Brickmuppet Blog 2.0

July 21, 2020

Things That Make You Want To Say 共匪

There's a lot to unpack in yesterday's NTD report. It looks like the 3 Gorges Dam may not be long for this world, the WuFlu (or something) is spreading big way, However the most disturbing bit of information is that the Uyghur Population in Xinjiang has dropped by 80 percent in the last three years.

That's worse than the drop in the Jewish population in Europe in the 1940s which was a drop of between 60 and 70%.

A U.S. and Australian report also makes some additions to the list of companies benefitting from Uyghur slavery. They include Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and, to absolutely no one's surprise, Hugo Boss.

In other news it appears that malware embedded in chinese electronics and software is an even more pernicious issue than thought.

GoldenHelper, as researchers from security firm Trustwave dubbed the malware, hid inside the Golden Tax Invoicing software, which all companies registered in China are mandated to use to pay value-added taxes. The malware is able to bypass the User Account Control, the Windows mechanism that requires users to give their approval before software can install programs or make other system changes. Once that’s done, GoldenSpy can install modules with System-level privileges.

Golly.

Additionally, it appears that this mess in the Himalayas is not lost patrols or communications glitches, but the fact that China is seriously poking at India.

China is a nuclear power which should give everyone pause. However, it should be remembered that even at the height of the cold war the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. were able to come to the table and ratify arms control treaties. Logically, China should be welcomed into the ongoing nuclear arms limitation/reduction treaty negotiations. And indeed they would be, if they hadn't rejected that offer from America and Russias with prejudice.

China, with the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal after the U.S. and Russia, has maintained it will not join in talks with Washington and Moscow on reducing its number of warheads.

On the upside: The CCP seems to be having its own walk away movement.

So there's hope that there will be a reckoning for the 共匪.

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June 25, 2020

A Forgotten Battle

Academia doesn't cover this sort of thing much, but it's deeply important history and a reminder of why the second amendment exists.

Another example of this sort of thing, albeit without the racial component was the 'Battle of Athens', in 1946.

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May 18, 2020

共匪 Or Why One Should Not Discuss Wild Pig Infestations in You Tube Comments

Look at that post title.

The blog is still here, because Me.Nu is not Alphabet affiliated.

Allow me to explain.

共匪 is a Chinese character compound that some of you will recognize as "wild boar" which is its Japanese meaning.

( Update: and by some of you, I mean morons like me. See comments)

Youtube is now deleting ANY comment that has that kanji compound in it.

"Rats! Now no one will know about my prize-winning rodeo pig!"

You see in Chinese, 共匪 is the pictograph of a slang term that means "Communist Bandit"*.

The paper says comments will be deleted within 15 seconds and having tried this myself, I note that it will indeed happen within 12 and 20 seconds of the comment being posted. That's some pretty impressive bot work.

Anyway, it's just another example of YouTube enthusiastically doing censorship for the disease spreading, organ jacking, genocidal, slavers, in the CCP.**

One more thing:

共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪共匪

* Probably 'cause commies are pigs.

** When you've got a left wing rag like the Independent calling out your communist atrocities you've jumped the shark with your murderous shenanigans.

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April 28, 2020

The Mob Comes For SakimiChan

Whatever one thinks of Mr Hambly or B.I.T.C., the situation they're reporting on seems to be very real, disturbing and I think we can agree, unacceptable.

Beautyphobes strike again.

It appears that SakimiChan, who (in addition to being a talented and popular artist) gives monthly tutorials on how to draw, has run afoul of the Guild Of Professionally Offended Karens.

Specifically, GOPOK is appalled that an old tutorial in artistry is focussed on rendering the wrong sort of body type.

Sakimi-chan was soon bombarded with criticism and harassment by like-minded art authoritarians, or ‘arthoritarians,’ with the harassment ranging from claims that she was a terrible artist because she did not ‘understand anatomy,’ to accusations of fatphobia based on a tutorial on drawing plus-sized bodies that did not conform to the critics’ very specific standards of representation, to outright calls for the continued bullying and harassment of Sakimi-chan:

Well that' sucks.

If you agree that these puritanical scolds ought to get bent, then follow Sakimichan on Pixiv and on Twitter: Support her quest to add beauty to the world on Patreon and buy her stuff on Gumroad and/or Art Station.

Here's what for her is a low res-piece of 'GravityGal' from her Pixiv...

Yes ladies, she draws dudes too...

...and if you're into it, yaoi, yuri...and interpretational furry.

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March 03, 2020

A List That Ought to Be Shared Far and Wide

Deep in the heart of Coronaville , it appears that Uyghers are being trucked in from their "re-education" camps to staff the factories in the plague zones that are either unsafe to operate due to contamination or have massive numbers of people out sick. The purpose of this appears to meet government mandated targets for production in an attempt to rescue an economy hammered by having its workforce immobilized by this disease. Of course if members of a demographic that the CCP is trying to exterminate are infected with a deadly pathogen, then, (presumably) they won't be required to be trucked back to the concentration camps. As far as the CCP is concerned, "two bats, one stone".

As vile as it is, this situation is actually worse than that.

The utilization of these people in the disease wracked regions is a current expedient, but it turns out that this pool of 80,000 or so workers has been used as a sort of slavery temp service since at least 2017.Long before COVID19 was unleashed upon the world, this cadre has been used by various firms to round out the labor pools at factories that include those of western companies set up in China.

This practice has been noted in a in-depth report by The Australian Strategic Policy Institute a PDF of which is here. It gives extensive citations regarding the practice and helpfully notes which companies have been taking advantage of this abhorrent service.

Abercrombie & Fitch,

Acer,

Adidas,

Alstom,

Amazon,

Apple,

ASUS,

BAIC Motor,

BMW,

Bombardier,

Bosch,

BYD,

Calvin Klein,

Candy,

Carter’s,

Cerruti 1881,

Changan Automobile,

Cisco,

CRRC,

Dell,

Electrolux,

Fila,

Founder Group,

GAC Group (automobiles),

Gap,

Geely Auto,

General Motors,

Google,

Goertek,

H&M,

Haier,

Hart Schaffner Marx,

Hisense,

Hitachi,

HP,

HTC,

Huawei,

iFlyTek,

Jack & Jones,

Jaguar,

Japan Display Inc.,

L.L.Bean,

Lacoste,

Land Rover,

Lenovo,

LG,

Li-Ning,

Mayor,

Meizu,

Mercedes-Benz,

MG,

Microsoft,

Mitsubishi,

Mitsumi,

Nike,

Nintendo,

Nokia,

The North Face,

Oculus,

Oppo,

Panasonic,

Polo Ralph Lauren,

Puma,

Roewe,

SAIC Motor,

Samsung,

SGMW,

Sharp,

Siemens,

Skechers,

Sony,

TDK,

Tommy Hilfiger,

Toshiba,

Tsinghua Tongfang,

Uniqlo,

Victoria’s Secret,

Vivo,

Volkswagen,

Xiaomi,

Zara,

Zegna,

ZTE.

I note that many of the western entities on this list not only profess their own piousness but frequently presume to lecture us on what they claim are our moral failings (usually sins involving mere words).

China is a brutal dictatorship, and a nuclear power. Our ability to affect their internal affairs are necessarily limited. However, while we can't stamp out all evil in the world, willingly engaging in this atrocity is another matter entirely.

This is a list that needs to get some distribution and attention.

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January 14, 2020

Good Grief

A lot of people have been talking about the situation between MxR Plays and Jukin. There's been a lot of sea-lawyering on this but here is some actual lawyering and, well, while it does not in any way change my opinion of whose the jerk and whose the victim it does indicate that the situation is much less cut and dried than people have been suggesting.

The process is the punishment.

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January 09, 2020

Meanwhile at C&Rsenal

I'll just leave this without comment except to say that C&Rsenal is (likely soon to be was) one of the better history channels out there. Watch it while you can. All their customer support contacts are now gone.

They've also been demonetized, so you can support them as I have for over a year on Patre...OH look! They're also on Subscribestar now!

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January 08, 2020

Protecting Their Viewers From The Dangers of Knowledge

While looking up stuff on the looming Virginia Gun Bills I clicked on a citation in the description of a You Tube video and I got this message...

^{Click here then click on the "Go to site tab"}

The site in question is this one, the Virginia Legislative Information System which gives legislative agenda for the General Assembly and the text of laws, proposed laws and proposed revisions to existing laws.

Youtube declared this dangerous.

Yeah.

It's been hard to find any recent news about this situation other than sanctimonious articles calling the sanctuary movement outside mischief makers though I suppose it's possible that there have simply been few developments since Mid - December. One of those is the fact that the sanctuary movement now stands at stands at 87 Second Amendment Sanctuary Counties, 11 cities and 18 towns. Governor Blackface-McBaby Butcher seems to be deliberately trying to incite an incident, and given how provocative he's being combined with all the AnCap aspies getting ready for "The Boogaloo" the left may indeed get their Horst Wessel moment.

How did we go from one of the most second amendment friendly states in the union to this? Virginia went Democrat (Barely, its really a matter of a very few seats in the legislature and the Governor) due to 4 or 5 things. There was a HUGE infusion of outside money, both from domestic leftwing groups and indirectly from people like Soros. A vast wave of immigration and refugees that were settled here during the Obama administration and a large number of domestic immigrants from California and the Northeast who having voted in policies that made their homes intolerable to live in moved here and kept their voting patterns Finally the ineptitude of the VA republican party, which, being so close to DC is basically the epicenter of the Republican establishment's anti-Trump wing. For years they talked of securing the border but now openly call anyone who does so racist. The bad blood that has developed between the party and its voters is hard to imagine. Finally the vast increase of the federal civil service under Obama resulted in Urban sprawl populated with people whose lifestyles depend on big government.

This situation has the potential to be a powder-keg and perception will be molded by Silicon Valley, and the dying husks of the news media and Hollywood. I'm not optimistic. I'm even less so given that having watched both CNN and Fox I note that they look like they are reporting from two alternate realities. Both of those boomer broadcasting services are closer to each other than the online forums which are ensconcing people in echo chambers. The U.S. Civil War was fought by people that had more in common.

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December 26, 2019

Meanwhile, Here in the Commonwealth of Virginia

Virginia's governor is looking to make a name for himself outside the minstrel show and child sacrifice circuits. The legislature, which recently went blue is looking to help him out with this, and in the process provide the rest of the nation with a helpful primer on what to expect from progressive electoral victories in the future.

Her earlier video which goes into detail about the incoming laws is here. It is on You-Tube and so likely to vanish in short order. There is a pithier but more profane backgrounder on this situation from Razorfist.

This situation is much more serious than a lot of people realize and has frightening potential to turn pear-shaped in very short order once these bills start getting passed in early to mid January. The volatile state of affairs is unlikely to be helped by bored aspie hotheads coming to the state with the intention of participating in the opening phases of what they eagerly refer to as "The Boogaloo".

If this thing comes to a head, it will not be catharsis, it will not be a bar fight, it will be hell on earth. Legislators are literally talking about using the national guard to go door to door to "enforce compliance" and there is an addendum to the odious bills being drafted that will allow all those county officials and sheriffs that support the sanctuary movement be removed from office (and presumably arrested). Partially in response, Tazewell County has voted unanimously to raise a Militia. It should be noted that this county mobilization is explicitly legal under the State's constitution for the same reason that our state's motto is Sic Semper Tyrannis.

Virginia is unlikely to be an example to the rest of the country, but, one way or another, we have an excellent chance to be a horrible, horrible warning.

Admiral Josh Painter has his usual insightful thoughts on the matter.

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December 09, 2019

A Primer on COPPA

We've mentioned this before, but here is an actual lawyer talking for just under an hour about the COPPA mess.

A reminder: Today is the deadline to send polite feedback to the FTC on this looming fiasco.

He provides some suggested talking points for creators here.
He also has some suggested talking points for viewers here.

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October 16, 2019

Blizzard Makes Amends

OK, I'm only being 86.8 percent facetious.

They did get slightly more consistent in their totalitarian douchebaggery.

Originally Blizzard opted not to ban the players when they first held up the sign during the October 8th competition, but American University elected to resign from competition anyway to stand in solidarity with Chinese player, blitzchung, who had been banned from competition for saying "Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our times!” during a post-game interview.

Kudos to these American University students for pushing this. They gave up a fair amount of money by standing on principles. They also are grounded enough to note in their statement that they are in North America and Blitz Chung is in Hong Kong.

Chambers said the team wants to remind people that Blitzchung risked far more than he and his teammates did to make a point.

"He risked real things,” Chambers said. "We risked getting banned from a tournament structure we don’t intend to compete in anymore. He lost his permanent Grandmasters spot, which is a money printer. He risked getting arrested by security services in Hong Kong. He actually is the hero here."

Note Blizzard's official announcement and public explanation on the matter which, which consists of an anonymous tweet and a quiet banning.

But hey; Blizzard is courageously putting to rest the notion that American Media Companies are not just tolerating totalitarianism in overseas markets, they are helping to bring the censorship here.

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October 13, 2019

Lion Rock is This Week's Suribachi

^{Note the protective plastic sheets being used to prevent the statue from being dinged by their huge brass balls.}

I'm sure it will be removed posthaste, but the Hong Kong activists, acting in the dead of night, managed to get their 'Lady Liberty' Statue to the peak of Lion Rock.

Previously the statue, which had been sculpted back in August, had resided at the Benjamin Franklin Center University Avenue.

The fact that there is a Benjamin Franklin Center in Hong Kong is surprising, a bit awesome, and should be cause for some reflection on this side of the pond. We have a lot to live up to.

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October 10, 2019

Of Quislelings, Collaborators and Business Decisions

A fairly comprehensive discussion of the current situation with Blizzard, the NBA, South Park and various other horror stories.

UPDATE: Aaaand we won't be using that video's cover image. The video is here. The hottest of bluecheck hot takes is at 26:51

Also: Extradition is now a swear word.

more...

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1 There is a part of me that wants Activision-Blizzard to get away with this fiasco, for the simple reason it will cause the Chinese to keep pushing the line and see at what point it becomes a bridge too far for Bobby Kotick and his C-suite subordinates. For example:

There has been a move over the last few years among the PRC's officialdom to crackdown on public display and expression of homosexuality on the Chinese social media and Internet. What if the next diktat that Activision-Blizzard gets told as a condition of allowing their games in the PRC, is that they can no longer show any gay or lesbian people on any of their streams? Will being told that they can not, say, show people like Overwatch League player Austin Wilmot (Who goes by the gamer tag Muma and plays on OWL's Houston Outlaws.) in any interviews, profiles, and special videos, be the bridge too far? Or will Activision-Blizzard throw even the homosexual community under the bus to get that sweet, sweet Chinese money?

At least if that happens, the contortions and knots Activision-Blizzard will go through will be even more entertaining to watch than the mess they have now.

Posted by: cxt217 at Thu Oct 10 23:10:25 2019 (LMsTt)

2 Many LGBTQ+ gamers I follow are insisting that their gaming streams are already being shut down on several streaming services, usually for content guideline violations. But considering how much of that is going on in a broader sense, I really can't say how much of it is targeted at that specific demographic.

On a related note, all the problems that the Chinese maker/programmer/Shenzen promoter Naomi Wu got into was predicated on the reveal of the open "secret" that she's (allegedly) bisexual. It's one of those things that she never says or advocates, but is well known. Because of her pro-Shenzen content, the Chinese government generally leaves her alone except when her sex life gets brought up. At least in her case, as long as she absolutely doesn't talk about or go out of her way to present herself in any kind of non-hetero relationship, they're happy to ignore her. But they've also made it clear that she's walking on the edge of a knife blade with regular police check-ins.
And, of course, I'm sure you've noticed the latest wrinkle that since Steve Kerr, NBA coach and former player and noted Lefty activist, has been attacked for his non-interest in commenting; Democrats have suddenly decided the NBA must be defended because Kerr is a reliable voice against Trump.

Posted by: Ben at Fri Oct 11 10:08:55 2019 (osxtX)

3 Well, the modern Democrat Party and media (But I repeat myself.) have never been shy of defending Communists...Even the kind that would knife them in the back when they get a chance (All of them.).

Posted by: cxt217 at Fri Oct 11 11:45:09 2019 (LMsTt)

4 Speaking of Naomi Wu, I just heard about a brilliant bit of kit she just put together, which projects an image on your face from the bill of a hat to foil facial recognition without wearing a mask.

Posted by: Mauser at Sat Oct 12 02:35:49 2019 (Ix1l6)

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October 09, 2019

A Guest Editorial From An Anonymous Blizzard Employee

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October 08, 2019

Tooting Our Own Horn

Regarding this weeks issue with China, censorship South Park, Anime, Blizzard, the NBA, Vans, Disney, videogame content, and, "global beauty standards", we were discussing this here back in June.

One thing in particular that's not getting a lot about of coverage about this censorship: The Blizzard link is to a 20 minute video has an interesting bit of background on how China's censors have been removing or white washing (literally!) black and other dark skinned characters in video games for some time.

This is a BIG deal and it deserves a lot more attention that the flurry of attention that is likely to be over by the end of the week.

For instance, this cancerous dynamic is actually the source of many of the "reactionism clauses" that are popping up in the Orwellian TOS's of tech and media companies.

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September 04, 2019

This is an Interesting, Though Likely Transitory Develpment

The Hong Kong protestors are using a peer-to-peer mesh broadcasting network that doesn't use the internet.

Is this like CB for cellphones?

I imagine that it could be jammed pretty easily, though actually eavesdropping on it might be a significant challenge, given good encryption.

Anyone here have any experience with these or thoughts on it?

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Hope ?

The extradition treaty is being formally withdrawn by the Hong Kong government.

Note that she refers to the 5 demands as being made by THE PUBLIC rather than something like running dog wreckers and saboteurs. While Mayor Lam nixes one of the demands (which is for what amounts to an internal affairs audit of the HK police) she yields on the Extradition Treaty and offers to parley on the rest. Which is significantly better than a bloodbath.

I'm still not optimistic, but there is now room for rational hope.

More on this here and here.

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August 31, 2019

Cute Little MMD Videos are Serious Business Apparently

If you can't read the text, it says;

This account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube's policy against spam, deceptive practices, and misleading content or other Terms of Service violations.

Still vague, but its way more than most people get in the way of explanation and has the added benefit to Google of being defamatory.

I assume it's a benefit. I don't quite grok Google's bidness plan but I assume it monetizes the despair and frustration of people unjustly wronged.

The guy just did MMD videos and as far as I could see wasn't selling or soliciting anything. His content was some cute Tohu skits, other shorts, a few racy Kancollie dance videos in a separate, 18+ playlist and some MMD how-to videos.

Oh well, its gone now.

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August 29, 2019

This Does Not Bode Well

Can anyone find a current Live-Stream or recent video upload from Hong Kong Island? Because You Tube doesn't have anything younger than a week old. I may be making a mistake in my search terms, but I've tried Hong Kong Live; Hong Kong Protest Live, Hong Kong Web Cam, Hong Kong Central Live (and Web cam) and the obsolete term Victoria City. Nothing turns up anything from after a week ago. I assume that Youtube is downselecting or blocking them but given the techweasel's general opaqueness, It's anyone's guess. I did find a few news reports on YT that were 9 hours old and a conspiracy theorist who claims that this is the first step by the BilderBurgers to cull the planets population but nothing about whats happening now.

Update: the Victoria Harbor webcam is down as I type this.

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August 21, 2019

Not Actually Surprising, But Discussions of Hong Kong Are Being Downvoted, Demonetized and Removed From the Internet

Vee also has a remedial review of why Epic Games Store is evil, but we knew that.

UPDATE: None of this stopped a bit of defiance from making an appearance at a video game tournament in Shanghai.

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