John Smith wrote on Apr 7^th, 2020 at 4:59pm:

If he was a Chinese Captain, the CCP would have him 'disappear' and then fire (at) him.

North,
Are you so gung-ho that CCP must be destroyed like Carthage under Rome? Are you intolerant of opposite views based on facts?  The Chinese doctor who first warned was arrested , not shot.  I'm not for CCP but feel they aren't so different from others that they must be eliminated.

Can't be more specific , it's just a rumour from 1980s.  The Collins sub is more specific .  They could buy Chinese subs but the spy cams are a problem that locos don't have.

chimera wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 6:04am:

Chinera, I have a fundamental mistrust of totalitarian regimes. I have no doubt that they are a lethal existential threat not only to the people they rule but to their neighbouring nations and (sometimes) to the world.

They are almost always fueled by an extreme form of nationalism and/or collective psychological rage regardless of the peoples' nationality or ethnicity, be that German, Russian, Chilean, (North) Korean, Chinese and etc...

They invariably drive their subjugated people and others into a hell-on-earth, from dehumanising sub-cultures, secret arrests, mass deportations, slave camps, death camps and (sometimes) open-air orgies of murder, like the Tienanmen Square massacre under the 'great' Deng Xiaoping (whom you'd have thought should have learned a lesson in humanity given how Mao treated him during and after the 'Cultural' revolution).

Democracy sometimes delivers the wrong kind of leaders, but at least at the legal expiry of their tenure, the people know he can be removed from power.

And power is the problem... Human nature is fundamentally predisposed to crave power like an addiction.

There's long line of democratic ex-leaders who suffer clinical depression having lost power, (that is almost as dire to them psychologically as the alcoholic trying to dry out or the heroin/meth addict trying to stay off the white goods.)

And its understandable why they do... Overnight the phone calls stop, the requests for interviews abate and their sense of full command is ended... That can't be easy for a politician who has sacrificed everything (given their life's blood) to get to the top...

I am against the CCP's mortal grip on power at all costs... As if there are not other Chinese citizens who could rule China with ideals greater than that of just suppressing their people, 'disappearing' their intellectuals and highly skilled professionals, and creating existential threats to the subjugated and to the highest ideals of their respective culture... Germany is the land of Beethoven and Goethe... And yet... China is the land of Confucius... And yet...

On an individual level, totalitarians are, at best, sociopaths, if not psychopaths and have a fundamental disdain for people and their well-being... And I'd bet you wouldn't want sociopaths / psychopaths hanging around your own family, (let alone ruling the country).

As the great Chinese philosopher said, "A country is at risk when a prince believes that the only joy in being a prince is that no one opposes what he says".

chimera wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 8:31am:

Yes.

However, Hong Kong is committed to democracy... And look at what they fear most... Because they know, more clearly than the rest of us, what's coming...

Taiwan is another example of how the Chinese psyche is quite capable of sustaining a highly successful democracy...

It was their vigilance over mainland China that well informed their awareness of what this pandemic emanating from the mainland would be like... And they were prepared... They have long had to endure the ranting and raving and threats of a dangerous psychopathic regime.

As for Trump... Well, he'd be right at home were he Chinese and rising through the ranks of the CCP... Or even in North Korea...

What protects Americans is the US Constitution.

chimera wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 8:49am:

Vote him out of office.

Can the Chinese do that to the CCP?

chimera wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 8:54am:

50 cent army questions, Chimera...

Under a democracy Parliament is sovereign.

In the US, neither the president nor Congress is sovereign as both are bound by the US constitution.

China has a quasi-imperialist system under the CCP with its President made President for life with imperial powers like the Chinese Emperors of old only more dangerous.

Congress is not sovereign but is Trump being a dictator or democrat (small d) in refusing free speech by his staff , under his impeachment?
A question is not '50c army' unless you also are totalitarian.