That was the KMT’s position long after democratic reforms took hold, though. Like, Ma Ying-jeou. Unification was never a unanimous goal and independence isn’t a unanimous position now. It’s a tricky situation as you well know, which is to say Mr. Blunt Instrument is unlikely to untangle it to any satisfactory end if…

Aw shucks. Not 35, though, and unlike some people I actually respect the Constitution.

Amendment: derp, the DPP (independence-friendly party) won the general election for the first time in 2000, not 2016, though the KMT held a majority in the legislature.

Well, yeah, but that was and is the KMT’s official position (they still got Chiang’s bones sitting in Taoyuan waiting to be repatriated to Zhejiang), and they were perfectly happy to wait it out under what they felt was a continually improving status quo. Evidently the public (a goodly portion of which has never known…

Re: Trump, you’re right on, but as far as one-China is concerned--that “fiction” was also 100% Taiwan’s avowed position until literally six months ago. It’s a complicated situation, but it’s hardly the case that Taiwan has been clamoring for independence since 1949. They were clamoring for reunification for lo these…

Apparently Trump’s now leaning towards the CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, for State now. Tillerson is pals with Putin due to the whole oil industry thing.

False-flag operation, natch. Team Sane sends a crazy guy out to do a crazy thing claiming he’s working for Team Crazy, thus making Team Crazy look crazy to those who somehow weren’t clued in by all the crazy in Team Crazy’s brochure.

Duped or not, people are responsible for their own actions. All the evidence was there. Trump wasn’t even TRYING to hide the fact that he’s a psychopath who can’t say “good morning” without lying twice. They chose to ignore it. And if civilization survives this clown then each and every one of them should be shamed…

As tempting as it is to roll around on some high-grade, 1,000-thread count schadenfreude, it’s also hard to ignore one nagging sensation that’s been altogether absent this election season: Sympathy. As Bernie Sanders reminded us in this excellent interview with Matt Taibbi, many Trump voters supported their man…

Yeah, I’m not joining Team Commie anytime soon, but as far as this issue is concerned I’m definitely Team Lovelace. No contest. Nothing to do with politics but the Steve Jobs proposal makes as much sense as naming a street for Chesley Sullenburger before you name one for, say, Amelia Earhart.

Crazy number of Nobel/Pulitzer/Grammy combo winners out there, n’est-ce pas?

Gotta get ‘em hitched for that sweet sweet CR1 preference, obv.

Well, I mean, I am literally leaving the country but that’s been in the works for a year, and Trump being elected makes me slightly wish I wasn’t going where I’m going.

Travel alerts and travel WARNINGS are not the same thing. A travel alert is a general “be sensible because shit might happen” (issued routinely during, say, hurricane/typhoon season). A travel warning is a “don’t go here because shit is currently happening” (issued during an actual hurricane or typhoon). You can’t…

Because she’s a woman, duh.

Not quite. Both houses would have to agree to throw out any electoral votes. If the votes are thrown out, the count proceeds as though the votes weren’t part of the enterprise in the first place, so the threshold for victory drops correspondingly. Throw out 20 electoral votes and the required number to win drops to…

International Men’s Day—not to be confused with “every day, ever, throughout the history of human civilization”—is special because on this day, we sing the manly anthem.

Foreign affairs summary for January 21, 2017:

Xenophobia, racism, and misogyny in foreign policy affect this country.

This comparison is unfair to turtles, who are innocent and adorable.