Fashions come and go.
Some are cool, some are silly, and some just seem odd.
Back in the 1980’s I wore “parachute pants”.
1980s era parachute pants were a fashion trend popularized during the 1980s, particularly in the hip-hop and breakdancing cultures. These pants were characterized by their loose, baggy fit, often made from lightweight synthetic materials like nylon or polyester, resembling the fabric used in parachutes (hence the name). They typically featured multiple pockets, zippers, and sometimes decorative stitching or panels. Parachute pants were known for their bold colors and patterns, and they often had elasticated cuffs at the ankles. The style was closely associated with the dance and music scenes of the time and became iconic within the fashion landscape of the 1980s.
Do you all remember these things?
Mine were grey-silver in color. LOL.
I was the “cool guy”… Ha ha ha ha
How cool are you today?
Today…
What happens if you give two weeks’ notice and they ask you to leave?
Oh, this happened to me and I can tell you from personal experience.
You leave.
I gave a letter of resignation to my boss and said “Sorry about this”. He said “Aww man, really?” and then I went back to my desk. Two hours, later the HR lady that I hated came to my desk and asked me to grab my stuff and come to HR with her. I already had all my stuff packed in a box.
She processed my paperwork and sent me home. She asked me to go straight to my car and not to say anything to any of my coworkers on my way out. I said I wasn’t planning to, but wouldn’t ignore them if they said something to me. Which she was ok with. She also asked me if there was anything else I needed off my desk, but I had already gotten everything I wanted to keep. She asked if She could go through my box and take a look. I was fine with that. And that was pretty much it.
When I got home, I called the new job and told them I could start early if they wanted. They asked me to come in on the Monday after the following week as that was how the pay periods lined up and I agreed.
This is always a possibility, especially if you are going to a competitor.
All you need to do is stay professional, and don’t burn any bridges. Not worth it.
Men are simple
"I'm a 46 year old man. Married with a kid. You pretty much nailed it. Not sure why this video was suggested to me or why i clicked on it but your insight is spot on."
What was the bravest thing you ever did in a job interview?
Sometime in 1980, I had a job interview for an Electrical Engineer position.The interviewer showed me a very simple circuit and asked me what it did. I said, “It drives a DC motor either forward or backward.” He then asked what was wrong with the circuit and I then said, “I don’t see anything wrong other than that fact that there was no biasing on the transistors, but that is pretty obvious.”
“No no.” he said. “That’s not obvious at all. You have no idea how many electrical engineers don’t know how to bias transistors,” (Fact is that this is both basic and very important.)
He went on ranting and raving about this for several minutes. Then asked me how I would bias the transistors. So, I drew in some resisters. He said, “Yeah – I guess that would work.”
I asked him, “Would you do it differently?” “A little bit.” He replied. I asked him to show me how he would do it.
He then proceeded to “bias” the transistors in a way that would NOT work. I asked myself, “Should I tell him?” I quickly decided that if I could not point out his error, I did not want to work for the guy anyway.
So I told him why his circuit would not work. He crumpled up the paper.tossed it in the basket and said, “That stuff is not important anyway.” I was out of his office two minutes later and never heard from them again. I laughed all the way to my car.
Real talk
Russia. Is. At. War.
Due to a flurry of western support for Ukraine, now escalating to ground troop insertions, Russia had to move its special military operation in Ukraine into the bigger scope of a full fledged war. Over the last month the Ukrainian military intelligence directorate GUR and its civilian secret service SBU have attempted to disturb the recent presidential election in Russia. They did this by:
- sending forces, with U.S. made equipment (Bradleys), to attack Russian border villages in the direction of Belgorod (Belgograd),
- by launching missiles from Czech Vampire (RM-70) multiple launch rocket systems towards Belgorod,
- by launching somewhat successful drone strike against Russian oil refineries.
The election in Russia saw a record turnout. As expected President Putin did win by a very large margin. His legitimacy is a geopolitical reality:
If Nato expansion is about the perpetuation of US hegemony and de-dollarisation is about the burial of the western financial system that underpins that hegemony, Putin is playing a pivotal role in that historical process. If Putin remains in power till 2030 and fulfils even one half of the ambitious blueprint of social and economic programme for Russia that he outlined in his landmark speech at the Federal Assembly of the parliament, the global strategic balance will have shifted irrevocably and cemented a multipolar world order as the anchor sheet of 21st century politics. The West knows it, the Russian people know it, the vast majority of nations realise it. That said, it must be understood as well that this is not only Putin’s victory personally but also a consolidation of Russian society around him. And that accounts for the last week’s election turning into such a high-stakes affair.
With the election out of the way Russia was free to hit back.
Moon of Alabama @MoonofA – 13:24 UTC · Mar 20, 2024Ru Ministry of Defense claims 1725 Ukrainian casualties over the last day (650 in Belgograd direction alone) https://function.mil.ru/news_page/…
Over the last six days the Russian MoD reports claimed no less than nine hits on the Czech Vampire systems which targeted Belgorod. The Ukrainian incursion towards Belgorod has thus been defeated. On Wednesday Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor, had visited Kiev. He was noticed for what he did not say:
Jake Sullivan, US National Security Adviser, has said that Ukraine will win if it comes out of the war as a sovereign, democratic and free country. At the same time, he did not mention restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity among the conditions of victory.
It is believed that Sullivan delivered a warning to Kiev. As the Financial Times reported (archived):
The US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning the drone strikes risk driving up global oil prices and provoking retaliation, according to three people familiar with the discussions.The repeated warnings from Washington were delivered to senior officials at Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, and its military intelligence directorate, known as the GUR, the people told the Financial Times. Both intelligence units have steadily expanded their own drone programmes to strike Russian targets on land, sea and in the air since the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The U.S. concern is not about Ukraine but about Biden’s chance for reelection:
Russia remains one of the world’s most important energy exporters despite western sanctions on its oil and gas sector. Oil prices have risen about 15 per cent this year, to $85 a barrel, pushing up fuel costs just as US President Joe Biden begins his campaign for re-election. … The US objections come as Biden faces a tough re-election battle this year with petrol prices on the rise, increasing almost 15 per cent this year to around $3.50 a gallon.“Nothing terrifies a sitting American president more than a surge in pump prices during an election year,” said Bob McNally, president of consultancy Rapidan Energy and a former White House energy adviser.
The Ukrainian government denied and confirmed the FT report (machine translation):
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanashina actually confirmed the information to the Financial Times , saying that “we understand the calls of American partners,” but Ukraine responded to such calls by “achieving its goals” and “very successful operations” on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Sullivan’s warning about provoking retaliation was too late. Yesterday, for the first time in 44 day, Russia launched a missile attack against Kiev (archived):
The Ukrainian Air Force said that air defense systems had intercepted all 31 of the Russian missiles that targeted Kyiv. Still, debris from the downed missiles fell in various parts of the city, causing the injuries and damage. No deaths have been reported so far. … In the Podilskyi district, which is home to industrial facilities that Russia has targeted in the past, a plume of black smoke was rising early in the morning, suggesting a hit. Mr. Klitschko said a fire had broken out at a power substation in the area. Ukrainian officials rarely confirm strikes on strategic industrial and military targets. … Thursday’s attack on Kyiv echoed a strategy used by Russia during air assaults in late December that consisted of overwhelming Ukraine’s air defenses with multiple launches of various types of missiles, including ballistic and hypersonic ones.Russia has launched relatively few large-scale missile attacks in recent months, despite a capacity to produce more than 115 long-range missiles per month, according to Ukrainian officials.
Yesterday’s Russian MoD report said:
Last night, the Russian Aerospace Forces delivered a strike by long-range precision weaponry including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at AFU decision-making centres, logistic bases, temporary deployment areas of special operations forces and foreign mercenaries.The goal of the strike has been achieved. All the targets have been engaged.
Such Russian strikes are complex. Drones are send first to reveal Ukrainian air defense systems. Then follows a wave of attacks against those system. A third strike is then launched against the real targets of the attack. In this case those were a drone factory in Kiev as well as a headquarter of the military intelligence service GUR. Another large scale strike followed today. The primary targets were elements of the electricity infrastructure:
Large areas of Ukraine are suffering blackouts after Russian missiles targeted energy infrastructure.There is no electricity in the second-largest city of Kharkiv, says regional head Oleg Synehubov. Fifteen blasts were reported in Kharkiv, while more than 53,000 households in Odesa were without power. Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, accused Russia of trying to provoke “a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system”. A power line feeding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant had been cut, he added. Regional head Ivan Fedorov said the power station was “on the verge of a blackout”, adding that seven buildings in the region had been destroyed and 35 others damaged. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 60 Shahed drones and about 90 missiles into Ukraine during the wave of overnight attacks.
Internet access in Ukraine has dropped significantly. This was again a complex attack:
Lord Bebo @MyLordBebo – 9:42 UTC · Mar 22, 2024🇺🇦🇷🇺🚨‼️ Russian missile attack on Ukraine during March 22nd, 2024. -> Notice the flight patterns of the missiles. Aviation: At 01:12, the takeoff of 3⨯ Tu-95ms from the Olenya air base was noted. At 02:30, information on the movement of 13 Tu-95ms to the launch lines was clarified. At 03:34, the launch of the KRPB Kh-101/555/55 was carried out from the Volgograd region. At 04:18, the takeoff of 5 Tu-22m3s from the Mozdok air base was noted. During the attack, a total of 10 MiG-31Ks were raised (7 were used before the attack). Armament: 55/63x “Shahed-136/131” Type Shock Unmanned Aerial Vehicles; 0/12x OTR “Iskander-M”; 35/40 X-101/X-555 cruise missiles; 0/5x NKR Kh-22; 0/7x ARPB Kh-47M2 “Dagger”; 2/2x CAR X-59; 0/22x ZKR S-300/S-400. The targeted air attack vector during today’s day is marked on the map.
Today, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a massive strike with high-precision long-range weapons of air, sea, land-based and unmanned aerial vehicles against energy facilities, military-industrial complex, railway junctions, arsenals, places of deployment of formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and foreign mercenaries.As a result of the strike, the functioning of industrial enterprises for the production and repair of weapons, military equipment and ammunition was disorganized. In addition, foreign military equipment and weapons delivered to Ukraine from NATO countries were destroyed, transfers to the front line of enemy reserves were disrupted, and units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and mercenaries in the areas of restoring combat capability were hit. All the goals of the massive strike have been achieved.
Some European politicians are eager to join the fight.
bigger
Peskov: Russia is in a state of war, everyone should understand thisRussia will continue to act in such a way that the military potential of Ukraine could not threaten the security of its citizens and its territory, he said in a conversation with reporters. “What is the president talking about? We have four new regions of the Russian Federation. And the main thing for us is to protect people in these regions and liberate the territory of these regions, which is currently de facto occupied by the Kiev regime,” Peskov said. According to the presidential press secretary, Russia cannot allow the existence of a state on its borders that has documented the intention to use any methods to take Crimea from it, not to mention the territory of new regions. “We are at war. Yes, it started out as a special military operation, but as soon as this little group was formed there, when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, it already became a war for us. I am convinced of this. And everyone should understand this for their internal mobilization,” Peskov added.
In parallel to Peskov’s declaration of war talk, Russias announced the mass production of the three ton heavy FAB-3.000 aerial bombs with 1,400 kg of explosives. These will be fitted, like the currently used FAB 500 and FAB 1.500, with the universal planning and correction module (UMPC) which allows the bombs to glide some 40 miles after being launched to then hit its planned target with high precision. There is little that can survive such a strike. In his (highly recommendable) book “The Russian Art of War”, the former Swiss military intelligence officer Jacques Baud described the reason why the current fighting in Ukraine started out as a “Special Military Operation” within a larger context:
The use of the word “war” would imply a different structure of conduct than that envisioned by the Russians in Ukraine, and would have other structural implications in Russia itself. Moreover – and this is a central point – as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg himself acknowledges,”the war began in 2014” and should have been ended by the Minsk Agreements. The SMO is therefore a “military operation” and not a new “war”, as many Western “experts” claim.
That was then. Now Russia is at war. This will have, as Baud says, a different structure of conduct and other structural implications in Russia and beyond. Those ‘western’ politicians who are dreaming of fighting Russia have no idea of what will hit their troops the moment they try to join the war. NATO however, and especially the United States, will not go to war. At least not yet. President Biden has his hands full with the genocidal war the Zionists are waging against the Palestinian population. There is also a chance for a war to suddenly start in Asia. (Could North Korea be asked to flex its muscles?) Neither the U.S. nor Europe are in the shape of winning a multi-front war of global dimensions. The military leaders in the relevant countries know this well. In consequence ‘Western’ politicians will have to bite the bitter pill of a decisive strategic defeat.
Posted by b on March 22, 2024 at 13:10 UTC | Permalink
Furious Putin Crocus Gunmen Captured, Terror Network Destroyed, Big Ukr Defeat ivanivske Falls
What do you think about the saying: “If you have to ask (the price), you can’t afford it” as a person of wealth?
A few years ago, an American tourist in Zurich wandered into a pricey fashion store called Trois Pommes, and a handbag caught her eye. So she asked the saleswoman: “Excuse me, may I see that bag right above your head?”
The saleswoman sized up the tourist, a middle aged black woman, and figured it was a waste of her time so told her: “No. It’s too expensive”.
The tourist said: “No, you see the black one, the one that’s folded over”.
Saleswoman, with a snooty fru fru I’m-not-even-close-to-being-rich-but-will-obsequiously-kiss-rich-peoples-butt-while-despising-normal-folk-like-me replied: “No, no, no, you don’t want to see that one, you want to see this one, because that one will cost too much, you will not be able to afford that one”
The saleswoman ultimately refused to get the bag in question, priced at around $38,000, and the exasperated customer walked.
Unbeknownst to the saleswoman, the tourist was probably the world’s richest woman at the time (I’m guessing Jeff Bezos’ ex is richer now after the divorce settlement), billionaire Oprah Winfrey.
The story made the news and generated tons of negative publicity for the store. As to Oprah, when she eventually found out what the bag cost, she said it was overpriced and would never pay that much for that handbag.
Rich people – at least wise ones and/or the ones who worked for their money, as opposed to spoiled trust fund brats who had everything handed to them since birth, do ask for prices. For one, because it takes less time to ask and get an answer in a few seconds than it does to go through the hassle of research. For another, and more importantly, because like any rational people, they want to have an idea about cost vs benefit, whether something is worth it, and whether they can get the best deal for what they want.
Just because rich people can afford to pay a seller their asking price doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to. Rational rich people do comparison shop and negotiate for the best deals they can get, instead of just shell out whatever anybody who has something they want asks for.
The “if you have to ask the price you can’t afford it” assumption is silly.
The Best of Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad
What was the strangest way an embezzler was caught?
I worked in engineering and facilities for a large Pharma. We had project managers who did construction and renovation.
In the old days we had paper employee ID cards and contractors weren’t accounted for very well. We started a contractor safety program where each of the contractor’s employees had to take a one hour safety program, then issued a contractor card. At the same time employee IDs we’re upgraded to mag cards so everyone swiped in and out of our properties.
In time the audit showed one company who didn’t respond to the program. Digging in it was found that one project manager used them exclusively. On every project he had them do some small unidentified tasks, never more than $5000. And for many years. Once the card systems were installed we could see nobody from that company ever entered the property but the small bills kept coming.
An investigation revealed that this 30 year employee owned the company which was nothing more than a post office box and a bank account. He never got greedy so he never aroused suspicions, but constantly embezzled betwen $2–5000 on every project for years! Only caught by automation.
Reality of Government Policy
US crackdown on China desperate, delusional — S.L.Kanthan
“We don’t want to live in a world where the Chinese are the dominant country,” – this astounding statement of fear and paranoia is from the US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns. Once upon a time, the same US championed free trade, free market, and competition. It also established global institutions such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and WTO, welcomed immigrants from all over the world, and evangelized free movement of capital and technology. Now, the US is sabotaging everything it built, hoping desperately to retain its hegemony. However, this onslaught is futile as US elites do not understand why their financialized economy of OnlyFans failed and why China’s industrial economy of electric vehicles and solar panels succeeded.
Unable to compete and unwilling to learn, the American establishment has been trying to hobble China’s growth through illegal and incoherent tactics. Since 2017, the US has been waging a relentless and intense war on China’s economy and development. The hybrid war includes tariffs, sanctions, diplomatic assaults and propaganda wars.
The broader objective is to prevent China becoming the No.1 economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP – by purchasing power parity, China is already 20 percent larger than the US. The narrower, but equally sinister, goal is to stop China from catching up and becoming self-reliant in cutting-edge technologies. If China is portrayed as a threat to Asia and the world, the American and European public would feel that the sanctions are justified.
In the smartphone world, when Huawei surpassed Apple in market share, the US forced TSMC and Samsung to stop making semiconductor chips for Huawei. Similarly, the US has pressured the Dutch company ASML into not selling high-end chipmaking lithography machines to China. What WTO rules or international norms allow the US to engage in such geo-economic thuggery?
The blitzkrieg against Chinese companies did not stop at strategic high-tech companies. Now, the US has started attacking Chinese electric cars and targeted at robbing the TikTok. Without blushing a bit, US officials claim that Beijing can turn off the electric cars or harvest data from TikTok. Don’t forget that: Thanks to Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks, we know how every American hardware and software is a spying tool; and the “Twitter Files” revealed how US social media are infiltrated with representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, US Department of Defense, among others.
Every accusation by America is an admission of its own guilt. While the US media and politicians accuse China of stealing intellectual property (IP), the US is blatantly stealing TSMC’s technology and IP by forcing the latter to build advanced chip-manufacturing plants in the US. The US also complains a lot about subsidies in China, while dispensing tens of billions of dollars to American tech companies under the CHIPS and Science Act. Furthermore, the US dollar itself is the biggest subsidy, since the US government prints trillions of dollars out of thin air rather than taxing corporations.
The tragic fact is that the US, without a clear strategy, is failing. It is jumping from tariffs and sanctions to illogical buzzwords such as “decoupling,” “friend-shoring” and “de-risking.” China is the world’s manufacturing powerhouse with a trade surplus of $800 billion a year; and neither the US nor the EU can survive for a month without Chinese goods. It’s only a matter of time until China masters the entire semiconductor ecosystem, after which the US will have no advantage. Thus, when US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently said that the US will “do whatever it takes to curb China’s technology,” she just sounded delusional.
To figure out who will be successful, one just needs to compare President Joe Biden’s address at the State of the Union to the Two Sessions in Beijing. Biden started off his speech by vilifying Russia and imploring Congress to continue funding the proxy war in Ukraine. On the other side of the world, political advisors of the CPPCC and deputies of the NPC deliberated “high quality growth” and “new quality productive force.”
The US model is based on imperialism abroad and a parasitic form of capitalism at home. If their ego prevents them from learning the China model, Americans should go back to their roots and study the writings of founders like Alexander Hamilton and the classical economics of the 19th century. At the current trajectory, the US is on a path to implosion and a disastrous collision with the reality of a multipolar world.
CITY OF GLASS – Pulp Science Fiction by Skyward, Surrealism, Experiments in Texture and Transparency
At The UN It Is A Rogue U.S. Against The Rest Of The World
Ted Snider asks:
Is America a Rogue Superpower?
“Unipolar” used to mean that the United States was, at least in theory, alone in leading the world. Now “unipolar” means that the United States is alone and isolated in opposition to the world.
Snider refers to the recent UN Security Council resolution 2728 which “demands” a ceasefire in Gaza and “demands” a release of hostages and “demands” the unhindered supply of food and other items to Gaza.
The U.S. has claimed, falsely, that the resolution is not binding.
As Snider writes:
On March 25, the U.S. went one step further and took a step toward becoming a rogue state who has supplanted international law with its rules-based order. International law is grounded in the charter system and the United Nations and is universally applicable. The rules-based order is composed of unwritten laws whose source, consent, and legitimacy are unknown. To the global majority, those unwritten laws have the appearance of being invoked when they benefit the U.S. and its partners and not being invoked when they don’t.
On March 25, the Security Council passed a resolution demanding “an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire.” The resolution was able to pass because the U.S. stood aside and let the other fourteen Security Council members pass it by abstaining instead of vetoing.
But in her explanation of the American abstention after the resolution passed, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield “surprisingly” said that “we fully support some of the critical objectives in this nonbinding resolution.”
Her claim that the Security Council resolution was nonbinding was not an off script, impromptu comment. It is the strategy of a country that enforces, not international law, but the U.S. led rules-based order.
Arnaud Bertrand has added a similar thought:
Since the beginning, it’s been obvious that Gaza was in many ways a fight between International Law and the US’s “rules-based order”.This whole episode around the UN resolution is a perfect illustration of this. There is no debate amongst international law scholars that resolutions by the UN Security Council that “demand” certain actions are binding (good explanation by a legal scholar here). In fact resolutions by the council ARE international law, article 25 of the UN Charter clearly states: “The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter.”
Yet the US now argues that the “rule” is in fact different: “It’s a non-binding resolution, so there’s no impact at all on Israel”.
Where is this rule written, that somehow when the UNSC “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire”, it’s non-binding and “there’s no impact at all” on the warring party?
Nowhere, that’s the beauty of the rules-based order: the rules are made-up in the moment to fit the interests of the U.S. and its henchmen, depending on the circumstances.
The big issue here is that the whole world, literally, disagrees with the U.S. claims.
Snider again:
All UN Security Council resolutions are legally binding and have the status of international law. That is why UN Secretary General António Guterres said, “This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable.” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq explained that, “All the resolutions of the Security Council are international law. They are as binding as international laws.”
Others responded the same way to the U.S. claim. On behalf of the ten elected members of the Security Council who drafted the resolution, Pedro Comissario, Mozambique’s envoy to the United Nations, said, “All United Nations Security Council resolutions are binding and mandatory.” He then added, “It is the hope of the 10 that the resolution adopted today will be implemented in good faith by all parties.”
The United Kingdom also did “not share” the U.S. claim, prompting their envoy to the UN to say, “we expect all Council resolutions to be implemented. This one is not any different. The demands in the resolution are absolutely clear.” China, too, did not share the U.S. evaluation. “China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said Security Council resolutions are binding.”
France too rejects the U.S. claim and insists that UNSC Res 2728 is absolutely binding and especially binding for Israel:
“A United Nation Security Council resolution is binding under international law. All concerned parties MUST implement it, especially Israel, to whom it is incumbent to apply this resolution.”
Russia has said similar:
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that UN Security Council Resolution 2728 on Gaza, which calls for an immediate cease-fire and access for humanitarian aid, is binding for all sides, including Israel.
…
“The Russian side expects that the binding UN Security Council Resolution 2728 will contribute to de-escalating violence in Gaza, including preventing the Israeli operation in Rafah, freeing hostages, (and) increasing humanitarian assistance to civilians in the sector,” it said.
Four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – including two major U.S. allies -, all of its non-permanent members and the UN Secretary General have explicitly said that UNSC Res 2728 is binding.
The U.S. (plus maybe a few of its minor proxies) is the only state which publicly disputes that.
Bertrand points out that this will have huge consequences:
There’s no overstating how consequential this is for the integrity of international relations. By doing so, the US effectively destroys the world order it largely created after WW2 because it effectively tells everyone that the set of institutions, rules and norms that underpin it are meaningless. We’re effectively now in a world system where everyone realizes the police, the government, the basic set of beliefs, have become completely corrupted. This changes everything.What comes next? I think there’s no coming back for the U.S. And I think they know this, maybe unconsciously, otherwise they would at least pretend to act for the better good of all. The fact they don’t shows they’ve effectively abdicated ambitions to restore their hegemony: they’re now nakedly in it to milk the system for themselves, universal pretentions have gone.
This UN Security Council is not the only institution which the U.S. tries to destroys after having largely created it.
In 2019 the World Trade Organization lost its appeal court:
The appellate body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), considered the supreme court for international trade, lost its ability to rule on new dispute cases at midnight Tuesday.The panel, whose decisions affect billions of dollars in global trade, is supposed to have seven judges. But their ranks have dwindled because the United States — under the past three presidents — has blocked replacements to protest the way the WTO does business.
A minimum of three judges is needed to issue rulings and the terms of two of the last three judges ended at midnight Tuesday.
This will deal a major blow to the global trading system, critics say, arguing that the situation risked creating a system of trade relations based on power rather than binding international rules.
The U.S. is now using protectionism, subsidies and tariffs, which are clearly illegal under WTO rules it had previously agreed to. But as it has managed, without having any serious argument, to destroy the WTO’s court their is no longer a direct way it can get penalized for it.
But trade is only one field of international relations and other WTO members have found ways to solve disputes even without its court.
The stakes are much higher when it comes to matters of peace and of wars waged with the intent of genocide.
Bertrand concludes:
Most countries however don’t want to live in an “eat or get eaten”/”might makes right” world, without rules or norms. So in time a new system will arise.
The biggest unknowns being: can it arise without a major global war, who will lead the construction of its foundations and how can it be set up so that this time around it is fair for all and respected by all?
I’ll leave it to you to ponder those questions.
Posted by b on March 28, 2024 at 16:43 UTC | Permalink
The Collapse of The Traditional Career.
Pesto Feta Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 prepared pizza crust (such as Boboli)
- Feta cheese to taste
- Pesto
- 2 cups fresh parsley or basil, firmly packed
- 3/4 cup Parmesan or Romano
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 2 to 4 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place basil and garlic in food processor bowl and blend until smooth.
- Add nuts and cheese and continue blending.
- While processor is running, add olive oil until creamy. (Pesto can be stored up to three months in refrigerator if covered with a thin layer of olive oil, or it can be frozen.)
- To assemble pizza: Use pastry brush to add a thin coat of oil to pizza crust (can omit this step).
- Spread pesto over pizza crust.
- Sprinkle feta over top and add thinly sliced and quartered tomatoes, if desired.
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Serve with a salad.
What was the rudest thing a teacher has said to you in front of the whole class?
When I was at the 3rd year of Business Administration at the university (from 5 years total), I was discouraged, kind of depressed, and unhappy. So, I didn’t care about buying all the books or anything. I was usually a great student but that year I wasn’t inspired.
One day, my tax law professor criticised me, in front of everyone, because I didn’t have the book. He didn’t have, either! So, I told him that. He answered he had memorised the book. I said I didn’t care, if he didn’t give me the example he couldn’t criticise me. He continued not having the book during the classes and I did the same.
When the test came, we could consult the book. I borrowed the book from my cousin’s boyfriend. Before to hand him (my teacher) my test, knowing I did a great job, I wrote a note provoking him for having done a great test without needing the book during classes (it was easy to find the references I needed from the book).
He was furious with me the day he returned the graded tests. Because my grade was among the best of my class. 😈 I didn’t check the test of my colleague with the best grade. Maybe mine was better and the teacher gave him higher grade just to avoid giving me extra reasons to provoke him, but I didn’t care. For me, my grade was good enough.
Even in my worst days I can be much better than most people at anything I want to do well. Not only in my native country. I did better than competitors worldwide along my career. Without needing anyone to disrespect me or provoke me. I’m motivated by doing things better day after day and learning from my experiences.
Where is the Next American Dream?
When did you realize that you would be single for the rest of your life, and why?
My mother once told me “you gotta kiss a lot of frogs…”
Somewhere around 40 years old (I’m 42 now) I decided I was done kissing frogs and never getting my prince. I now understand why my mother referred to one of her exes as a toad.
Dating these days is often gross and impersonal. It’s hard to meet people organically, so we now resort to online dating. For a woman, online dating is basically a sea of horny, rancid, male sharks and we’ve just put on a bathing suit soaked in chum. Even if there are some decent men on there, we aren’t going to find you or believe you. It’s like panning for fools gold in a NYC sewer. I could tell you some horror stories about the kind of men I’ve met because of online dating. I don’t want to do it ever again and no one can make me! Yuck, eww, No.
Relationships are too exhausting. It takes many years to truly get to know someone and I just don’t have it in me anymore to give that much time, effort, and heart and soul on learning someone again, only to find out years into it that they’re actually a terrible human. This isn’t necessarily fair to people who aren’t awful, but it’s a gamble I’m not all that eager to take anymore. Hard pass.
Even if I were to find my unicorn, the thought of having to alter my long term life goals to now fit the goals of another person just isn’t something I’m very willing to compromise on anymore. And I wouldn’t expect or want someone else to make those changes for me either. At this age, our time is becoming more precious and shouldn’t be conceded on when it comes to our own lifelong happiness. It is unlikely we are meant to travel the same path indefinitely.
For now, I focus on my career and raising my teenagers. I have a couple of dogs and a few good friends to keep me company. I also have to interact with people at work all day. I’m introverted so I’m definitely not lonely, by any means. Getting alone time is a hot commodity to be cherished. I don’t know that I’d want to give up my 30 minutes a week to a relationship. I’m busy.
Some day, when I’m older, I’d like to do things that I really want to do, like travel more, experience new things and cultures, or maybe just sit around in my underpants while eating a rotisserie chicken with my bare hands and watching jeopardy reruns.
Whatever it may be, I want to be free to do it sans the time wasting a-hole.
Jesus via AI
Have you ever chosen to dispute a traffic ticket in court? What was the outcome?
I was pulled over in New Mexico back in 2012 and it was for not stopping at a stopsign. The area was fairly rural and I could see both directions some distance. So I slowed but kept rolling then took off. About 2 miles down the road there was a mounty on me and I pulled over trying to imagine what he was getting me for. He came to the car asked for my DL and Ins. and asked me what I called that? I looked at him and said well if you would be kind enough to tell me what “that” was I would be happy to answer for it. After some questions about me being a smart ass he finally realized I didnt know what he was at me about. So he finally told me “Failure to stop at a stop sign!” I admitted well I did slow down he said but you didnt stop I said no its a common practice in the country side at rural stops to roll through and I explained some call it a california roll. He said “That Figures!” and he handed me a ticket to sign He said “well here in Nebraska we dont drive like californians” I said ok not arguing and went on with my evening. Well next day I called an uncle of mine who was an attorney told him and he told me how to get out of it. SO court day came I show up and so does he. THe judge asked him what happened and then turned to me and asked my side. I didnt even tell him about the stop and went to describing how I was treated by the officer and the “It figures” and “we dont drive like californians” comments and my ticket was promptly dismissed for personal bias and out I walked while the judge reprimanded the deputy.
Have you ever been treated so terribly at a restaurant that you refused to go back there again?
Yes. Arriving, the parking lot was very slick ice. I informed the hostess (owner), she just shot an undeserved annoyed look. Hey I was just trying to help them & avoid a slip & fall for someone.
Our waitress failed to bring our food as it sat way to long prepared, even after a long wait we asked. Clearly she then forgot; but did show up to push a wine bottle to buy. That after we distinctly expressed early on we were not there for drinks. Same with appetizers & desserts.
The goal was clear: upsell, upsell.
The food was just about room temperature. And not even what we had ordered. She tried to convince us to eat what she brought anyway!
All that did was piss her off. Watching her she returned food to the kitchen, obviously not giving them our actual order.
We are not snotty people at all! But were pretty much forced to be at this point, hangry didn’t help.
We stopped at the hostess/owner podium & waited for some attention. After too long she asked “how many in our party?” She didn’t remember us unsurprisingly.
I made a bit of a sport of it, saying “still two, we’re just waiting for our check”.
“Who was your waiter/waitress?”
“Don’t know”
“Where was your table”
“Over there (with a vague gesture”
Now SHE’S very annoyed & NOT pleasant at all. “What did you have?”
“Nothing but water”
Now she’s even more annoyed + confused. Good. As if anyone there cared anyway.
I finally explained the situation & that we’d been there for almost an hour at this point. Ordered food, never got it, we’re leaving.
The bitch, now outright rude, threatened to call the police.
I implored her to, explaining we certainly are not paying for a product or service we’d never received. And fortunately we hadn’t yet paid, as then we would have a stronger case do please – a police report will be a good addition to our case. Plus hopefully for her sake they arrive quickly since now they are on the clock.
She still tried to argue! “We can’t just come here and leave without paying”. Argh. Pay for what – water? I don’t even see water on the menu, how much do you charge for it?” (I believe it’s state law that water & bathroom facilities are required at a certain amount of seating). But she briefly tried to think of an amount to charge.
I finally announced the end of this dispute – if she’s call law enforcement we’d feel compelled to wait, otherwise we’re leaving. She quipped something like ” well I guess we’ll eat this one”.
“Good for you! That’s more than we got!”
Shorpy Pictures for today
Most Women don’t want to be real wives so what’s up with the pretending? Or is the tide turning?
Why did you call off your wedding?
I was engaged to a fine woman. She was kind, considerate, smart and rich.
We had not set a date for the wedding when I started to have doubts about our relationship.
At first I didn’t know what was the problem was, but it was a strong feeling.
One day we were driving around in Brentwood, looking at old, stately homes when I saw what I considered to be a beautiful home.
It was brick, with leaded windows, slate roof and a plank door. I was admiring it when she said, “I will never live in a used house.”
I was stunned and asked her why.
She said, I don’t want to live in someone’s reject.”
I said, “just because someone is selling a house does not make it a reject.”
She said, “I do not care, I will never live in a used home.”
I knew she meant it.
At that moment I knew what the problem was, our values were too different.
I called off the engagement the next week.
I have never regretted that decision
EDIT: we parted with no hard feelings, there were no bad guys, just two people who were not right for each other.
What Science Says About Body Count
Olive and Brie Pizza
Prep: 20 min | Bake: 20 min | Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 refrigerated unbaked 9 inch pie crust, at room temperature or 1 (13.8 ounce) tube pizza dough
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 8 ounces brie cheese, rind removed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 3 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 2/3 cup halved Lindsay® Ripe Pitted Olives
- 3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion with tops
- 2 teaspoons fresh chopped oregano or 3/4 teaspoon dried
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place crust on a lightly floured cookie or baking sheet. Fold in edges of crust (1/2 inch), pressing down lightly to form a rim.
- Spread mustard over inside of crust; top with half of brie cheese, tomatoes, olives, green onion, remaining brie cheese, oregano and Parmesan cheese.
- Bake until crust is crisp and golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.
- Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
A saga
US Troops on Taiwan Advance to Within 1 mile from China Border
What was the strangest way an embezzler was caught?
My dad owned his own accounting firm for decades and he had one fairly big client that he got on well with. When Dad retired he was offered a job 1 day a week by this client. They had a guy who had been there a while who did payroll and the basic accounting but he wasn’t very good at the accounting so my dad was meant to be taking over accounts and this other guy was meant to be just doing payroll.
Anyway, on my dad’s first day the boss suggested he learn the payroll system so he could be cover for the other guy.
They had a little demonstration session and my dad asked how sickness was done. The payroll guy said nobody is ever sick to which the boss replied that he was, last month. Reluctantly the guy showed my dad how the sickness was done on his own payslip and everyone instantly spotted that the guy had been paying himself double when off sick! He had been doing that a while. He went the same day!
He Was Homeless in America & Then He Moved To The Philippines : A Life Lesson
Have you ever walked out of a restaurant after you were seated by a waiter or waitress?
I was seated by a hostess at an Italian restaurant in Paramus NJ. It was supposed to be our anniversary dinner. A coworker of mine who was about as Italian as you can get without being born in Italy had given me a recommendation to go there.
Well after 30 minutes with not so much as a waiter/waitress taking our drink order (perhaps longer… I can be stubborn) I decided enough of this and signalled to my wife we were leaving now.
That could have been the end of the story but it is not.
I told my coworker what happened and it turned out he was part of the family (in laws? cousins? don’t remember.) and took it very personal that we got treated that way. My telephone at work rings a day or two later and it’s the owner of the restaurant and he’s apologizing profusely. It was then that I remembered my coworker told me to drop his name when I went there.
We were invited back for a “chef’s choice” seating at their expense. The meal was wonderful but way more than I could eat. There were eight courses and lots of wine. My wife doesn’t drink wine and never did so I got sorta concerned as was going to be way too drunk to drive. I’m not talking one bottle of wine here but a different wine for each course.
It was quite the meal.
When we went back days or months later we always were treated with great deference and got great service.
210,000 CODERS lost jobs as NVIDIA released NEW coding language.
Who’s the most boring person in your life?
My brother in law Paul, he is a really nice guy he is always ready to help someone out. He was a volunteer coast guard, regularly went to church , is a really good provider for my sister, hard working financially prudent, not tight just put a bit aside for the rainy day, save for the pension.
But he makes watching paint dry feel exciting, he can flatten a family gathering just by walking into the room. He is a train spotter and makes models out of matches and is an amateur weather forecaster. His only subjects of conversation are different types of rolling stock on the railways, cloud types and work, he is an aera manager for morrisons local shops. But because a lot of his job is to do with the finance side he takes commercial confidentiality seriously. So apart from three slightly amusing stories, nothing about work.
He only ever has two drinks either at a party or in the pub, doesn’t like spicy food or french food, not really keen on pasta or pizza no bbq and doesn’t eat rice or garlic. His taste in music was once described by my sister ‘Paul doesn’t like music, he likes ric Astley and black lace it is mucus not music’ he is a nice guy but so boring.
According to my sister the only time he’s not boring is when he and she stay energetically awake, then by all accounts he is creative and inventive, and has superior staying power.
As I don’t have sex with him I will stick with the description boring.
Make this fair
Laziness: What’s the laziest thing you’ve ever done?
It’s not me, but a guy who used to sit near me in my office.
In my office, the computers are set up such a way that if you don’t do anything for 4 minutes, they get locked. in order to unlock that, you need to type your password again.
Everyone faces this several times a day, if you go to the washroom, or busy in a phone call, or discussing something with someone for more than 4 minutes, you will find your PC locked when you come back.
This guy was too lazy to type his password every time this happened. So he invented this technology:
- Open notepad
- Put a bottle on the keyboard, this causes some keys to be pressed all the time.
- this causes text input in notepad.
The computer thinks that user is working, so it does not get locked.
This is a photo I took when he was gone from his desk after setting up the Bottle-Anti-lock mechanism.
Soon he realized that entering huge amount of text in notepad causes the PC to run out of memory eventually and crash after some time.
We asked him to write a VBScript to mimic the keystroke, but he is too lazy for that. He found out a lazier work around,
He now uses a Comb (borrowed from a female co-worker – permanently) to push down the keys in the alt, ctrl, and the directional keys area which do not enter text in the notepad. and he keeps the bottle on top of the comb for the weight.
I don’t have an original photo for this. so I made a dummy. imagine the power bank is the keys that need to be pressed.
Necessity is the mother of invention!
Update: Some friends have asked in comments why cant we just change the screen lock timeout settings, or remove the password. The answer is, we do not have Admin privileges. Passwords and other system settings are enforced by Admin directly into the registry using group policy. We don’t have the privilege of Change settings, edit registry, change date/time, change screensaver and wallpapers. we cant even install any additional software. CD roms and USB drives are disabled too, so no way of boot into a portable Linux or something to hack the registry.
My daughter’s AI “likes”
She has different tastes than I have.
The Sopranos – Tony Soprano and other capos meet behind Junior Soprano’s back!
What is the funniest joke you’ve been told that you still think about to this day?
Two women talking in heaven
1st woman: Hi! Wanda.
2nd woman: Hi! Sylvia. How’d you die?
1st woman: I froze to death.
2nd woman: How horrible!
1st woman: It wasn’t so bad…. After I quit shaking from the cold, I began to get warm & sleepy, and finally died a peaceful death. What about you?
2nd woman: I died of a massive heart attack. I suspected that my husband was cheating, so I came home early to catch him in the act. But instead, I found him all by himself in the den watching TV.
1st woman: So, what happened?
2nd woman: I was so sure there was another woman there somewhere that I started running all over the house looking. I ran up into the attic and searched, and down into the basement. Then I went through every closet and checked under all the beds. I kept this up until I had looked everywhere, and finally I became so exhausted that I just keeled over with a heart attack and died.
1st woman: Too bad you didn’t look in the freezer—we’d both still be alive.
Weather warnings
It’s war: the real meat grinder starts now
Pepe Escobar No more shadow play. It’s now in the open. No holds barred. Exhibit 1: Friday, March 22, 2024. It’s War. The Kremlin, via Peskov, finally admits it, on the record.
The money quote: "Russia cannot allow the existence on its borders of a state that has a documented intention to use any methods to take Crimea away from it, not to mention the territory of new regions." Translation: the Hegemon-constructed Kiev mongrel is doomed, one way or another. The Kremlin signal: "We haven't even started" starts now.
Exhibit 2: Friday afternoon, a few hours after Peskov. Confirmed by a serious European – not Russian – source. The first counter-signal. Regular troops from France, Germany and Poland have arrived, by rail and air, to Cherkassy, south of Kiev. A substantial force. No numbers leaked. They are being housed in schools. For all practical purposes, this is a NATO force.
That signals, “Let the games begin”.
From a Russian point of view, Mr. Khinzal’s business cards are set to be in great demand. Exhibit 3: Friday evening. Terror attack on Crocus City, a music venue northwest of Moscow. A heavily trained commando shoots people on sight, point blank, in cold blood, then sets a concert hall on fire.
The definitive counter-signal: with the battlefield collapsing, all that’s left is terrorism in Moscow. And just as terror was striking Moscow, the US and the UK, in southwest Asia, was bombing Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, with at least five strikes. Some nifty coordination. Yemen has just clinched a strategic deal in Oman with Russia-China for no-hassle navigation in the Red Sea, and is among the top candidates for BRICS+ expansion at the summit in Kazan next October.
Not only the Houthis are spectacularly defeating thalassocracy, they have the Russia-China strategic partnership on their side. Assuring China and Russia that their ships can sail through the Bab-al-Mandeb, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with no problems is exchanged with total political support from Beijing and Moscow.
The sponsors remain the same Deep in the night in Moscow, before dawn on Saturday 23. Virtually no one is sleeping. Rumors dance like dervishes on countless screens. Of course nothing has been confirmed – yet. Only the FSB will have answers. A massive investigation is in progress.
The timing of the Crocus massacre is quite intriguing. On a Friday during Ramadan. Real Muslims would not even think about perpetrating a mass murder of unarmed civilians under such a holy occasion.
Compare it with the ISIS card being frantically branded by the usual suspects.
Let’s go pop.
To quote Talking Heads: “This ain’t no party/ this ain’t no disco/ this ain’t no fooling around”.
Oh no; it’s more like an all-American psy op.
ISIS are cartoonish mercenaries/goons. Not real Muslims.
And everyone knows who finances and weaponizes them. That leads to the most possible scenario, before the FSB weighs in: ISIS goons imported from the Syria battleground – as it stands, probably Tajiks – trained by CIA and MI6, working on behalf of the Ukrainian SBU. Several witnesses at Crocus referred to “Wahhabis” – as in the commando killers did not look like Slavs.
It was up to Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic to cut to the chase.
He directly connected the “warnings” in early March from American and British embassies directed at their citizens not to visit public places in Moscow with CIA/MI6 intel having inside info about possible terrorism, and not disclosing it to Moscow.
The plot thickens when it is established that Crocus is owned by the Agalarovs: an Azeri-Russian billionaire family, very close friends of… … Donald Trump. Talk about a Deep State-pinpointed target. ISIS spin-off or banderistas – the sponsors remain the same.
The clownish secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, was dumb enough to virtually, indirectly confirm they did it, saying on Ukrainian TV, “we will give them [Russians] this kind of fun more often.” But it was up to Sergei Goncharov, a veteran of the elite Russia Alpha anti-terrorism unit, to get closer to unwrapping the enigma: he told Sputnik the most feasible mastermind is Kyrylo Budanov – the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
The “spy chief” who happens to be the top CIA asset in Kiev. It’s got to go till the last Ukrainian The three exhibits above complement what the head of NATO’s military committee, Rob Bauer, previously told a security forum in Kiev: “You need more than just grenades – you need people to replace the dead and wounded. And this means mobilization.”
Translation: NATO spelling out this is a war until the last Ukrainian. And the “leadership” in Kiev still does not get it. Former Minister of Infrastructure Omelyan: “If we win, we will pay back with Russian oil, gas, diamonds and fur. If we lose, there will be no talk of money – the West will think about how to survive.” In parallel, puny “garden-and jungle” Borrell admitted that it would be “difficult” for the EU to find an extra 50 billion euros for Kiev if Washington pulls the plug. The cocaine-fueled sweaty sweatshirt leadership actually believes that Washington is not “helping” in the form of loans, but in the form of free gifts.
And the same applies for the EU. The Theater of the Absurd is unmatchable. The German Liver Sausage Chancellor actually believes that proceeds from stolen Russian assets “do not belong to anyone”, so they can be used to finance extra Kiev weaponizing.
Everyone with a brain knows that using interest from “frozen”, actually stolen Russian assets to weaponize Ukraine is a dead end – unless they steal all of Russia’s assets, roughly $200 billion, mostly parked in Belgium and Switzerland: that would tank the Euro for good, and the whole EU economy for that matter. Eurocrats better listen to Russian Central Bank major “disrupter” (American terminology) Elvira Nabiullina: The Bank of Russia will take “appropriate measures” if the EU does anything on the “frozen”/stolen Russian assets.
It goes without saying that the three exhibits above completely nullify the “La Cage aux Folles” circus promoted by the puny Petit Roi, now known across his French domains as Macronapoleon. Virtually the whole planet, including the English-speaking Global North, had already been mocking the “exploits” of his Can Can Moulin Rouge Army.
So French, German and Polish soldiers, as part of NATO, are already in the south of Kiev. The most possible scenario is that they will stay far, far away from the frontlines – although traceable by Mr. Khinzal’s business activities. Even before this new NATO batch arriving in the south of Kiev, Poland – which happens to serve as prime transit corridor for Kiev’s troops – had confirmed that Western troops are already on the ground.
So this is not about mercenaries anymore. France, by the way, is only 7th in terms of mercenaries on the ground, largely trailing Poland, the US and Georgia, for instance.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has all the precise records. In a nutshell: now war has morphed from Donetsk, Avdeyevka and Belgorod to Moscow. Further on down the road, it may not just stop in Kiev. It may only stop in Lviv. Mr. 87%, enjoying massive national near-unanimity, now has the mandate to go all the way. Especially after Crocus.
There’s every possibility the terror tactics by Kiev goons will finally drive Russia to return Ukraine to its original 17th century landlocked borders: Black Sea-deprived, and with Poland, Romania, and Hungary reclaiming their former territories.
Remaining Ukrainians will start to ask serious questions about what led them to fight – literally to their death – on behalf of the US Deep State, the military complex and BlackRock.
As it stands, the Highway to Hell meat grinder is bound to reach maximum velocity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo
Yep, Parachute pants are awesome.
And I don’t know, but many people say I am cool when I walk around dressed like this.
They all say I look just like Neo.
PS: I did not do anything to these women. After I took the photos, they were talking about Anal Sex in the Talmud and how they’re both 18 despite me meeting them just seconds ago, and I got a big hunch if I followed them to the party they were inviting me to, they’d frame me with something the next day, so I just flew back home for the night.
Yup, you look cool… and also… avoid the chicks. Check and check. -MM