PeterKa

Latest revision as of 06:42, November 7, 2023

This user is part of the CP Civility Association.

Here are my American Thinker articles: https://www.americanthinker.com/author/peterkauffner/

Back from Hong Kong

I'm back from Hong Kong and it was certainly quite a week to be there (Oct. 1-7). Hong Kong was once a British colony, but it has been ruled by China since 1997. The city has a unique "one country, two systems" form of government that allows a British-style legal system to flourish despite the fact that the local government now works for the Chinese Communist Party. There have been pro-democracy protests in the city since an extradition bill was proposed four months ago. The protests mushroomed after Carrie Lam, the city's hapless chief executive, issued a decree banning masks on Oct. 5. Vandalism was so intense that the entire subway system had to closed for the first time in its history. Not only that, but the city's High Court is likely to overturn the decree.
As if protests and tear gas weren't enough, Hong Kong faces another serious problem: The city is experiencing one of the largest housing bubbles in economic history. Rising land values make the rich richer and leaves young couples unable to afford homes of their own. Everyone wants a piece of the action, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi has a villa in Hong Kong at Repulse Bay. When I talked to the protesters, I suggested that they take a look at that.

Dim sum is what Hong Kongers eat for breakfast.
Jenny Bakery in Mirador Mansion makes the city's favorite cookies.
You get a magnificent view of the harbor aboard the white and green Hong Kong ferry.
I stand in front of a pro-democracy march in Wanchai District, site of some of the most serious rioting. Masks provide protection against tear gas.
This barricade was built in Mongkok District on Oct. 5. Although defended by a catapult, the police had little trouble removing it.
This bilingual poster looks at the fraught relationship between the protesters and Mass Transit Railway, the city's subway provider. The Hong Kong language, which you can see on the left, is not intelligible to mainland Chinese.
The subway system has been overwhelmed by vandalism. This pane is at Mei Foo Station.
The "local government" headed by Carrie Lam is a front. This tower in Sai Ying Pun is the city's real center of power. It is the "secret" headquarters of the Communist Party.

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-Ever wondered how Wikipedia gets rid of unwanted conservatives? They have it down to a science. Liberal editors will harass the victim until he reacts. Then they use his reaction as the basis for a complaint to Administrator's Noticeboard/Incidents (ANI). Established liberal editors rarely get sanctioned for harassing a conservative, the situation has to be resolved somehow, so the result is often a "topic ban" for the conservative. At this point, Team Harassment smells blood, and more people get involved. They accuse the victim of violating the topic ban. He generally has to stop editing for an extended period, and he may even be banned altogether. If he doesn't fall for any of these gags, the matter can always be referred to a trollocratic clique of senior admins who act as feminist enforcers. This clique has extraordinary powers that are not documented anywhere in the guidelines, at least as far as I am aware. They hand out extended blocks without prior warning, make up their own rules, and skip ANI.
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-At one point, I was a top Wikipedia contributor with over 33,000 edits and a clean record. (I'm "Kauffner" on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_Wikipedians_by_number_of_edits this list].) I had been editing for eight years. It's not like one day I decided to go on a rule breaking rampage. I kept doing my thing while old editors who were my friends moved on, new editors with chips on their shoulders arrived, and Arbcom shifted various policies. In June 2012, I was blocked by MSGJ, a newbie admin, for "your [[diacritics]] crusade," as he put it. The rationale for the block was so thin that Jenks24, another admin who was a friend of mine, immediately unblocked me. But having friends in high places turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. This "wheel warring" episode unleashed a wave of indignation from the brotherhood of the admins. I was brought before ANI several times. Each time, I argued circles around Team Harassment and escaped sanction. After all, I was implementing a guideline for Vietnamese titles which I had written myself, and this guideline conformed to higher-level Wikipedia policies. The reason Wikipedians fight over diacritics is because of an Arbcom decision in June 2012 in which a user named GoodDay was topic banned after he was harassed by pro-diacritic editors. Editors who see this decision as a vindication of bullying try to extend it broadly. We are not talking about people who have any particular interest in Vietnam or its diacritics.
+Here are my ''American Thinker'' articles: https://www.americanthinker.com/author/peterkauffner/
-A few months later, Jenks24 stopped editing and Team Harassment set up a trap for me. One member started blanking articles that I'd written. I reverted the blanking and was blocked for "edit warring" by Ponyo, a high ranking admin and oversighter. The edit warring guideline classifies article blanking as a form of "obvious vandalism," so I don't see how what I did could be considered edit warring. Even if I was edit warring, it is most unusual for an admin to block a user without warning. The message explaining the block refers back to the "diacritics crusade" block from a year earlier. So I don't think it was primarily about edit warring, or even diacritics. Perhaps Ponyo was more interested in [[User:PeterKa/Filipacchi | this essay]].
+==Back from Hong Kong==
+I'm back from Hong Kong and it was certainly quite a week to be there (Oct. 1-7). Hong Kong was once a British colony, but it has been ruled by China since 1997. The city has a unique "one country, two systems" form of government that allows a British-style legal system to flourish despite the fact that the local government now works for the Chinese Communist Party. There have been pro-democracy protests in the city since an extradition bill was proposed four months ago. The protests mushroomed after Carrie Lam, the city's hapless chief executive, issued a decree banning masks on Oct. 5. Vandalism was so intense that the entire subway system had to closed for the first time in its history. Not only that, but the city's High Court is likely to overturn the decree.<br/>As if protests and tear gas weren't enough, Hong Kong faces another serious problem: The city is experiencing one of the largest housing bubbles in economic history. Rising land values make the rich richer and leaves young couples unable to afford homes of their own. Everyone wants a piece of the action, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi has a villa in Hong Kong at Repulse Bay. When I talked to the protesters, I suggested that they take a look at that.
-After I was blocked, an ANI discussion could be held without my participation. There is of course a rule against this sleazy tactic. To bring up the same set of complaints repeatedly is called "forum shopping." In fact, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Archive252#Ban_proposal:_Kauffner the discussion which resulted in my being banned] consists almost entirely of references to previous discussions. There aren't even any specific accusations against me, much less diffs to support them. Proper procedure is to appeal an ANI finding to Arbcom. One of the comments in the banning discussion accuses me of using multiple accounts to vote multiple times in Requested Move discussions. This claim is just nonsense. In fact, the issue had never even come up earlier. The comment was made by a drive-by editor who admits that he does not understand the situation. Yet it is now treated as a more or less official explanation of why I was banned.
+<gallery>
+File:Dim sum.jpg|Dim sum is what Hong Kongers eat for breakfast.
-As an ex-Wikipedian, editors are now free to post personal attacks against me. They even give out my real name, supposedly a big no-no under WP:OUTING. In an Orwellian twist, the past is fair game too. Some oversighter has gone through the discussion archive and removed my most effective arguments.
+File:Cookies from Jenny Bakery.jpg|Jenny Bakery in Mirador Mansion makes the city's favorite cookies.
+File:Hong Kong Ferry.jpeg|You get a magnificent view of the harbor aboard the white and green Hong Kong ferry.
-==See also==
+File:Pro-democracy march in Wanchai, Hong Kong.jpeg|I stand in front of a pro-democracy march in Wanchai District, site of some of the most serious rioting. Masks provide protection against tear gas.
-* Read my [[User:PeterKa/Filipacchi | notorious parody of the gender categories bruhaha]]
+File:V-Barracade across Nathan Road in Mongkok.jpg|This barricade was built in Mongkok District on Oct. 5. Although defended by a catapult, the police had little trouble removing it.
-* [[User:PeterKa/Arbcom | My Arbcom appeal]] has a blow-by-blow account of what happened to me.
+File:Poster on why attack subway.jpg|This bilingual poster looks at the fraught relationship between the protesters and Mass Transit Railway, the city's subway provider. The Hong Kong language, which you can see on the left, is not intelligible to mainland Chinese.
-* I wrote a brief introduction to [[diacritics]].
+File:Glass broken in Hong Kong protests.jpeg|The subway system has been overwhelmed by vandalism. This pane is at Mei Foo Station.
-* Here is [[User:PeterKa/Diacritics_proposal | a compendium of the arguments]] that I use to convince Wikipedians to write in English.
+File:China_Liaison_Office,_Hong_Kong.jpeg|The "local government" headed by Carrie Lam is a front. This tower in Sai Ying Pun is the city's real center of power. It is the "secret" headquarters of the Communist Party.
+</gallery>
 ==What I have written==
-*[[Nazarene]]‎, [[J. Frank Norris]], [[Peter Ruckman]], [[Textus Receptus]], [[sensus plenior]], [[divine accommodation]], [[Yule]], [[Johannine Comma]], [[Codex Washingtonianus]], [[Star of Bethlehem]], [[Fundamentalism]], [[Andy McIntosh]]
+*[[Nazarene]]‎, [[J. Frank Norris]], [[Peter Ruckman]], [[Textus Receptus]], [[sensus plenior]], [[divine accommodation]], [[Yule]], [[Johannine Comma]], [[Codex Washingtonianus]], [[Star of Bethlehem]], [[Fundamentalism]], [[Tertiary]], [[Andy McIntosh]], [[Akhenaten]], [[Tutankhamun]], [[Nefertiti]]
-*[[Diacritic]], [[Nuclear option]], [[Star_Trek_franchise#Political_themes]], [[Tang Tuyet Minh]], [[Roman Warm Period]], [[No Gun Ri]], [[Vietcong]], [[Republic of China]], [[rule of law]], [[YAD06]], [[Girls' Generation]], [[Xia dynasty]], [[Shang dynasty]].
+*[[Republicans (Jeffersonian)]],  [[Classical Chinese]], [[Empress Dowager Cixi]], [[diacritic]], [[Mandarin]], [[Nuclear option]], [[Star_Trek_franchise#Political_themes]], [[Tang Tuyet Minh]], [[Roman Warm Period]], [[No Gun Ri]], [[Vietcong]], [[Republic of China]], [[rule of law]], [[YAD06]], [[Girls' Generation]], [[Xia dynasty]], [[Shang dynasty]]