China's Second Cultural Revolution.     In last month's diary I passed some remarks about the rise of xenophobia in China since I visited in 2019 and enjoyed such warm hospitality from the likes of college presidents.

I should have made it clear—I vaguely knew, and several Chinese friends have removed the vagueness for me—that late 2019 was actually the tail end of the "open" China of the early 21st century.

In September 2019 a short-stay visitor could be warmly welcomed, even by people in authority. However, the government had already made it difficult-to-impossible for foreigners to live in China, unless very well-connected and obediently enthusiastic about Xi Jinping's leadership.

We have witness to this from vloggers Winston Sterzel ("SerpentZA") and Matthew Tye ("Laowhy86") below.

Both lived for many years in China without much trouble: Sterzel for 14 years, Tye for 10. Both speak fluent Chinese and know the country very well. Both left earlier in 2019—before my trip, I mean. Tye seems to have got out just in time, with the secret police on his heels. They tell their stories here (Sterzel) and here, here, and here (Tye).

The ice sheets were already advancing well before I showed up two years ago. The early years of this century—up to Xi Jinping's re-election as General Secretary in 2017, as best I can judge—were an interglacial period.

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The curse of crappy websites.     I had the idea to buy some bitcoin using my PayPal account. I logged in to Coinbase and set up the buy. Coinbase obediently logged me into PayPal, which sent me this window…on which nothing worked. The controls were all utterly inert. When I clicked on them, nothing happened.

After ten minutes of fiddling, I got a PayPal employee on the phone. He took all my details. "Ah," he said, "yours is a business account." Yes, so what? "We don't allow crypto purchases from business accounts." Oh.

I'm sure that makes sense, although I can't be bothered to figure out why (and am not much interested in knowing); but why did I have to go to all the time-wasting trouble of getting a featherless biped on the phone in order to learn it?

I spent thirty years in programming and systems design back in the mainframe era. In the systems I coded and supervised, if a user did something he shouldn't have, the system let him know by means of an  E-R-R-O-R  M-E-S-S-A-G-E, pronounced ['erə 'mesɪʤ].

Apparently this is an unknown concept

Earlier: U.S. Refugee Program A Chaotic Mess As Afghans Flood The Zone

Back in August, as the Biden administration prepared to dump 82,000-plus Afghan refugees onto U.S. soil, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security assured Americans that it was "working around the clock to conduct the security screening and vetting of vulnerable Afghans before they are permitted entry into the United States" and taking "multiple steps to ensure that those seeking entry do not pose a national security or public safety risk."

We were told that "the rigorous screening and vetting process, which is multi-layered and ongoing, involves biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals from DHS and DOD, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and additional intelligence community partners."

Biden's DHS touted a thorough review of "fingerprints, photos, and other biometric and biographic data for every single Afghan before they are cleared to travel to the United States." Afghan nationals, we were told, "undergo a primary inspection when they arrive at a U.S. airport, and a secondary inspection is conducted as the circumstances require."

In September, thoroughly vetted Afghan refugee Bahrullah Noori, 20, was charged in Wisconsin with three counts of engaging in sexual acts with a minor, including one allegedly involving the use of force, plus a fourth count of attempting to engage in such acts with a minor while using force. The crimes were allegedly committed against 12- and 14-year-old boys

See, earlier: CHARLOTTESVILLE UNTOLD: Why Terry McAuliffe, Not Jason Kessler, Should Be On Trial

SINES V KESSLER (that’s me), the lawfare civil case alleging a “violent racist conspiracy” by organizers of the 2017 Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, ended with a decidedly mixed result. As the permit holder for the event, and the lead defendant, I’ll help break down exactly what it all means.

We apparently came within a hair of a mistrial being declared on everything except the claims against James Fields, driver of the car that drove into a crowd of Antifa blocking his way out of the city, resulting in one fatality. Jurors had deadlocked for three straight days of deliberations. What I’m told is that we probably had three jurors on our side who were refusing to find liability for the defendants. It should have been four but we lost juror 210—who testified that he suffered anti-white violence growing up in Hawaii—after someone at his son’s school contracted COVID.

According to one source, a really angry black female juror was the ringleader against UTR defendants, haranguing the other jurors until they agreed to overall liability on Count 3, and on count 4 for the few defendants involved, which they initially opposed.

Even though this compromise was apparently made to inflict some punishment on the defense, the ultimate judgment amounts were decidedly underwhelming.

In fact, Fox TV legal correspondent Seema Iyer, who attended the entire four-week trial, described the verdict as a “HUGE FAIL” for Integrity First, the organization financing the litigation. The video below is a MUST WATCH:

Earlier, by Michelle Malkin: Black Lies Matter

According to Gallup, on the issue of crime, President Joe Biden is 18 points underwater. While 57% of Americans disapprove of how he is handling crime, only 39% approve.

Biden's dismal rating was recorded before the verdict came in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial—not guilty on all five counts—a verdict Biden declared had made him "angry."

Biden's rating also came before career criminal Darrell Brooks, free on $1,000 bail after running over his girlfriend, drove his Ford Escape into the Waukesha Christmas parade, killing six and injuring 60.

Earlier: Trump Was Right Again... This Time About Thomas Jefferson

The statue of Thomas Jefferson that has been in the New York City Hall for 187 years (it was a gift of Jewish naval officer Uriah Phillips Levy, a fan of Jefferson's views on religious liberty, in 1834) was removed recently.

It was removed at the request of Black, Latino and Asian Caucus cochair I. Daneek Miller (D-Queens), the lone practicing Muslim on New York City Council, who said he wanted the statue gone because "it doesn’t represent contemporary values."

This is Mr. Miller:

While Mr. Miller's motives are obvious, in that "contemporary values" means hatred of white people, America, and its history, the actual decision to remove the statue was made by New York's unelected Public Design Commission:

Keri Butler, executive director of the Public Design Commission that voted to banish the statue, at first tried to block the press from witnessing its removal. Butler relented after members of the mayor’s office and City Council intervened.

The commission also attempted to vote on the statue’s removal without a public hearing on the controversial move until The Post revealed the plan.

[Thomas Jefferson statue removed from City Hall after 187 years, by Julia Marsh, NY Post, November 23, 2021]

Who are the Commissioners? Well, they are eight women and only three men. Most of their ancestors were not in America when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.  The Commissioners include two Hispanics, one black guy, and  a very large number of Jews. And there's not one white Anglo-Saxon Protestant male.