Stories like this one make me think that history in all its fluctuating glory is simply to take us for a ride, play us for a sucker. How else could the tables be turned so regularly? My friends in Europe remind me how Eisenhower loved Europe, how the Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe way-back-when. And today? They offer only a whimpering smile. Trump’s sole ability seems to be: falsehoods in every color of the rainbow. But what’s a fella with his mental acumen to do if reality doesn’t serve your purpose? Invent a new one, of course, and another, and another, and another. He lives in a false, fake, phoney world. Unfortunately, we have to live in his falsehoods.
Wow that's a pretty good story.It's a shame that we don't seem to have the good sense anymore to see right through a schmuck like TACO T****.Nothing he says can be trusted or believed,and the same holds for his minions in Congress and in his cabinet.
Hoping that soon(!!)we can get people in the door that can counter this nonsense and foolishness,and also get rid of some of the flunkies running everything straight into the ground.
I also wonder if having China as the ones everyone will have to look to,is a good or a bad thing.Some of what they do seems okay,but a lot of it is just frightening.It's bad enough that the crap of plucking random people off the street and also the spies being everywhere just waiting in the woodwork, is already trying to be implemented here by people stumbling around in the dark with no idea what they're trying to do,but having people with experience doing it is a bridge I don't feel like crossing.It's already bad enough without expert help putting in their two cents.We can do well without all that.
I'm so disappointed in the number of Americans who voted for this schmuck. I don't understand how they can look at what he did last time and vote for him again.
A good book to pair on your coffee table is the stage-play RHINOCEROS, by Eugene Ionesco, in which one-by-one, citizens (Republicans mostly, we can assume) become one more beast. Very insightful! Amazon link: https://tinyurl.com/4jam7e7b Cowards in Congress will kiss the ring of The Beast rather than risk being primary'd by Trump. ~eric. MeridaGOround.com
Having read today's offering, I don't see it as much as a story, but more of a glimpse, A glimpse into China's past, and a glimpse into our future. I thank you.
First, I love the way you write with the same kind of self-diclosure, personal revelations, and stream of consciousness that I often do, only you do it better. Who knew you worked for a Republican and who knew you studied law in China? The way you segue into the scorpion story to make a point for example. First you introduce how startled you were to have your scorpion experience and throw in how red, crayon color red, it was and then use how the scientists, a virtual hoard of scientists, come seemingly out of nowhere. I could see it happening in my mind. You had a close encounter with particular rare species which had a special poison. Then you use the scorpion as a metaphor. Great writing!
This being said, you missed reporting the news that Liddle Marco announced the other day theat the Trump administration will be aggressively revoking some student visas including those sudying in critical fields. This is from CBC News: "China is the second-largest country of origin for international students, behind only India. In the 2023-24 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-to-aggressively-revoke-some-chinese-students-visas-rubio/
How stupid is this? MAGA minds may say it makes a lot of sense because why train Chinese citizens so they can go back home and use their education to compete against us. In fact this is just the opposite since 87% of them stay here. ( reference: https://www.spainexchange.com/faq/how-many-chinese-students-stay-in-the-us-after-graduation ). It is China, not the US, that is being stupid in allowing this.
It desribes the lower numbers of Chinese citizen coming here because they see the country as less welcoming. It was writen in 2023. Remember the good old days when Trump wasn't president? Here's an excerpt:
---------
"Some prominent American voices have labeled Chinese students and scholars broadly as a national security threat, and questioned whether the risks of educational exchanges outweigh the benefits," Ross said.
Their suspicions are in stark contrast with the general consensus that has been in place during most of the past four decades, "when Chinese international students have been widely viewed as a positive presence in American higher education", she said.
Ross said there is a lot of alienation and waning enthusiasm among high school and college students in China. "They see the United States as less welcoming. They see gun violence. They see they have more questions, and they have more choices. They can stay in China. Also, a lot of other countries are wooing them."
----------
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to imagine what Chinese students think of America today. If only our the primary problem that turned them off about us was gun violence. Now they see the news coming from here and see masked plain chothes Gestapo thugs with guns scaring the crap out of and arresting decidely non-threatening people.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin condemned American universities on Fox Business Thursday for what she called their “complicity” in Chinese Communist Party espionage.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday the State Department will begin aggressively revoking visas held by Chinese students, citing national security concerns. During an appearance on “The Evening Edit,” McLaughlin highlighted that more than 277,000 Chinese nationals were enrolled in U.S. colleges, while only 800 American students were studying in China.
“I found this statistic to be absolutely staggering. In the academic year 2024, there were 277,000 Chinese nationals who were studying here at academic institutions here in the United States. On the other hand, there were only 800 Americans who were studying at universities over in China. That’s pretty staggering, and the reason is because the Chinese Communist Party, for decades and decades with impunity, have been exploiting U.S. visa systems and other programs that we’ve been using with academic institutions,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin praised Rubio, alongside President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, for taking action.
Perhaps if more American students learnt Chinese, more would choose to do further studies in China. English is a compulsory subject in China; therefore, there are more students with a basic understanding of English living in China than there are in the U.S.
Trump will deem studing any languages beside English woke and punish schools that teach them. He already made English the official US language. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2kgq5pzpllo
But I’m pleased Democrats like Preston Brooks no longer exist, or at least are no longer Democrats.
This incident seems typical of the entire conflict. Historical accounts bend over backwards to be fair to the odious Brooks, but it’s pretty easy to read between the lines and see what actually happened.
This was not some “How dare you, sir! I demand satisfaction!” affair, mostly because Brooks had no honor to defend. The little thug snuck up behind Senator Sumner and brained him with a metal-tipped cane while Sumner sat writing at his desk on the Senate floor. Sumner never even saw it coming.
This was par for the course for the non-existent “honor of Southern gentlemen” - as you might expect from people who condoned and supported chattel slavery. Vicious, unethical, backstabbing cowards, every last one of them. The treason was not at all out of character for them.
I guess if we had to lose Republicans like Sumner to get rid of Democrats like Brooks I can live with it. But it’s still astonishing to me how modern Republicans have so completely embraced the Preston Brooks worldview. Turning your back on one of them seems ill-advised in the extreme.
In the early aughts we hosted four Chinese girls and one teacher. They were delightful, they came here with $9,500 USD each and spent it all on unlocked iPhones and iPads because despite being made in China, the ones for sale there are counterfeit. They were with us for 11 days, attending school and going on field trips (Mall of America was the favorite) but they refused a gathering hosted by a woman from Taiwan and explained they would be arrested if they even spoke to her. They loaded up my spare laptop with billions of bytes and pics from their .qq surfing. They sang along to every song by P!nk. They also took hundreds of pictures of Somalian children when they toured an elementary school and showed them to me laughing and calling them "monkeys." Their racism shocked me. It was an interesting experience, to say the least.
After departing our city they were off to tour Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Columbia.
As usual, your column is stellar! The part I most abhor about the miserable orange felon is that we have so many stooopid people in this country who would vote for him after the terror of his first term. It's embarrassing. When we go to Europe, we tell people we are from Canada. It's sad that we have to do that.
We have to believe America will bounce back, it has to. It is such a waste of time having to regress in medical research because this group of Republicans is so clueless. And the going poll number of 41% approval is so discouraging. It should be 0. Because of this stupidity, research scientists will leave America because their purpose is to serve humanity, and they can do so from anywhere in the world, including China. Not recognizing the damage Trump is doing to our youth's ability to think by attacking our universities and science is an example of how dumb we are becoming. We can't blame Trump for all of it; parents who allow it must take responsibility for having their children turned into brainless mush—the zombies who will attend a brainless birthday parade on June 14th. We must support our universities and keep hope alive. A thinking populace is preferable to a bowl of mush.
Love that story a lot and so true. But, when will the Democrats take a massive stand against the intimidation being used to further this assault against everything? Intimidation has always been the tool used to destroy. It should not be accepted.
I’m old enough to recall a practical Republican, but Sabrina’s so right, Republicans are gone. Their backing of Trump lies and behaviors has destroyed the party…now trying to destroy America. They may be different in a sense, but trying times for America as Haake describes regarding China. Now though, China is plowing ahead of us in ways. For instance: Trump declaring a war with Harvard having international students, what clever thing does China do - suggest they’ll take them. Trump and his minions are dangerous and oh so embarrassing for us.
Fascinating piece Sabrina - thanks! Evidently, the Chinese gov't changed it attitude about public health over the years, as you first say that Deng didn't care, but later indicate health's importance (?)
I'm old enough to remember when the GoP conventions regularly featured the ritual slaughter of a Liberal Republican, until they ran out of their own liberals.
Here's some nostalgia for the Republican Party of old. The Last Liberal Republican President, with John R. Price. It is about the book "The Last Liberal Republican: An Insider’s Perspective on Nixon’s Surprising Social Policy." https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-last-liberal-republican-president/
Stories like this one make me think that history in all its fluctuating glory is simply to take us for a ride, play us for a sucker. How else could the tables be turned so regularly? My friends in Europe remind me how Eisenhower loved Europe, how the Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe way-back-when. And today? They offer only a whimpering smile. Trump’s sole ability seems to be: falsehoods in every color of the rainbow. But what’s a fella with his mental acumen to do if reality doesn’t serve your purpose? Invent a new one, of course, and another, and another, and another. He lives in a false, fake, phoney world. Unfortunately, we have to live in his falsehoods.
Wow that's a pretty good story.It's a shame that we don't seem to have the good sense anymore to see right through a schmuck like TACO T****.Nothing he says can be trusted or believed,and the same holds for his minions in Congress and in his cabinet.
Hoping that soon(!!)we can get people in the door that can counter this nonsense and foolishness,and also get rid of some of the flunkies running everything straight into the ground.
I also wonder if having China as the ones everyone will have to look to,is a good or a bad thing.Some of what they do seems okay,but a lot of it is just frightening.It's bad enough that the crap of plucking random people off the street and also the spies being everywhere just waiting in the woodwork, is already trying to be implemented here by people stumbling around in the dark with no idea what they're trying to do,but having people with experience doing it is a bridge I don't feel like crossing.It's already bad enough without expert help putting in their two cents.We can do well without all that.
Keep the immigrants. Deport the Republicans!
I'm so disappointed in the number of Americans who voted for this schmuck. I don't understand how they can look at what he did last time and vote for him again.
Maybe the vote was rigged in some places.
Could be. the orange felon would stoop to any depth to not be a loser.
my goodness, some amazing parallels!
Wonderful story, thanks so much for this great read. It’s great bc it reflects my thoughts, so much better written!
A good book to pair on your coffee table is the stage-play RHINOCEROS, by Eugene Ionesco, in which one-by-one, citizens (Republicans mostly, we can assume) become one more beast. Very insightful! Amazon link: https://tinyurl.com/4jam7e7b Cowards in Congress will kiss the ring of The Beast rather than risk being primary'd by Trump. ~eric. MeridaGOround.com
Having read today's offering, I don't see it as much as a story, but more of a glimpse, A glimpse into China's past, and a glimpse into our future. I thank you.
First, I love the way you write with the same kind of self-diclosure, personal revelations, and stream of consciousness that I often do, only you do it better. Who knew you worked for a Republican and who knew you studied law in China? The way you segue into the scorpion story to make a point for example. First you introduce how startled you were to have your scorpion experience and throw in how red, crayon color red, it was and then use how the scientists, a virtual hoard of scientists, come seemingly out of nowhere. I could see it happening in my mind. You had a close encounter with particular rare species which had a special poison. Then you use the scorpion as a metaphor. Great writing!
This being said, you missed reporting the news that Liddle Marco announced the other day theat the Trump administration will be aggressively revoking some student visas including those sudying in critical fields. This is from CBC News: "China is the second-largest country of origin for international students, behind only India. In the 2023-24 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-to-aggressively-revoke-some-chinese-students-visas-rubio/
How stupid is this? MAGA minds may say it makes a lot of sense because why train Chinese citizens so they can go back home and use their education to compete against us. In fact this is just the opposite since 87% of them stay here. ( reference: https://www.spainexchange.com/faq/how-many-chinese-students-stay-in-the-us-after-graduation ). It is China, not the US, that is being stupid in allowing this.
Here's an interesting article from the Chinese website ChinaDaily: Chinese students in US seen as vital link https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202312/07/WS6571dc78a31090682a5f2079.html
It desribes the lower numbers of Chinese citizen coming here because they see the country as less welcoming. It was writen in 2023. Remember the good old days when Trump wasn't president? Here's an excerpt:
---------
"Some prominent American voices have labeled Chinese students and scholars broadly as a national security threat, and questioned whether the risks of educational exchanges outweigh the benefits," Ross said.
Their suspicions are in stark contrast with the general consensus that has been in place during most of the past four decades, "when Chinese international students have been widely viewed as a positive presence in American higher education", she said.
Ross said there is a lot of alienation and waning enthusiasm among high school and college students in China. "They see the United States as less welcoming. They see gun violence. They see they have more questions, and they have more choices. They can stay in China. Also, a lot of other countries are wooing them."
----------
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to imagine what Chinese students think of America today. If only our the primary problem that turned them off about us was gun violence. Now they see the news coming from here and see masked plain chothes Gestapo thugs with guns scaring the crap out of and arresting decidely non-threatening people.
Here's another reference from the right wing Daily Caller (on the MSN website): DHS Presents ‘Absolutely Staggering’ Statistics Of How Many Chinese Nationals Enroll At US College https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/dhs-presents-absolutely-staggering-statistics-of-how-many-chinese-nationals-enroll-at-us-colleges/ar-AA1FKapq
Excerpt:
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin condemned American universities on Fox Business Thursday for what she called their “complicity” in Chinese Communist Party espionage.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday the State Department will begin aggressively revoking visas held by Chinese students, citing national security concerns. During an appearance on “The Evening Edit,” McLaughlin highlighted that more than 277,000 Chinese nationals were enrolled in U.S. colleges, while only 800 American students were studying in China.
“I found this statistic to be absolutely staggering. In the academic year 2024, there were 277,000 Chinese nationals who were studying here at academic institutions here in the United States. On the other hand, there were only 800 Americans who were studying at universities over in China. That’s pretty staggering, and the reason is because the Chinese Communist Party, for decades and decades with impunity, have been exploiting U.S. visa systems and other programs that we’ve been using with academic institutions,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin praised Rubio, alongside President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, for taking action.
Perhaps if more American students learnt Chinese, more would choose to do further studies in China. English is a compulsory subject in China; therefore, there are more students with a basic understanding of English living in China than there are in the U.S.
Trump will deem studing any languages beside English woke and punish schools that teach them. He already made English the official US language. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2kgq5pzpllo
I miss Republicans like Charles Sumner.
But I’m pleased Democrats like Preston Brooks no longer exist, or at least are no longer Democrats.
This incident seems typical of the entire conflict. Historical accounts bend over backwards to be fair to the odious Brooks, but it’s pretty easy to read between the lines and see what actually happened.
This was not some “How dare you, sir! I demand satisfaction!” affair, mostly because Brooks had no honor to defend. The little thug snuck up behind Senator Sumner and brained him with a metal-tipped cane while Sumner sat writing at his desk on the Senate floor. Sumner never even saw it coming.
This was par for the course for the non-existent “honor of Southern gentlemen” - as you might expect from people who condoned and supported chattel slavery. Vicious, unethical, backstabbing cowards, every last one of them. The treason was not at all out of character for them.
I guess if we had to lose Republicans like Sumner to get rid of Democrats like Brooks I can live with it. But it’s still astonishing to me how modern Republicans have so completely embraced the Preston Brooks worldview. Turning your back on one of them seems ill-advised in the extreme.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_of_Charles_Sumner
The modern-day repukicans are thugs--all of them.
In the early aughts we hosted four Chinese girls and one teacher. They were delightful, they came here with $9,500 USD each and spent it all on unlocked iPhones and iPads because despite being made in China, the ones for sale there are counterfeit. They were with us for 11 days, attending school and going on field trips (Mall of America was the favorite) but they refused a gathering hosted by a woman from Taiwan and explained they would be arrested if they even spoke to her. They loaded up my spare laptop with billions of bytes and pics from their .qq surfing. They sang along to every song by P!nk. They also took hundreds of pictures of Somalian children when they toured an elementary school and showed them to me laughing and calling them "monkeys." Their racism shocked me. It was an interesting experience, to say the least.
After departing our city they were off to tour Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Columbia.
As usual, your column is stellar! The part I most abhor about the miserable orange felon is that we have so many stooopid people in this country who would vote for him after the terror of his first term. It's embarrassing. When we go to Europe, we tell people we are from Canada. It's sad that we have to do that.
Oh, people felt they had to do that in the Seventies too. My boyfriend and I never did, we were from Berkeley.
We have to believe America will bounce back, it has to. It is such a waste of time having to regress in medical research because this group of Republicans is so clueless. And the going poll number of 41% approval is so discouraging. It should be 0. Because of this stupidity, research scientists will leave America because their purpose is to serve humanity, and they can do so from anywhere in the world, including China. Not recognizing the damage Trump is doing to our youth's ability to think by attacking our universities and science is an example of how dumb we are becoming. We can't blame Trump for all of it; parents who allow it must take responsibility for having their children turned into brainless mush—the zombies who will attend a brainless birthday parade on June 14th. We must support our universities and keep hope alive. A thinking populace is preferable to a bowl of mush.
Love that story a lot and so true. But, when will the Democrats take a massive stand against the intimidation being used to further this assault against everything? Intimidation has always been the tool used to destroy. It should not be accepted.
I’m old enough to recall a practical Republican, but Sabrina’s so right, Republicans are gone. Their backing of Trump lies and behaviors has destroyed the party…now trying to destroy America. They may be different in a sense, but trying times for America as Haake describes regarding China. Now though, China is plowing ahead of us in ways. For instance: Trump declaring a war with Harvard having international students, what clever thing does China do - suggest they’ll take them. Trump and his minions are dangerous and oh so embarrassing for us.
Fascinating piece Sabrina - thanks! Evidently, the Chinese gov't changed it attitude about public health over the years, as you first say that Deng didn't care, but later indicate health's importance (?)
Brilliant scorpion story. I will resist making a pun.
I'm old enough to remember when the GoP conventions regularly featured the ritual slaughter of a Liberal Republican, until they ran out of their own liberals.
Here's some nostalgia for the Republican Party of old. The Last Liberal Republican President, with John R. Price. It is about the book "The Last Liberal Republican: An Insider’s Perspective on Nixon’s Surprising Social Policy." https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-last-liberal-republican-president/