The company is called Microlife…we manufacture digital blood pressure monitors and digital thermometers for the consumer market.
I love Taipei…always enjoy it when I am there. We usually stay near the Miramar mall (with the Ferris wheel). Never had the chance to ride when I am out there, but would love to sometime.
Considering that it has only been 55 years since all people were allowed to vote in the USA, it is nowhere near the worlds greatest democracy. Too much navel gazing to notice though…
Important thread here…there were off-duty cops in the mob, along with military personnel.
Lets hope all those are arrested and convicted as well.
Well, when you come back to Taipei again, be sure to let me know. I live about 1km from the Miramar mall. We can go ride, even if it’s only the ferris wheel 
and/or grab a 
or 
Cheers!
We are referring to the bunch of hooligans trying to storm the capital building right?
As opposed to having the highest rates of corona virus transmission per 1000 people in the world?
Or having the worst life expectancy and highest suicide rates among 11 first world nations surveyed despite having the most expensive health care system according to commonwealthfund.org?
Or the terrible K-12 education system that leaves most Americans thinking they are #1 in everything despite having no knowledge about other countries that they might use as evidence to support their belief?
IDK, I could probably go on…
all things considered, I still love my country… but I also love a lot of other countries.
Will do!! That whole area has really changed in the last 2 years.
Giuliani: “So let’s have trial by combat!”
People like this show up:
Prez 
: “We love you, you’re very special.”
Without specifically addressing yesterday’s events in the Capitol (I’m not American, but I believe some of the pictures paint 1000 words), it strikes me that both the UK and the US are fundamentally divided countries in the way that many other democracies are not. In the UK, it was Brexit; in the US, Trump vs Biden (Democrat vs Republican). How you resolve such fundamental and near 50/50 splits, along with maintaining/restoring faith in and respect for the democratic process and the rule of law, is the great challenge for the leaders of those countries in the next generation,. At least in the US, I think some of the incoming leadership recognise that task. In the UK, I’m not so sure.
Heretic! 
@The Brits
This thread is about what happened in the US, can we stop talking about Brexit? Or open another thread so I can mute it? They are completely different things and I cannot bear the rampant false equivalence.
Totally agree that voting to leave the EU is a completely different event than what happened in America.
But most @the brits commenting on this thread seem more concerned with the underlying issues of polarization, popularism, post truth social media and failings of democratic systems - there is some equivalence between the countries in this regard IMHO.
Agreed, it’s the same underlying mechanism that shows up in different ways.
The main difference is that this riot was fueled by right-wing politicians spreading conspiracy theories about the election to remain in power, the President of the United States (and his allies) incited the riot, and the President of the United States did nothing to protect the capital after the violence started. The better analogy is that this was Benghazi, but with the President of the United inciting the storming of the consulate and then failing to protect it.
You also might want to refrain from using the term Redneck…it being a derogatory term about a racial group and all. It also misleads about who was involved — this was wasn’t just a riot by Southern rural whites.
Regarding the appropriateness of this thread. I say label it off-topic to protect the innocent. Then as long as people are civil there should be no issue. People who want to just read about cycling, or god-forbid triathlons, can just skip it, and people who want to engage civilly on the topic can. Win-Win.
One commentator put it as an violent assault of the executive branch on the legislative branch. They argue that congress must immediately impeach him. If something like this goes without consequences for the instigator(s), it will set a very dangerous precedent, as there is nothing to stop certain people to try the same thing again.
I think that’s the real danger here. Like so many things in Trumps presidency, the only thing preventing things being even worse was the incompetency and idiocy of the people participating in it. But it once again, it adds to Trumps playbook of “How to become a dictator in modern America” for more competent/organised people to pick up in the future.
With respect, I don’t agree.
Both are manifestations of deeply divided countries. What happened in the US was ‘worse’, for want of a better term, granted, but as noted by @simonicusfacilis, the rise of rather ugly populist right wing movements is not a uniquely American problem.
And very politely, I don’t think it’s appropriate for individual users to attempt to censor constructive and thoughtful comments that are relevant to the more general discussion. The idea that you shouldn’t have to hear voices you don’t want to is part of the problem. If TR don’t want this type of discussion on their forum, that’s another thing entirely.
Part of the “problem” is that the two groups are responding to such events via different mechanisms. The Trump supporters are responding in an emotional manner, they want the narrative they believe in to be true, so actual facts that disprove this narrative are dismissed as “fake news”, “project fear” or similar. Those on the other side are looking at this through, for want of a better term, a logical perspective: if the evidence supports the assertion then it’s valid otherwise it isn’t. Heart vs Head would be one way of describing it.
I don’t think the majority of the two sides are as far apart as the media report. The extremes sell copy, advertising space, get viewer counts up, etc. but most are much closer to the centre point than that. There were some protesters interviewed after Wednesday’s events who thought entering the Capitol was wrong, just what proportion of the crowd felt that way is hard to tell without further interviewing/polling but it certainly wasn’t one homogenous group. The media also like to present binary choices for quite complex problems, that doesn’t help.
The idea that this topic is out of place here confuses me. Is it the thread title that is off putting? Or the political discourse in general? The idea that this is, or should be a “safe space” free of politics speaks to a larger issue since it’s our choice to participate, or not. The anger comes from this being here in the first place.
This forum has a lot of users that I highly respect who I’ve disagreed with in a constructive way. Instead of viewing it as a safe space devoid of meaningful conversation beyond cycling (and with that I can think of many less important off-topic threads here), I think of it as a safe space in which to hear other views, many times that I disagree with but know that the conversation won’t instantly devolve into name calling and child-like cup throwing, ie the rest of the internet
What I’m saying that this is actually the perfect place to discuss current events, and to the (many) others that disagree, challenge me here, what’s the issue with simply muting the users, and topics that don’t interest you? Is it really that off-putting that at least a few of us would care to discuss an insurrection of the United States?
As I’ve said, TR has taken a clear stance at least on racial politics as it pertains to our sport. Many users left, (I’m guessing?) some even canceled their subscription I bet, but TR took a high road because they saw an issue as bigger than their bottom line. What happened here is directly related to that same problem.
So flex that mute button and carry on. And until the moderators tell us no, stop telling us what we can’t discuss as no one is forcing you to engage.
Identifying similar trends in other places is very useful, because it helps us understand the mechanism better. As long as this doesn’t morph into a Brexit thread, I think it is constructive to point out similarities to the UK’s current government.
I’ll bow out with this statement: recommending you move a different topic to another thread is absolutely not censorship.
Bon voyage.
