So what’s the deal with the Uyghurs?

Also, my financial advisor urged caution on another front.

Be aware of natural disaster scams
Following a disaster, unlicensed contractors will canvas the impacted areas promising to get clean up or repairs done quickly. They may ask for payment up front and not show up to do the work, or have you sign a contract that redirects insurance payouts to them and not you.

Watch out for fake contractors:

Do your research; get multiple quotes for comparison, and make sure the contractors are licensed.

Use caution if you’re pressured to pay up front for the job or sign over the insurance claim. Contractors may try to offer special deals that seem too good to be true.

No matter where they say they’re from or who they’re representing, imposters have the same goal – to get you to pay them money or give them your personal or financial information.

Remember: Always ask for proof of ID and remember: if you’re asked for financial information, it could be a scam.

Lot of Muslims outside of Xi’an too. There’s about 10 million called Hui–ethnic Chinese but Muslim–and their most common personal name is Ma (Mohammed). I like to eat at Hui places when in China.

In ancient times all the practitioners of Abrahamic faiths in China were called Huihui, and distinguished by color: black for Christians, white for Muslims, blue for Jews.

We have a Liberian son, my wife has visited Liberia 7 times in the last 20 years. Our son is now speaking understandable English– but they have a form of English that isn’t understandable unless they’re speaking very slowly. Get them excited and it’s a foreign language.

And that includes the few educated Liberians we know. Liberia is one of the poorest countries on earth. China has been making inroads in the country as well as other African countries with their Belt and Road initiative. The country was completely destroyed during the civil war and has never recovered.

I saw a video purporting* to explain some of the tax features of the BBB. Among them is an allowance for charitable contributions above and beyond the (still increasing) basic standard deduction. I believe it is $1K for single filers and $2K for married joint filers.
This should allow almost all of us to provide some help to the USA flood victims of 2025.

I believe something similar was available for hurricane relief in tax year 2021? But only to the $300 or $600 level? Yes, line 12b on the 2021 Form 1040.

*Nothing is really official until we see it in the tax forms, but some of them are available earlier than their official release here: https://www.irs.gov/draft-tax-forms

The Chinese have allowed Muslims to live and practice their religion in Xi’an for over 1,000 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi%27an_Muslim_Quarter

At least some Jews fleeing the Holocaust ended up in the East, and some came earlier. They might not be fondly embraced by those who remember the opium-wars era, but they are unlikely to be singled out as a specific group separate from other Westerners.
https://www.jewishindependent.ca/waves-of-jews-to-east-asia/

On the other hand:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_settlement_in_the_Empire_of_Japan

Since its founding, Israel believed it could develop alliances with western countries because we shared the ancient values of our Judeo-Christian heritage. We also believed such alliances were natural joinings, since we Jews had much in common with Western Civilization.
…
For Israel is everything the western left hates. We are nationalistic, we are patriotic, we believe in the distinctiveness of our culture, we revel in our history, we are religious, we celebrate marriage and having children, and we believe in serving our country in uniform.

The West, however, no longer believes in any of these foundational virtues. In conversations with today’s young adults in the West, they repeat their mantra about seeking “quality of life,” rather than assuming the responsibilities of both adulthood and nationhood.

And because the long history of the Jews always repeats itself, the West hates the religion of Judaism for the same reason so many empires and dictators did. Which is because we will never bow down before the West’s leftist religion, this new paganism, but instead cling to our 3,500 year old faith.
…
The question is, with what countries should Israel join?
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Simply put, the countries that need Israel, and we need them, are South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and, critically, India.
…

https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/07/how-to-help-survivors-of-texas-hill.html