• Godric@lemmy.worldOP
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    15 hours ago

    Ah yes, presidents for life are traditionally very tolerant of internal powerbases not their own. Corruption charges have never been dishonestly brought against potential political rivals, great point!

    Unrelated, but I have a bridge to sell someone as wise and discerning as yourself!

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      presidents for life

      He’s been in office for 13 years. Angela Merkel served for longer as PM of Germany. Narendra Modi has been in office nearly as long, as President of India. FDR served for longer. Calm down.

      Unrelated, but I have a bridge to sell someone as wise and discerning as yourself!

      The thing about your type is that you only know how to bomb bridges. You’ve forgotten how to build them.

      • Godric@lemmy.worldOP
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        14 hours ago

        Yes, we measure freedom by how long someone is in power, not by small things like changing the constitution to abolish term limits or using the justice system against any and all rivals! Very smart!

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          Debunking three myths about the end of presidential term limits in China

          using the justice system against any and all rivals!

          It’s always dizzying to see western liberals insist the Chinese state is riddled with corruption, then blow their tops the moment anyone in China is identified and prosecuted for corruption.

          I keep coming back to Guo Wengui, an outspoken Chinese billionaire ex-pat who claimed he was being persecuted for his liberal politics and not involved in a string of high profile scams. Six years after his arrival, he was up on charges in New York for the exact same set of fraud charges he’d fled Beijing to avoid. And - almost on reflex - Guo went back to the same playbook, insisting that SDNY prosecutors were pursuing him for his political views and not his defrauding of clients. Changpeng Zhao has a near identical story.

          This is a tale as old as time in western politics. From Fulgencio Batista to María Corina Machado and Reza Pahlavi to Wernher von Braun, y’all vacuum up the trash. The US, the UK, and France absorb foreign crooks under the auspices of political refugee status. And then these slimeballs go right back to defrauding people in their new host nation.

          I wonder how many more Chinese dissidents Keir Starmer and Donald Trump will rescue after this latest purge.