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* link:++https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Російсько-українська_війна_(з_2014)++[]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mykola_Semena
* https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Семена_Микола_Михайлович
Ukrainian, worked for <<rferl>> previously, and published against the annexation of Ukrainian territories.
https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/07/18/online-and-all-fronts/russias-assault-freedom-expression from <<human-rights-watch>> suggests that one of her articles was added to the <<federal-list-of-extremist-materials>>, possibly "Blockade - the Necessary First Step for Liberation of Crimea", but I can't find the entry.
[[anti-russia-dictatorship-info-sources]]
=== Anti Russia dictatorship sources
[[rferl]]
==== Radio Free Europe (Радио_«Свобода»)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Liberty
* https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Радио_«Свобода»
The dictator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lukashenko[Alexander Lukashenko]. Close ties to his buddy <<putin>>.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Belarusian_protests[2020 Belarusian protests].
[[moscow-minsk-friendship-mural]]
.The Moscow-Minsk friendship mural in Minsk (capital of Belarus), originally meant to show the harmonious alliance between Belarus and Russia, was defaced in 2016 by adding barbed wire amidst the flowers held and worn by the boy and girl which represent Russia and Belarus respectively, which indicates that the friendship is actually a prison for Belarus. <<dictatorships-tend-to-work-together>> comes to mind. Photo by Aleh Larychau. Upload https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Mural_Minsk-Moscow_in_Minsk_1.jpg[on Wikimedia Commons] deleted because of the lack of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_panorama[Freedom of panorama in Belarus]. https://www.euronews.com/2020/12/21/how-the-crisis-in-belarus-is-politicising-a-new-wave-of-street-artists[].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Moscow-Minsk_friendship_mural_girl_with_barbed_wire.jpg[height=400]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB9O4PU5Nnk "How Much Do You Know About The Real Kazakhstan?" by Journeyman Pictures (2016) shows how Western leaders turn a blind eye to Kazakhstan's dictator at the time, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursultan_Nazarbayev[Nursultan Nazarbayev], because they have oil and are willing to cooperate with the West on the war in Afghanistan. In 2019 he was replaced by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kassym-Jomart_Tokayev[Kassym-Jomart Tokayev], gotta learn more about the new one. Includes interviews with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_L._Spratlen[Pamela L. Spratlen], an US diplomat, where she diplomatically refuses to say anything meaningful.
video::eB9O4PU5Nnk[youtube,height=400,width=600]
[[dictatorships-tend-to-work-together]]
=== Dictatorships tend to work together (独裁政权倾向于合作)
The thing a dictatorship is afraid more than anything is of their own citizens, and therefore that they might be influenced by democracies to rebel against the oppression.
For this reason, the world basically always tumbles into a dictatorship vs democracy global war.
Also, since dictatorships don't need to convince their people of anything, they tend to make such alliances much faster.
But this presents a serious dilemma to dictatorships, because you can't really trust the other dictator either, as they are just waiting to put a knife behind your back at all times.
This leads to constant tensions between allied dictatorships, e.g. <<russia>> vs China:
* 2020-07-02 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3091611/why-russias-vladivostok-celebration-prompted-nationalist "Why Russia's Vladivostok celebration prompted a nationalist backlash in China" on <<scmp>>
This creates one of the most serious strategic problems faced by dictatorships. It is similar situation with organized crime.
And of course, when a smaller dictatorship makes an alliance with a larger dictatorship, they basically immediately become a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassal_state[vassal state], e.g.:
* <<belarus>> and <<russia>>, see: <<moscow-minsk-friendship-mural>>.
* China and:
** <<iran>>, see: <<china-iran-relations>>
** <<pakistan>>, who is more afraid of India than China right now
* Africa
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co0RGa99W0M "Zambia: Under Chinese influence" by FRANCE 24 English (2021)
[[ipac]]
===== Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (對華政策跨國議會聯盟, 2020)
* https://ipac.global/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-Parliamentary_Alliance_on_China
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/對華政策跨國議會聯盟
* hhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/西班牙
=== tsunamidemocratic GitHub takedown (2019)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50232902
https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/master/Spain/2019/2019-10-26-GuardiaCivil.md
It is a crime to criticize the royal family (Lèse majesté):
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lèse_majesté_in_Thailand
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lèse-majesté
As https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Gilliam[Terry Gilliam] brilliantly says in the <<the-secret-life-of-brian-2007>> https://youtu.be/hdU_6jUQI9s?t=492[]:
[[sacred-cows]]
____
I was always convinced that there is no where you should't go. There are no https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_cow_(idiom)[sacred cows]. And if there are, if they are really sacred, let's see how much we puncture them and see if they still float.
____
___
Vajiralongkorn, you little piece of shit, grow some balls and learn how to take an insult. A man who cannot take an insult is not a man, but a big pussy.
___
Everyone who has political power must know how to be laughed at criticized, otherwise <<dictatorship,dicatorship>> follows:
* 2020-08-24 https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/24/after-restricting-a-group-critical-of-thailands-monarchy-facebook-says-it-will-take-legal-action-against-the-government/ "After restricting a group critical of Thailand's monarchy, Facebook says it will take legal action against the government"
* 2017-05-17 https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3578661/from-fake-tattoos-and-crop-tops-to-making-a-poodle-air-force-chief-the-king-of-thailands-maddest-moments-revealed/ "As Thai monarch Maha Vajiralongkorn attempts to sue Facebook over photos posted online, we look at the wacky royal's bizarre life" TODO real? Erm, video by 60-minutes Australia: https://youtu.be/HfF3CGVwrs4?t=84
** 2015 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fufu_(dog).
** Topless wife birthday celebration video: https://youtu.be/HfF3CGVwrs4?t=311
* Rap Against Dictatorship
** https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCukIPSb0N6_vRVD_5VlzqQg
** https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/8/20/rap-against-dictatorship-artist-arrested-in-thailand "‘Rap Against Dictatorship' artist arrested in Thailand", artist Dechathorn Bamrungmuang arrested
** https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/16/rap-against-dictatorship-protests-thailand/
[[thai-king-hamtaro]]
.Side-by-side comparison between https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajiralongkorn[Thai King Vajiralongkorn] and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamtaro[Hamtaro]. This is the Thai version of <<winnie-the-pooh>>. It https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japanese-cartoon-Hamtaro-used-by-Thai-protesters-to-mock-government[has been used by protesters] as part of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Thai_protests[2020 Thai protests]. Left https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Thai_protests[photo source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Side_by_side_comparison_between_Thai_king_Vajiralongkorn_and_Hamtaro.jpg[height=400]
.Leading Thai politicians prostrate themselves before Vajiralongkorn in 2016, presumably during his ascension to the throne. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bbc-investigation-thailand-king-defamation-a7460046.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Thai_king_prostrated_officers.jpg[height=400]
.Suthida Tidjai, Vajiralongkorn's wife, prostrated before him during their marriage in 2016 before he officially ascended to the throne. Yes, prostration is a big thing in Thailand. An older king, Rama V, had apparently even https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chulalongkorn#Abolition_of_prostration[abolished this practice in 1873]. Clearly, <<xi-jinping>> could learn a thing or two from a proper monarch like Vajiralongkorn. https://web.archive.org/web/20190723095722/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/03/thailand-coronation-king-maha-vajiralongkorn-rama-x[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Thai_king_prostrated_wife.jpg[height=400]
.Thai king Vajiralongkorn wearing a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_top[crop top] so tight that it could be called a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bra[bra], and accompanied by one of his many girlfriends, in a shopping center in Munich. He can wear whatever the fuck wants, but to both wear that and enforce Lèse majesté? That's the ultimate torture for the Thai people, how can you not make fun of him??? TODO date, exact location, original report. Here is one of the many reports, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3578661/from-fake-tattoos-and-crop-tops-to-making-a-poodle-air-force-chief-the-king-of-thailands-maddest-moments-revealed/[sample report from 2017 in a British tabloid].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Thai_king_crop_top.jpg[height=400]
[[milk-tea-alliance]]
=== Milk Tea Alliance (奶茶联盟)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_Tea_Alliance
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/奶茶聯盟
* 2021-04-08 <<twitter>> launches official support campaign for the Milk Tea Alliance: https://twitter.com/Policy/status/1379982396490010624
[[united-states]]
== United States (美国)
[[iraq-war]]
=== Iraq War (2003-2011, 伊拉克战争)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/伊拉克战争
This had purely political/strategic motivations. They had to fake intelligence in order to justify the war by saying that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Report_on_Pre-war_Intelligence_on_Iraq
* https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jul/09/usa.iraq2
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationale_for_the_Iraq_War
* Katharine Gun
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Gun
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Secrets_(film)[Official Secrets (2019)]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/以色列
Israel is a military base for the <<united-states>> to protect oil reserves in the Middle East.
A popular and in <<ciro-santilli>>'s view reasonable analogy of the situation is with the apartheid:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analogy
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/以色列与南非种族隔离的类比
Clearly, the best solution for the region as of 2021 would be to just give the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank[West Bank] to the Palestinians:
____
As of July 2017 it has an estimated population of 2,747,943 Palestinians, and approximately 391,000 Israeli settlers,
____
For comparison, the population os Israel in 2020 was 9 million people, 20% Arab.
Just look at the map of the 2017 Oslo accords: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank Clearly Palestinians are split into dozens of small islands, while Israel controls one big sea of territory around them all. It is ridiculous.
And the settler population just keeps increasing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IsraeliSettlementGrowthLineGraph.png
Basically every single country supports that resolution, except the United States due to their strategic interests, and other rich Western countries that would lose too much by fighting the US over it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_the_State_of_Palestine[]. Even human rights organizations from those countries recognize that:
* https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/
* 2021 https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/5/12/in-pictures-9 In Pictures: Global protests in solidarity with Palestinians
* 2020 https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/06/29/what-americans-think-about-the-looming-israeli-annexation-and-trumps-middle-east-plan/ "What Americans think about the looming Israeli annexation and Trump’s Middle East plan". Even the average American citizen (from amongst the ones that know about anything about the situation) does not agree with the current situation. But of course: https://cirosantilli.com/governments-have-lost-all-power-to-companies[Governments have lost all power to companies], so nothing happens.
Europe mumbles something about "stop being naughty Israeal, I'll make an Embargo". But these never lead anywhere, because the United States has laws that prohibit Israel embargoes, and as a result this would force removal of US investments in any European country that creates such embargo. And as mentioned at https://cirosantilli.com/having-more-than-one-natural-language-is-bad-for-the-world Europe is too divided to do anything about anything compared to the United States, and so nothing ever gets done:
* 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20210424063925/https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/10/israel-annexation-boycott-europe-palenstinians-netanyahu/ "Europeans Pushing to Boycott Israel Over Annexation Should Think Twice". This article actually supports human rights violations over economic concerns
* 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/mps-press-for-sanctions-against-israel-over-west-bank-annexations MPs press for sanctions against Israel over West Bank annexations.
* 2019 https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/23/us-states-use-anti-boycott-laws-punish-responsible-businesses from <<human-rights-watch>>
The correct solution for this would be to actually force Israel to give the entire West Bank to Palestine, not only through sanctions, but also through military action supporting the independent West Bank state. But of course, it would never come to that. The USA needs Israel as a military base in the region. And if the USA would stop support, Israel would ally itself with China or Russia, as they'd be fucked without external support. Israeli settlers in the West Bank would then have a choice of staying under the new government, possibly obtaining Palestine citizenship, or moving back to Israel.
* https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-israel-does-not-want-sovereign-palestinian-state "Why Israel does not want a sovereign Palestinian state"
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRYZjOuUnlU The Israel-Palestine conflict: a brief, simple history by Vox (2016)
* https://ips-dc.org/why_the_us_supports_israel/
. link:censorship.md[Censorship]
. link:media.md[Media]
. link:dissidents.md[Dissidents]
. link:movements.md[Movements against the Dictatorship]
. link:images/[Images]
. link:policies.md[Policies]
. link:stack-overflow.md[Stack Overflow]
. link:stack-overflow-profile.md[Stack Overflow profile]
. Personal
.. link:communities-that-censor-politics.md[Communities that censor politics]