create a market on worm.wtf and bet on it
Against human rights…they abuse the system for sure.
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The TPP claims there are over 80k, but most people are saying it’s around 10k. I think 80k is stretching it too far.
Anyway, the real battleground is at the polling stations. Nothing can be changed until the KMT and the TPP lose their hold on the legislature.
Ethan Gutmann recounts his interview with Ke Wenje when he went to China to negotiate price for his transplant business, and the Chinese officials agreed to give him local price, and only the healthy organs from Falungong.
If one Chinese doctor has extracted 10k people in a decade, that’s say he’s an extreme anomaly and out of say 100 doctors who do extractions, they only average to do 1/10 of extractions that one crazy doctor does, that’ still 11k per year. There are about 3M Uyghurs in labor camps, say only 1/3 of them are suitable for harvest, the CCP will go through them in 90 years. Though, most of them will no longer be suitable for harvest half way through. That’s also based on figures from 10 years ago… Don’t know if the operation has been ramped up.
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For those really want to understand have the trials been fair to Ko or not, the Plain Law Movement has a panel that went over all the details. It’s in Mandarin though.
Basically, when combing over the excel file that Ko kept as a record for donations, everything listed on there, except for the 150K from Shen, were collaborated by witnesses. In the past, some judges would take that fact and consider the 15M to also be a fact, but the judges in Ko’s trial took a more strict interpretation and didn’t list the 15M as fact.
So for straight up corruption charges, what’s left is the 2.1M that Shen gave to Ko, which had message exchanges between Zhu Yahu (朱亞虎 ) and Li Wenzhong (李文宗) proving it was quid pro quo.
For a public official who directly or indirectly seeks to gain illegal benefits from a function under his control or supervision for himself or others, the Taipei city has already won the case against Shen’s Living Mall and the Core Pacific Group, but Ko still signs an order to find a way to give an additional 20% bonus floor area ratio to the CPG.
Then there are around 6M worth of political donations that never went into the TPP’s political donation account, and is still unaccounted for.
Ko also founded the Muke (木可) company, which he often used as an in-between agent for him and TPP’s political donation account. The political donation account would pay Muke for whatever reason, and a large part of the payment would be transfered from Muke to Ko’s private accounts. His own foundation has similar issues.
The same goes for Ko’s concert that charged 8,800 NTD per ticket. Ko insists the concert was not a political event, so money made from the concert shouldn’t count as political donation, and therefore it’s ok for him to pocket parts of the proceeds. The judges concluded the ticket value isn’t equivalent for the 1 song performance that Ko gave, and people paid the ticket to support Ko’s presidential campaign, so it was a political event and the proceeds were political donations.
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I get that Ko was being a bit dodgy with how he accounted for the political donations.
But it is my understanding that almost all politicians would have dodgy accounting of funds, no?
Also I recall James Soong used to run every four years and have plenty of political donation money left over when he would quit the races or whatever, what happened to that money ?
I think Ko is a bit odd though. Transferring money directly to his private accounts. Seems not so smart 
.
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No.
The Political Donations Act strictly regulates that all political donations should go into the monitored account. In case of candidates accepting donations but didn’t end up running for whatever reasons, they are responsible for handing over accounting details and returning donations to the Control Yuan in 3 months.
As for candidates that won or lost in the race:
內政部則表示已依法登記為候選人者，不論是否當選或是落選，收受的政治獻金如果有賸餘，可以在申報日後4年內作為支付當選後與其公務有關的費用、捐贈政治團體或其所屬政黨等支用；4年內如果沒有支用完畢，則應辦理繳庫。
If there are unused political donations, the candidate can choose to use the fund to pay for public affairs, donate to political organizations, or their own political party within 4 years. Any funds unused after 4 years shall be turned in to the government.
Most candidates in the past would either donate the remains to charity, or transfer it to another government monitored party account, which was something Ko failed to do.
He followed the law, and in his last race he spent way more money than he received.
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The Frozen Garlic blog has a new post giving an English translation (and the original Mandarin) of a detailed explanation of the ruling and the reasons for it in relatively simple language by political commentator Wen Lang-tung 溫朗東.
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Great article. It explains why Core Pacific City’s actions were illegal in plain language, and shows why the first Urban Planning Committee formed by experts and rank-and-file officials blocked it. Then after a secret meeting with CPS’ CEO Shen Qingjing, Ko instructed officials to figure out a way to make it happen, and then removed anyone in the way who wouldn’t comply.
Need to upgrade to paying account to get the full song, but I think that’s good enough.
Lyrics generated by Prompt:
(Verse 1)
Walking down the street in the Taipei sun
Thought he was the doctor, the chosen one
White robe clean, or so he said
But the paper trail’s turning a deep, deep red
Seventeen years is a long, long time
For a “capable” man in a legal climb
Core Pacific’s rising, the floor plan’s set
Two million reasons he won’t forget!(Chorus - Call and Response / Crowd Chant)
(Call) He’s capable but evil!
(Response) That’s what he said!
(Call) The pillars of justice!
(Response) Keep a level head!
Muka to the pocket, donations on the run
The doctor’s diagnosis: Justice has won!(Verse 2)
The prosecutor stands with a steady hand
Liao says the pillars protect the land
Don’t demonize the process, don’t play the part
When the quid pro quo is a work of art
Political accounts? No, keep ‘em private
If there’s a loophole, he’s gonna try it
MOICA declarations? Just a piece of paper
For the master of the urban planning caper!(Bridge: Offbeat organ skank intensifies, syncopated guitar upstrokes)
He says the system’s out to get him now
But the ledger shows exactly when and how
From the committee room to the private stash
It’s a ska-beat rhythm of cold, hard cash!(Chorus - Call and Response / Crowd Chant)
(Call) He’s capable but evil!
(Response) That’s what he said!
(Call) The pillars of justice!
(Response) Keep a level head!
Muka to the pocket, donations on the run
The doctor’s diagnosis: Justice has won!(Outro: Brass stabs fade into a final rimshot snare)
Justice has won!
(Chant) Do your job! Do your job!
(Fade out with tape saturation hiss)
Prompt:
Former Taipei City mayor, Ko Wen-je, was convicted of corruption and embezzlement and given a sentence of 17 years. Ko accused the prosecutors of being “capable but evil”, and the prosecutor, Liao Yan-jun said “Judge, prosecution, and defense are the 3 major pillars of the legal system, everyone has to do their job to achieve justice, and we shouldn’t demonize anyone in the legal process.”
The judges found Ko resending the Core Pacific’s illegal land development plan to the Urban Planning Committee after receiving 2.1M dollars from Shen to be quid pro quo. Ko also funneled political donations from his private company Muka Co. to his private accounts, when all political donations are restricted to special accounts, MOICA declarations, and only for political activities by law.
Style:
ska, 152 BPM, syncopated upstroke guitar, walking bass line, rimshot snare, offbeat organ skank, brass stabs, breakbeat drums, tape saturation, spring reverb, call and response, chant hook, political satire, streetwise energy, crowd chant, mono horn mix
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There has been many interviews of people who used to campaign for Ko. The people who know Ko the best include 小牛 (Bull, aka Ko Yi-an) who used to be in charge of Ko’s youth-facing strategy and later was Taipei City’s vice-spokesman, and 姚立明 (Yao Li-ming) who was Ko’s campaign director during his first mayoral bid.
Yao says Ko is someone who can be scared into changing his position and taking action. For example, Ko was initially extremely hostile to Farglory over the Taipei Dome case, but the CEO of Farglory, Zhao Wenxiong, once showed up in person and told Ko that he has 8 years to waste and let the dome sit idle, but once Ko is out of office, he will sue him to death using hundreds of his lawyers. From that point on, Ko completely changed his position on the Taipei Dome.
The same thing happened when hosting the World University Games. China threatened to pull all athletes if Ko was to let attendees and broadcasts show the ROC flag. Ko immediately told the police and others to confiscate flags and came out saying “We are all in the same family across the strait.”
Another anecdote he shared was that during Ko’s first mayoral election, Ko was running as an independent. Yao has gathered a 4,000-strong team to monitor the polls, but the CEC pointed out that regulation states only political parties could mobilize people to monitor the polls. So Yao asked DPP legislator Ker Chien-ming to help negotiate with the CEC, and after 3 long discussions, Ker finally got CEC to agree that there’s a loop-hole that would allow a political party to sponsor an independent candidate’s ballot monitoring mobilization. Ko Wen-je at the time said Ker Chien-ming was his savior, and that Ker should have become the speaker of the legislature. Later, Ko would completely flip his position on Ker Chien-ming, despite Ker taking time and helping Ko out when he didn’t have to.
Bull on the other hand claims that during Ko’s first Straits Forum, Ko was afraid of the public claiming he was making backroom deals with the CCP, decided to live stream the whole event without first getting the CCP’s permission. Ko went in knowing the CCP would be angry when they find out, and already picked out a fall guy, and that fall guy would be Bull. Ko didn’t talk this decision over Bull first to ask if he was willing to be the fall guy, he was just set up to be the fall guy.
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And now he is holding the bag…or at least making them now.
One must quickly realise that these thugs don’t care about you and whether or not you sleep in your bed tonight.