Phil Cunningham Profile picture
金培力 CCTV FOLLIES at https://t.co/Ytx660bYM5 Fulbright, Knight, Nieman Fellow. @jinpeili.bsky.social @jinpeili@ieji.de

Mar 1, 2023, 24 tweets

CCTV FOLLIES 3.1 New kowtow for New Era

-Alexander Lukashenko bows to the master's master
-Pompous ceremony and ceremonial pomp
-Spirit of 20th sweeps over land
-Party school meet stresses key role of Party
-Putin speaks
-CCTV still gushing about Nord Stream
-Ray McGovern

Oh, how China has changed since those dark feudal days when foreign dignitaries had to pay ritual respects to the almighty emperor!

A ceremonial guard, the herald of trumpets and a 21-gun salute is the visiting dignitaries reward for complying with the emperor's wishes.

Lukashenko, a big man from a small country

What follows is monologue, not dialogue.
Xi speaks, Lukashenko listens.

He can be seen earnestly scribbling notes throughout the session like a good White Russian schoolboy.

The guest gets in a few words of his own, but you'll never see Xi with a pen in his hand.

Smug and all-knowing, he has nothing left to learn.

In other news...

"Xi called on Party schools to abide by the strictest political, academic, teaching and management standards, and serve as a deterrent against misconduct, a melting pot to build up Party consciousness and a bellwether in terms of exercising strict governance of the Party."

Wow.

Even when the sage pauses between words, the frantic note-scribbling continues apace in homage to his all-encompassing knowledge.

Meanwhile, Lukashenko pays his respects to those brave soldiers martyred in the defense of the motherland.

(China's answer to Yasukuni, the Martyrs' Memorial now includes those killed by "counterrevolutionary thugs" during the suppression of the "Tiananmen riot" of 1989)

The indomitable spirit of Xi's victorious 20th party congress sweeps across the land.

CCTV gets the privileged view inside the cockpit of a Russian jet launching missiles at carefully curated sites in Ukraine.

(cities and civilians not exempted)

It's a marvelous sight to behold as Russia's good airborne missiles whoosh off in search of bad Ukranian targets.

Ukraine fights back. But they would have been handily conquered by now were it not for all those Western-supplied weapons pouring in.

Putin says its NATO's war.

The best minds in Russia agree.
The US and NATO are the ruiners of Russian dreams.

The Pentagon is just using Ukraine to maintain its own sordid hegemony. That's why it keeps fueling the fire by giving Ukraine the tools it needs to defend itself.

Loyal CCTV viewers may recognize some of these bubble shots. I think the site stopped bubbling in September, but these shots get upped daily, having been regularly recycled since February 8

CCTV hasn't snagged an interview with the inimitable Seymour Hersh yet, but for now, a reasonable substitute.
Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst, is a trenchant critic of US government with credentials who says the US is ignoring the Hersh story in the hopes of making it go away

In other news, ethnic Mongolians, even party secretaries, are more than happy to don their traditional attire and get their subordinates to dance ecstatically to show their delight at being ruled by the CCP

(I think the song is, 'It's a Han world after all')

This broadcast is now over.
Zai jian!

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