While you weren't looking, democracy died in Hong Kong this week...

Communist China takes over elections in Honk Kong. Obama plans his next golf outing.

Via  France24:

Hong Kong’s government Wednesday announced a roadmap for leadership elections that offered no concessions to the city’s democracy camp — prompting opposition lawmakers to walk out as the plan was unveiled.
Deputy leader Carrie Lam said the first-ever public vote for the post of chief executive in 2017 would be held in “strict compliance” with a ruling by China’s National People’s Congress last August.
That ruling stated that candidates for chief executive must first be approved by a loyalist committee — a decision that sparked more than two months of street protests that paralysed the city towards the end of last year.