No thanks to the Unmentionable Willard, the Chen Guangcheng situation is resolved, more or less, through patient negotiation

Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng must be grateful that his fate didn't depend on the right-wing liars and morons who used that fate for ultra-low-rent political theater.

For weeks, U.S. officials have kept secret many of the sensitive details about their negotiations over Chen's fate. But with the 40-year-old lawyer safely aboard a plane Saturday, senior administration officials described extensively for the first time their dealings with the Chinese -- how they struck the first deal only to have it fall apart, and how the negotiations almost collapsed again.

The officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, detailed their efforts in the midst of continuing criticism by Republicans and some human rights groups over their handling of the crisis. Those critics argue that U.S. officials were too trusting of the Chinese and failed to secure hard guarantees — assertions Obama administration officials refute.

-- from "Negotiations over dissident Chen Guangcheng offered rare glimpse into how China’s leadership operates, U.S. officials say," in the Washington Post

by Ken

It's important to note two things about "those critics" who "argue that U.S. officials were too trusting of the Chinese and failed to secure hard guarantees":

(1) They are either pathological liars or unprincipled scumbags. (Or possible unprincipled pathologically lying scumbags.) Poor them all in a Dumpster, squoosh them into a paste with mechanical squooshers for the purpose of chemical analysis, and in the whole fetid mass of pulp you won't find even microscopic trace amounts of intelligence, information, honesty, or decency. Some of them are simply too stupid to have any idea what that toxic bilge that oozes out of their pieholes means; the rest believe they are mandated by God to blither any lie they want as long as it furthers the cause of right-wing ignorance and indecency.

(2) President-in-waiting Willard Inc. worships the ground the above walk on. Or at any rate, he'll do pretty much anything to get them to speak approvingly of him.

Which means we're screwed.

No thanks to those rabble-rousing scum, the Chen Guangcheng situation seems to have been resolved, more or less. Some of the rabble-rousers know perfectly well that the notion of getting "iron-clad guarantees" from the Chinese government is on its face preposterous. The others are too stupid to know, and get some kind of primitive thrill rabble-rousing.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote (in "However horrible we thought Willard Inc. might be as president, it looks like he's going to be WORSE") about the dreadful cynicism involved. There's a temptation to think that knee-jerk popping off is portended here. I'm not so sure. As president I expect he would act more responsibly, but the point is that his first consideration is always going to be, "What's in it for me?" And if it's social thuggery, and that doesn't interfere with his bedrock 1% interests, he won't give a damn. And of course when it comes to pursuing those 1% interests, well, did you have any doubt?


UPDATE: THIS JUST IN FROM THE BOROWITZ REPORT

Blind Chinese Dissident Already Sick of Kardashians
Sisters' Omnipresence 'Troubling,' Says Chen

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) -- In his first interview since arriving in America, blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng told reporters today that he is grateful to be in the United States but is already "sick of these Kardashians."



"Who are they, and what do they do?" Chen asked. "I have asked these questions of many people, and no one will answer me. It seems to be some kind of state secret."



After being monitored for years by Chinese authorities, Chen said he finds the omnipresence of the Kardashians "troubling."



"It almost feels as though I have traded one kind of tyranny for another," he said.



The dissident said that if the Chinese government knew about the outsize role the Kardashians played in American life "they'd wonder what sort of country they'd bought."

Chen said that since he had just arrived in New York he would reserve judgment about other aspects of life in the United States, but he did leave reporters with one final observation: "This Facebook IPO seems like total bullshit to me."

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