America is not the greatest country in the world anymore" - The Newsroom - YouTube
- Canada
- Abortion ...
- Weapons - (handguns, rifles, other arms, terrorism)
- Opinion | My Father, Ronald Reagan, Taught Me a Healthy Fear of Guns - The New York Times
- Nicolae Ceaușescu, the dictator who ruled Romania from 1965 to 1989 was quoted saying “You can do whatever you want if you keep the people frightened enough.”
- Fear is a breeding ground for autocracy, and history shows us that every democracy that has crumbled did so in an atmosphere of fear.
- Americans live in fear of gun violence, and fear is a breeding ground for autocracy.
- What's the Difference Between a Democracy and a Republic? | HowStuffWorks
- "pure democracy" - The ancient Greek city-state of Athens is considered the world's first and only "pure" democracy, established in 507 B.C.E.
- "democratic country" = "constitutional democracy" = "democratic republic" = "constitutional federal representative democracy"
- The U.S. Constitution was designed to create a balance of power across three branches of government: the legislative (Congress), the judicial (the court system) and the executive (the president, vice president and cabinet). = "presidential model"
- The U.K. divided power into the one (the monarch), the few (the House of Lords) and the many (the House of Commons)" = "parliamentary model" - The modern U.K. is a constitutional monarchy.
- Whether it's a presidential or parliamentary system, what makes a modern democracy a true democracy is faithful adherence to a set of democratic principles: the rule of law (constitutionalism), representation based on free and fair elections, and guaranteed rights including freedom of speech, press and religion. By that measure, some countries are democracies in name, but not in practice.
- Perspectives on the Constitution: A Republic, If You Can Keep It - National Constitution Center
- "A republic, if you can keep it." - Benjamin Franklin
- The real - and far scarier - reason Republicans think Biden is illegitimate | Thomas Zimmer | The Guardian
- After the Capitol Riots, We Still Won't Admit Why So Many People Believe the Big Lie - PDF
- "America is not the greatest country in the world anymore" - The Newsroom 2012 - YouTube
- Election USA 2020
- Elections USA
- RealClearPolitics - Live Opinion, News, Analysis, Video and Polls
- Jewish Democratic Council of America = JDCA
- The Lincoln Project | Videos
- MeidasTouch | Because Truth Is Golden
- NPR : National Public Radio
- Politico Magazine - Politics, Policy, Political News
- Protect Democracy .org
- Really American .com
- Republicans for the Rule of Law
- The Washington Post - Fact Checker
- Hoaxes & Fake-checking & Fact-checking ...
-
Trump - (Drumpft) - Former USA President - Impeached twice
- Loser of 2020 USA election
- We have far more to fear from stupidity than evil - Big Think
- Lion - Trump is a lion, the king of the jungle
- How One Legal Expert Frames The Case Against Trump As A RICO Conspiracy - YouTube - see graphic (on right)
- Attempted Self-coup (failed) | self-coup, also called autocoup (from the Spanish autogolpe)
- How Does the U.S. Classify Its Most Sensitive Documents? | HowStuffWorks
- What is classified information, and who gets to decide?
- Confidential (C or C/SCI)
- Secret (S or S/SCI)
- Top Secret (TS or TS/SCI)
- Special-Access Program (SAP) - Highly classified documents that require special clearances on a need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance. Some SAPs can have as few as a dozen government personnel authorized to know of an operation's existence. These documents are the most highly sensitive and highly restrictive within the US government.
- Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) - AcqNotes
- Special Access Program (SAP) - AcqNotes
- Human Intelligence Control System = Human Clandestine Sources (HCS) = a form of SCI
- Signals Intelligence = Special Intelligence (SI) = a form of SCI that is “designed to protect technical and intelligence information derived from the monitoring of foreign communications signals by other than the intended recipients.
- National-defense information (NDI)
- National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- Department of Justice (DOJ)
- Originator Control (ORCON)
- Not For Release to Foreign Nationals (NOFORN)
- Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
- Classification of official information. | CFR | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
- The Affidavit for the Search of Trump’s Home, Annotated - The New York Times - $subscription
- The Shovel’s view on the Donald Trump FBI raid | The Shovel
- Five Times Donald Trump Has Bashed Pleading The Fifth | MTP Daily | MSNBC - YouTube
- Future-proofing the Presidency - The Boston Globe - June 2021
- Cult of Trump & QAnon conspiracy cult
- QAnonCasualties
- QAnon - Wikipedia
- Republican Right-Wing Extremism = Trumpism
- Right-wing terrorism - Wikipedia - Neo-Nazi, Neo-Fascist, Anti-Antifa, Anarchist/Terrorist, White Nationalist. Opponents of Freedom (religious, political, racial, sexual), Militaristic/Violent, etc.
- Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, KKK = Ku Klux Klan, Q-Anon conspiracists, etc.
- c.f. - Antifa (United States) - Wikipedia - Anti-Fascists. Left-wing. Not a group, but just a decentralized array of peaceful groups promoting freedom.
- Capitol Violence - 2021-01-06 - FBI Investigation into Trump's Insurrection
- How Trump Could Lose the Election—And Still Remain President | Opinion - PDF
- Every Day That Trump Remains in Office Is a Dangerous Day for America
- Negligent Homicide Defined
- Negligent homicide is typically classified as involuntary manslaughter, due to the implied lack of malice and intent.
- Republican Voters Against Trump = RVaT
- Personality of DTrump
- Trump's Promises Made, Promises Broken
- Promises Made Promises
Kept Broken
- Trump's Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance - The New York Times
