Book Punch – the store previously punished for serving sake at a book-reading and holding Spanish classes – gets fined again for hosting a stand-up comedy event last year. Was it a ‘staged event’ even though the venue did not have a stage?
[Magistrate Andrew Mok] said he did not think “stage performance,” as stated in the ordinance, applied only to performances with a stage.
Mok said that [store owner] Pong showed no remorse during the trial, and therefore, there was no reason to give a lighter penalty. But he noted that Pong’s attitude during the trial was “pragmatic,” and that his past convictions all had to do with promoting culture.
So if you ever hold a standup night – show remorse! (Is the magistrate showing a slight queasiness, imposing fines on a bookshop owner for ‘promoting culture’?)
(Great Moments in Hong Kong Law Enforcement continues with the arrest of a 12-year-old kid for mixing vinegar and baking soda, which the police deem to be manufacturing explosives.)
The Hong Kong government denies that it has anything to do with the case of its London Economic and Trade Office manager, who has been found guilty of breaking the UK National Security Act by assisting a foreign intelligence service. Fair enough – but which foreign power was he working for?
The (probably paywalled) NYT summarizes the proceedings so far at the Wang Fuk Court fire inquiry…
Testimony presented at hearings suggest that alarms had been deactivated, windows removed from evacuation staircases and water tanks drained. When trapped residents called for help, they found emergency hotlines were quickly overwhelmed.
…Before the fire, residents had contacted the authorities to express concerns about the foam boards, which were meant to protect the windows during the work.
Emails and phone calls showed that a Fire Department employee said the agency was not responsible for regulating window coverings. The Housing Bureau investigated but failed to take action.
…WhatsApp messages revealed that a Housing Bureau employee tipped off the renovation consultant about an inspection the day before it was to be conducted. The consultant then notified the contractor, whose workers installed fire-safe netting — but only in the areas that were to be inspected. The rest of the netting later turned out to be substandard.
…The hearings are taking place in a heightened political environment. In December, Hong Kong’s government condemned “anti-China” forces for criticizing the response to the tragedy.
A lot of buck-passing and collusion. Imagine what this process would be like if we had independent lawmakers, civil society and Apple Daily.
Bloomberg on Donald Trump’s forthcoming visit to Beijing…
US President Donald Trump says he will raise the case of imprisoned Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai when he meets President Xi Jinping in China next week. It might seem implausible that Beijing would consider releasing the pro-democracy businessman, an arch foe who feuded with the ruling Communist Party for decades, only three months after he was given a 20-year sentence on national security charges. The obstacles are formidable and shouldn’t be underestimated. But there are enough reasons to think that a deal isn’t out of the question.
…Beijing has vilified Lai for years as a “running dog” and “pawn” of Western forces, but at this point it would surely be to the Chinese government’s advantage to release him. For one thing, it has won the battle over Hong Kong. The city’s people have been cowed and large-scale demonstrations akin to the 1 million-plus who flooded the streets in 2019 are now inconceivable. Releasing the businessman, along with other peaceful democracy activists who remain incarcerated such as trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan, barrister Chow Hang-tung and former journalist and Legislative Council candidate Gwyneth Ho, would project magnanimity — and confidence.
…China has already paid a price for the Hong Kong crackdown, in the form of loss of trust and reputation, removal of the city’s special economic treatment, its biggest population exodus on record and sanctions on central government and local officials. Calling a halt would remove the main irritant to better relations. Has the time not come to declare victory?
From CSIS, a massive analysis of the Iran war’s impact on China.
Dr David Owens of Owens Trodd and Partners in Central (my physio/cupping place) writes on how athletes have managed to run a marathon – 26.2 miles – in under two hours. Brilliant geeky stuff…
This demands sustaining approximately 21 kilometers per hour while operating at the threshold of human cardiovascular and metabolic capacity. The physiological requirements—VO2 max around 80 ml/kg/min, and lactate threshold around 90% of VO2 max—appeared to represent the outer limits of human adaptation.
Shoes have a surprising amount to do with it.
“…but at this point it would surely be to the Chinese government’s advantage to release him (Jimmy Lai).”
And therefore they won’t. It would be a show of weakness at a time Xi is working especially hard to project and maintain his power as talks of PLA coups, weak economy and citizen dissatisfaction abound. Having the Epstein BFF there in Beijing with his blowhard gobbledygook gives Winnie all the more reason to look tough and stand firm.
OMG, mixing white vinegar and baking soda is the best way to keep handkerchiefs and flannels white as well as cleaning carbonised pots and pans!
Is cleanliness now a crime in HK?
Re vinegar and baking soda. The Chinese language TV channels obviously are not showing programme that provide green house cleaning tips, like ‘Clean It, Fix It’ with the redoubtable Maxine Dwyer tacking the most daunting household grunge with the mix.
Otherwise the cops would know that at best the outcome is some fizzle.
Oh forgot, wide adoption of such cheap and effective cleaning materials would reduce retail sales and we cannot have that.
Trump being trump, throwing everything on the table.
That should be an easy one to take out for, I dunno, letting him build a trump golf course in Shanghai
@Probably: “What is the charge? Eating a meal?? A succulent Chinese meal???”
@Stu
Tell me you know nothing about Mr. Trump, golf or Shanghai without telling me you know nothing about Mr. Trump, golf or Shanghai.
@Steve
“Mr. Trump.” Ah, it’s good to see that our resident fan of pedophiles, serial rapists, financial felons, chronic liars, cheap bastards, functional illiterates, and reflexive fascists has checked in.
@steve
Mr. Bannon’s nothing if not consistent.
TDS is real. Seek help.
Baking soda & vinegar is what one uses to polish plastic headlamp lenses that have been in the sun too long…
The coproaches can do you for defective headlamps if they don’t do you for national insecurity…
But if you’re on a pushbike…
https://loco.hk/en/bike/faq
You’re told you only need a light at night – which isn’t what the coproaches say when ticketing my Muslim neighbours in the food delivery trade (pushbikes apparently need to be fitted with lights even during day time, even though they do not need to be turned on).
Anyone riding a pushbike is capable of making noise that could alert others to the presence of said pushbike. But a pushbike without a bell is unroadworthy (something else that my Muslim neighbours have enjoyed).
It seems it’s all about finding a way to maximise nastiness.
@Steve Bannon
“TDS is real.”
Tell me about it!
https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/not-a-golden-calf-trump-erects-gold-statue-of-himself
Your link provided a good example of institutional TDS.
The sneering article said, “The statue depicts Trump raising his fist, reminiscent of the moment he avoided a bullet whilst on the campaign trail in Butler”, when it should have read, “The statue depicts Trump raising his fist defiantly, reminiscent of the moment immediately after he was struck by a would-be assassin’s bullet whilst on the campaign trail in Butler.”
Of course, TDS sufferers wouldn’t even notice the deliberate lie.
Steve-O nailed it. The derangement lives entirely within the cult. That’s how cults work.
Mr Bannon
I hve nevr previosuly heard of TDS so in the modern way googled it.
I am faced with:
Tax Deducted at Source
or
Testesterone Deficiency Syndrome.
Let me guess
Mr. Bannon probably bought one of those Trump T1 phones that hasn’t been delivered yet, so he’s displacing his frustration on others.
@peace & love
It would not be a surprise to learn that the hermetically sealed information bubble in which most TDS sufferers reside, bounded by the FT, the Guardian, the Economist, the BBC, the NYT, Washington Post, NBC, CBS & CNN, wouldn’t even acknowledge the existence of the ailment.
Ignorance is bliss.
Bunion rehashes one phrase when trolling on here, and just interchanges the topic/name /issue to suit whoever he’s trolling,
When someone takes the bait, he gives it the TDS malarkey.
At least Rectum 4skin had an inkling of original thought.
Sweet Penny on a post card, Steve, just let it go. We can see you’ve drunk the koolaid so often and so deeply that you couldn’t find your way out of FDT’s hindquarters with a map. TDS is you, dude. Own it.
You’re also clearly a media illiterate, as you are unable to 1) distinguish among the media sources you list with regard to their relative historical complicity with enabling Trumpism to become ascendant (i.e., it is a truism that ALL mainstream media serve the forces of capital to some degree), and 2) the actual, on the ground, right-now complicity by some of those operators, thanks either to cowardice or to their acquisition by right wing billionaires who’ve attached their wagon to the increasingly dessicated. purulent (learned that word from Monty Python ages ago) carcass of your demented golden calf.
Most pathetically, you and the rest of the cult think that Trump and the one per cent cabal that back him are going to make room on their wagon for the likes of the sub-super rich like you. That is TRULY deranged.
@steve
Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid!
Everything you say about me applies equally well to you and your co-religionists.
Get a new thought and let some air in.
Self-satisfied lemmings defending globalisation and the WEF.
Martha Carney is your hero.
You probably think climate change is an existential threat to humanity, too.
Widen your information sources, man.
Hey Bunion: Everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to YOU.
Nyaa nyaaaa nyaaaaaaaa!!!
Martha Carney? Who?
And thanks so much for the climate change rib tickler. Your progeny and theirs will be cursing old Steve’s failure to get off his loathsome, spotty behind (same Python, such a classic riff) and do something.