Day: February 24, 2022

It is happening

First, "President" Zelensky was widely reported to have FLED Ukraine, now we have VIDEO PROOF of Speaker of the House FLEEING too!   Real "men" these guys!   You see, folks, when I talked about "soy-boy cucks on the radio last night . . . THIS is exactly what I meant.  All these government types are real bad-asses when they talk, but when they get a punch in the face, they run like little girls.  

- Hal Turner Radio Show "WAR" edition

The chess pieces have been moving into place for years now. But the global realignments have been taking place. They have rarely been reported on, and in stealth mode for some time. All the while, American Presidents came and went. Each one adding their own flavor of insanity to the mix as the United States undergoes collapse.

Here, right now, the visible face of “check” leading toward the inevitable “check mate” has roared forth. And we are going to talk about it here.

The United States had a plan.

And has been following that plan for a long time. It has been doing so religiously. Elements of that plan were established early on, back when George Bush Senior was President. And followed in planned stages over the last forty some years.

The architects of that plan are now long dead.

Those that have taken on their reins or responsibilities are simply not capable, and extraordinary inadequate, for realistic and substantive planning and operations of a strategic nature.

And we are all observing this clusterfuck of great incompetence, silliness, danger and extraordinarily folly.

Not just in the United States, but in all their minions, and proxy nations.

But you know, and should realize, that regardless of who the American President has been, and what they have done, both Russia and China have been planning for the eventual collapse of the United States, and how to manage it globally.

Of course, it’s not reported upon.

Real secrets are kept really secret.

So all the time that America; the United States postured itself globally, and ran this project, or that project, the plans by Russia and China have been moving and being implemented. And while the current crop of American “leadership” worries about LGBT fairness, diversity justice, and increasing its military capability…

… a united Asia is unveiling the final touches to a massive and brilliant execution of Global Geo-politics for a global national power realignment.

No. “Check mate” hasn’t been reached yet.

But, it’s close. Only two to three steps away.

Close to Check Mate.

We are going to discuss that. Because these are historical times, and a very risky period where a crazy, insane, out of control thrashing American Military Empire ruled and controlled by egotistic idiots is capable of any, and the most heinous, acts of madness.

America is gone

The first thing that everyone must realize is that America; the United States, is gone.

It no longer exists.

It hasn’t for decades. It is dead. And like the movie “Weekend at Bernie’s” everyone believes that it is still functional, capable, and healthy. Nothing can be further from the truth.

It is dead.

Weekend at Bernie’s.

But, the thing is, that the illusion of power, control and health is being painstakingly maintained by a ruthless and well-funded media megaphone. It has reached a point, that America has become; turned into, a giant “echo chamber”, and Americans, and the Leadership actually believe their illusions.

It’s terrible, actually.

So, yeah. America is thrashing about wildly and acting absolutely insane. And it’s “allies”, it’s surrogates, are in suicidal lock-step as America marches straight into the “check mate” positioning by a united Asia.

The build up towards the final positioning has been accelerating over the last few months. It’s now out in the open and happening fast.

  • The non-ultimatum sent to the United States
  • China and Russia alignment at the 2022 Olympics.
  • Russia recognizing the breakaway regions of the Ukraine.
  • And America following their long-established road map…

A road map that both Russia and China have copies of, and of which they know exactly what America plans to do, when and how.

The birth of the baby twins: Russia’s strategic swing drives NATOstan nuts

Soy-Boy, Beta-Male, Cucks -- that is what serves in government!  And the ones here in the USA are just like this too!   Remember Jan. 6 how they hid in their offices in the Capital, barred the doors with office furniture, and now can't stop whining about the so-called "insurrection?"  Government officials are beta-male, soy-boy, cucks and the sooner we start treating them that way, the sooner we will get our country back under our control. 

-Hal Turner
16312 Views February 22, 2022 From HERE

By Pepe Escobar

(Written this morning in Istanbul, BEFORE Putin buried the Minsk agreements. Everything else – and beyond – stands.)

History will register that the birth of the baby twins – Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics – only a few hours before 2/22/22, was simultaneous to the birth of the real, 21st century multipolar world.

      • Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)
      • Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR)

As my columns have stressed for a few years now, Vladimir Putin has been carefully nurturing his inner Sun Tzu.

And now it’s all in the open:

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

The thunderbolt was months in the process of being meticulously polished.

To paraphrase Lenin, who “created Ukraine” (copyright Putin), we did live many decades in only these past few days.

      • It all started with the detailed demands of security guarantees sent to the Americans, which Moscow knew would be rejected.  (The so called “non-ultimatum”.)
      • Then there was the Russia-China joint statement at the start of the Winter Olympics – which codifies not only the strategic partnership but also the key tenets of the multipolar world.
      • The culmination was a stunning, nearly one hour-long address to the nation by Putin shortly after the Russian Security Council live session deliberating on the request for independence by the DPR and the LPR (here is a condensed version.)

A few hours later, at an emergency UN Security Council meeting, Russian Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya precisely outlined why the recognition of the baby twins does not bury the Minsk agreements.

The baby twins (DPR & LPR) actually declared their independence in May 2014.

In 2015 they signed the Minsk agreements as one of the interested parties.

Theoretically they could even be back within Ukraine if Kiev would ever decide to respect the agreements, (which will never happen because the US has vetoed it since 2015).

Moreover, the people of Donbass do not want to be subjected to a regime harboring neo-Nazis.

As Nebenzya outlined,

“I would like to remind you that at the time of the conclusion of the Minsk agreements, the LPR and DPR had already declared independence. 

The fact that Russia today recognized it does not change the composition of the parties to the Minsk agreements, since Russia is not one (…) 

Another thing is that the Minsk agreements have long been openly sabotaged by Ukraine under the auspices of our Western colleagues. 

Now we see that many colleagues want to sign that the Minsk agreements are dead. 

But this is not the case (…) 

We are still open to diplomacy, but we do not intend to allow a new bloody massacre in the Donbass.”

And here’s the clincher, directly addressing imperial support for the killing of ethnic Russians in Donbass:

“The main task of our decision [on recognizing independence] was to preserve and protect these lives. 

This is more important than all your threats.”

There you go: Responsibility to Protect (R2P), a concept invented by the Americans to launch wars, used by Russia for preventing one.

That certified nullity, German chancellor Scholz, deriding Putin’s characterization of a genocide in Donbass as “laughable”, was a decisive factor in the birth of the baby wins.

Putin, in his address to the nation, especially took time to detail the Odessa massacre:

“We cannot but shudder when we remember about the situation in Odessa, when people were burned alive (…) 

And those criminals who did this, they are not punished (…) 

But we know their names, and we will do everything to punish them (…) and to bring them to justice.”

What about China?

Geopolitically, in Eurasian terms, two huge questions stand out: [1] the role of the CSTO and [2] the response from China.

If we look at the Article 19, Chapter VI of the  CSTO charter, we learn that,

“any state sharing the goals and principles of the Organization and being ready to undertake the obligations containing in this Charter and other international treaties and resolutions effective within the framework of the Organization may become a member of the Organization.”

That would open the door for the baby twins, as soon as they have finalized all the bureaucratic endeavors pertaining to new, independent nations, to request CSTO membership.

Incidentally, CSTO secretary-general Pashinian has already gone to Moscow to discuss this exact issue.

China is a way more complex proposition.

One of the key tenets of Beijing’s foreign policy is the fight against separatism – embedded in the foundation of the SCO.

So Beijing cannot possibly recognize the baby twins, or what would amount to Novorossiya – yes, Putin did pronounce the magic word – before Kiev itself does or, a serious possibility, completely disintegrates.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry so far has been extremely cautious.

Wang Yi has reiterated;

“China’s long-standing position that the legitimate security concerns of all countries must be respected, and the purposes & principles of the UN Charter must be upheld.”

Further on down the road, presumably after some serious exchanges between Wang Yi and Lavrov, China can always find myriad ways to unofficially help the baby twins – including advancing BRI-related connectivity and sustainable development projects.

As for Kiev disintegration, that’s directly linked to Moscow demanding the immediate stop of the mini-blitzkrieg against Donbass, otherwise they will bear full responsibility.

Yes, regime stalwarts will be hunted and punished – complete with a possible War Crimes Tribunal.

Its no wonder all sorts of oligarchic/political rats, big and small, are scurrying away, to Lviv, Poland and the UK.

The Munich effect

The intervention of all 12 members at the Security Council session, combined with Putin’s address to the nation was the stuff of gripping geopolitical drama.

Putin’s body language and the look in his eyes testified to the immense gravity of the moment – and it all came to the forefront when he embarked in a concise history lesson spanning a century.

Barely containing his anger at the countless ways Russia has been vilified by the West, and taking no prisoners when referring to communism, what mostly stood out was the clear-cut rendition of the insurmountable antagonism between the Anglo-American islands and the civilizational Heartland – or the clash between maritime powers and land powers.

That Eurasia classic was the bulk of his exposition: the recognition of the baby twins took less than three minutes.

The Munich Security Conference, this past weekend, had made it all so explicit.

Munich, as terrifying as it was in terms of a congregation of headless chickens posing as eagles, at least confirmed everything is in the open.

      • The enemy is Russia.
      • NATO infinite expansion – to outer space – is against Russia.
      • And then we had a parade of add-on threats:
        • no disarmament in Eastern Europe,
        • cutting off the Russian economy from the EU,
        • end of Nord Stream 2,
        • Ukraine in NATO,
        • world order built on “universal liberal values”.

Munich spelled out No Compromise Whatsoever – which was exactly what Putin, Lavrov, Patrushev and co. expected.

The warmongering rhetoric burying any meaningful discussion of migration, inflation, cyber wars, the European energy crisis.

And, of course, the only thing that matters for the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex, as defined by Ray McGovern):

      • Let’s milk this Eurotrash lot for untold billions in new contracts.
      • Let’s isolate Russia.
      • Let’s destroy Nord Stream 2 to sell them our ultra expensive LNG.
      • Let’s keep them on a leash – forever.

So actually it’s not even war against Russia: the $30 trillion-indebted Empire with a woke military attached simply could not afford it.

Not to mention the certified freak out in case they receive a phone call from Mr. Khinzal and Mr. Zircon : cue to the spectacular Russian display of “military and technical” superiority, hypersonic and otherwise – staged, irony of ironies, in synch with the circus in Munich.

What we have here is so lame: just a lowlife offer-you-can’t-refuse racket to be inflicted on the EU.

The Indivisible Security dance

The rabid Munich “No Compromise” show; the imperially-ordered Ukro crypto-blitzkrieg against Donbass; and the role of the US Lack of Intelligence Community – an Andrei Martyanov-coined howler – altogether sealed the deal for the Security Council deliberations and Putin’s decision.

Considering the ideological stupidity of the current Brussels gang – Stoltenberg, von der Leyen, Borrell –, incapable of understanding even basic economics, the fact remains that the EU without Russian energy is doomed.

Martyanov stresses the algorithm: Russia can afford the break up with Europe. Europe cannot.

The US just wants to collect.

And we’re not even talking about the dire, incoming ramifications of the systemic crisis across NATOstan.

Even as Moscow plays a very long, calculated game, as it stands that does not necessarily mean that Russia will be “winning” the baby twins while “losing” Europe.

Russia’s strategic swing repeatedly baffles the Atlanticist combo.

The US lack of intelligence community was predicting a Russian “aggression” every other day – and still is.

Instead they got the baby twins as the latest independent republics of the Global South.

Even before Munich, the Ukro crypto-blitzkrieg, and the recognition of the baby twins, Moscow had again warned it may respond with “military and technical measures” to ensure its own security after the US and NATO blatantly ignored key points from its proposal for a long-term European security architecture, and instead “cherry-picked” issues from a package deal.

Moscow will not let the Americans run away from the by now notorious 10-page Russian response.

Putin, addressing the Stavka, had already warned …

“we are in a situation (…) where we are forced to resolve it.”

Which bring us to what John Helmer niftly qualified as Russia’s black box defense.

The beauty is no one knows what’s inside the black box.

Enter, once again, the “military-technical measures” that will be “reciprocal” (Putin) to what US and NATOstan are already deploying against Russia.

They won’t necessarily be implemented in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, in the airspace above Donbass, even in cyberspace.

It could be anywhere – from the Syrian theater to Latin America. From Brussels to New York City.

Surprise!

That’s what strategic ambivalence, ambiguity, or – let’s get down to the rhythm – swing is all about.

You don’t believe in the principle of indivisible security?

  • Fine.

Now we dictate the security rhythm.

You’re not gonna stop deploying nuclear weapons outside your territory?

  • Fine.

Here’s some reciprocity.

You’re not gonna accept legally binding guarantees of our security?

  • Fine.

Meet our “military-technical” measures.

Now dance, suckers.

Scenes from the Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday 24FEB22 in what appeared to be the start of war in Europe. The reason for this war is that Russia demanded that NATO and the United States agreed to the treaties that they signed. These treaties pledges no NATO’s eastward expansion, and no nuclear weapons placed near Russian boarders.

He’s sending the Russian army into LNR/DNR, or rather a “Special army operation aimed at demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine to protect people against genocide.

His goal is the demilitarization of Ukraine as well as putting those responsible for attacks upon Donetsk and Luhansk on trial.

In his speech, Putin also said…

"I must appeal to the military of Ukraine, you swore an oath to the people, not the junta, I urge you to immediately lay down your arms and go home. All Ukrainian servicemen who lay down their arms will be able to return to their families.”

There are reports that entire groups are following this advice, and putting their weapons down on the spot and fleeing in droves.

Shortly after Putin spoke in a special televised address on Russian state TV, explosions could be heard in the pre-dawn quiet of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Gunfire rattled near the capital’s main airport, the Interfax news agency said.

Explosions also rocked the breakaway eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk and civilian aircraft were warned away as the United States said a major attack by Russia on its neighbor was imminent.

Putin said he had authorized a special military operation in breakaway areas of eastern Ukraine and clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces were only a matter of time.

Hours earlier, pro-Russian separatists issued a plea to Moscow for help to stop alleged Ukrainian aggression.  This was dismissed by the United States as Russian propaganda.

Putin said he had ordered Russian forces to protect the people and demanded Ukrainian forces lay down their arms.

"All responsibility for bloodshed will be on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine," .

He repeated his position that NATO expansion to include Ukraine was unacceptable and said Russia had been left with no choice but to defend itself against what he said were threats emanating from Ukraine.

He ended his speech with remarks that seems to be aimed directly at the US and NATO:

"To anyone who would consider interfering from the outside: if you do, you will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history. All relevant decisions have been taken. I hope you hear me."

The scope of the Russian military operation was not immediately clear.  However, Russian Strategic Bombers are in the air right now.

Russian Strategic Bomber Voice HF active on 8131 Kilohertz USB at 0215 GMT.

Aircraft are passing short figure messages to ground control. Very busy!

You can monitor the frequency online at the following receiver in Europe. Type in 8131 and click on USB. http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901  Choose USB (Upper Side Band)

Moscow has long denied that it has plans to invade despite massing tens of thousands of troops near its neighbor.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Moscow had approved an offensive and had not replied to an invitation for talks.

"Today I initiated a telephone conversation with the President of the Russian Federation. The result was silence,"

U.S. President Joe Biden said his prayers were with the people of Ukraine.

In the hours to come Russia will…

  • -conduct strikes on air defense systems
  • – move to cut off Kiev from eastern Ukraine
  • -move to cut off Ukraine’s military forces on the line of contact in the east to prevent them from falling back to defend Kiev.

First Reports

Vlad orders military operations in Ukraine, demands Kyiv forces surrender...
Warns West of consequences greater than any in history if interferes...
Zelenskiy Says Suffered 'Serious Losses' As Air Strikes Hit 25 Cities...
Calls on citizens to fight, promises weapons...
Blasts Before Dawn. Rooster's Crow. Then Panic...
Photos, Video Emerge: 'That's F*cking Missile!'
Horror images of blood-drenched civilians...
Child Among First to be Killed...
Many flee to Poland...
Worst European Crisis of Postwar Era...
Baltics wondering: Are we next?
State TV paints Moscow as savior...
NATO to deploy more troops...
TRUMP: LET'S GO, PUTIN!
China Nods to Russia Interests...
World expresses outrage...
SKYNEWS LIVE...

From Rense

Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2022 14:53
Subject: Ukraine News Update

Russia has destroyed Ukraine’s air force and air defenses. Ukraine’s airports have cars and tractors parked on the runways to prevent Russian transport planes from landing. So Russian VDV (airborn) troops will soon parachute in and remove blocking vehicles. CONFIRMED AND VDV TROOPS HAVE LANDED IN MULTIPLE CITIES.
I have seen messages and photos purportedly from Kiev saying Russian missiles have landed on specific targets there. CONFIRMED

It was reported yesterday that Zelensky has a secret account in a German bank in Latin America totalling $1.2 billion. He was reportedly getting between $12 and $35 million monthly from ukrop billionaire oligarchs Akmetov, Pinchuk and Kolomoisky.

LATEST NEWS FROM HIGHLY RELIABLE SOURCES –

Good morning! There is a total coercion of Ukraine to the WORLD! The morons twitched on the offensive at night on the LDNR. Get it. Sign!

  • The first video footage from Odessa
  • According to preliminary data, Mariupol was liberated
  • Losses of the neo-Nazi regiment “Azov” as a result of a missile and bomb attack reach HUNDREDS of people
  • The footage shows the arrivals of MLRS missiles near Kharkov
  • Units of the LPR began to liberate the Ukrainian-controlled city of Shchastia
  • Zelensky introduces coniferous situation throughout Ukraine
  • ALL Ukrainian Navy destroyed or rendered unusable
  • Russian armed forces seized several checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Russian border in the Sumy region.
  • Missile strikes are carried out on the targets of the tactical aviation brigade near Vasilkov, the main air defense aviation of Ukraine.
  • Russian strategic aviation in the air.
  • Throughout Ukraine, cruise and ballistic missiles are destroying military infrastructure and strategically important facilities.
  • ALL Ukrainian Navy destroyed or rendered unusable
  • Russian armed forces seized several checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Russian border in the Sumy region.
  • Missile strikes are carried out on the targets of the tactical aviation brigade near Vasilkov, the main air defense aviation of Ukraine.
  • Russian strategic aviation in the air.
  • Throughout Ukraine, cruise and ballistic missiles are destroying military infrastructure and strategically important facilities.
  • Explosions near Boryspil airport.
  • A military unit was covered in Kharkov. Just now two explosions were also heard in the vicinity of Dnepropetrovsk.
  • Grads are working along the entire front
  • They report the beginning of landing operations of the Black Sea Fleet in the Sea of Azov.
  • It is reported about the downing of bayraktars located in the sky
  • Land units go to the Dnieper, Mariupol and Kharkov
  • Access to the maritime borders of the Black and Azov Seas is cut off. In the Odessa region, a landing took place from the BDK and helicopter aviation
  • In Dnepropetrovsk, cannonade and battle near the airport
  • CNN correspondent live from Kiev said he heard a series of explosions.
  • The lanes at all closed airports are blocked by tractors to prevent a possible landing of aircraft with troops – information from the field.
  • Attacks on military depots in Odessa are reported. Explosions one after another
  • Ukrop Army fired on central Donetsk during the night, but all is quiet here now.
This is just the beginning of the full liberation and de-nazification of Ukraine, at least as far as Kiev.
Things are unfolding just exactly like I said they would.

The Crusaders are very, very angry. Who cares?

16818 Views February 22, 2022 From HERE
.

I just listened to Biden (here if you have the stomach). Oh he is pissed, badly.  Putin totally and comprehensively ignored him or the USA (one sign of that is that Putin did warn Scholz and Macron but, apparently, nobody told the White House).

Scholz truly scared the Kremlin when he told that he pulled back the certification of NS2 “jetzt” that is “now”.

Okay, he probably misspoke, he meant “no NS2 forever!”.

Scholz is one tough cookie!

I love it when petty flaccid Eurognomes try to scare Russia.

With sanctions, of all things.

This is RUSSIA we are talking about.

Of all people, the Germans ought to know better.

I guess they don’t.

  • Fine, I wish the Germans lots of fun!

Speaking of NS2, two small factoids:

      • gas prices are already up by 10% in the spot markets.
      • Thanks to the increase of the energy prices Gazprom has already paid for the construction of NS2 with that extra windfall (that according to a senior Duma member, Petr Tolstoy).

Where do you think this is headed?

Exactly, me too!

Biden also said something two really interesting in his otherwise totally vapid speed.

First, he asked who the hell Putin thought he was to recognize states in other sovereign nations?

Second, he warned Russia: we shall judge you by your actions.

I think I can help Biden and give him two very simple replies:

  1. Putin is the President of Russia and he does ask for anybody’s approval, least of all – the USA’s.
  2. You don’t get to judge Russia.  That ship has sailed.  If anything, the day will come when Zone B will judge you on a 21st century of the Nuremberg Tribunal.  As Putin said “we have all their names”.

But I also know this: in the minds of the leaders of Zone A both of these replies are literally *unthinkable*.  Ok.

Hence, they will have to be shown that which they currently cannot fathom.

Today the Russian Duma and Federation Council have ratified all the needed documents and given Putin the right to engage Russian forces abroad.

Where exactly was not specified.

Putin was asked about where he would engage the Russian forces and he basically reply “wait and see, we will use them wherever needed and to comply with all our obligations”.

Putin loves to make the western Tabaki-jackals guess his next move.  He is now openly trolling them 🙂

 

Western Crusaders attacking Russia is nothing new.

But in the past, the Crusaders were at least a credible threat (at times, even a very credible one).

But the modern Crusaders are a joke.

Their threats are a joke, their armed forces are a joke and their leaders are a joke.

A good example is Biden sending more of this invincible military forces to the Baltic statelets.

I am sure the Russians are now truly terrified.

What we do know is the the good folks at Commentary Mag are bracing for impact.

Will the people of the USA find out, for the very first time, that the actions of their rulers can actually directly impact them personally?

God willing, they will learn fast and act accordingly.

What about the Ukros?

So far, they have mostly ignored Putin’s warnings to “immediately cease the attacks against the LDNR”.

I don’t know if they are amazingly courageous, very dumb or suicidal.

Either way, I would recommend they heed Putin’s warning, there shall be no more warnings.

True, the know that their western masters don’t give a damn about Russian lives, mass graves, thousands of kidnapped “separatists”, numerous torture centers or open calls to murder.

  • Fine.  So for 8 years the Ukronazis have murdered the Russian by the tens of thousands.

But don’t they understand that their lives will be the next one?

Or do they really think that the western “advisors” will protect them?

Oh well, I guest that, again, they will have to be shown that which they currently cannot fathom.

By the way,

From a legal point of view, until now Russia has insisted that this was an internal Ukrainian civil war and not an international conflict.

Now this has changed.

Now, from the point of view of the Kremlin, this is now an international conflict directly involving Russia.

 

Here I want to use the occasion to congratulate the United West and, especially, the Ukronazis.  For seven years you dreamed about a war involving Russia.

BRAVO! Congrats – now you got what you fought so hard for: the Russian bear has *officially* placed a paw on the LDNR.

Now I want to see who you all will volunteer to make move first to make him remove that paw 🙂

Maybe the US forces in the Baltics?

Or the Poles?

Maybe the Czechs or even the Brits?

Something tells me that “super-pooper sanctions from hell” and hurricanes of hot air are more likely.

Crusaders are not like they used to be.

Good.

Andrei

So what are we actually talking about here?

We are talking about SERIOUS consequences made by idiots who have no concept about what kind of deep-shit that they are in now. They simply do not realize that they are in deep, deep shit.

We are talking about a cocky know-it-all little punk bully threatening a group of  big, burly, mean and nasty hard-core bikers.

The bullet is going to hit the bone.

HERE

I do not know how it will happen, nor, what will happen. I do not know when it will happen, or any of the particulars. But I do know THAT it will happen.

It will be very bad.

Certainly the American media are hyping up war. But they are just treating it like some kind of Baseball game, and not the threat of massive nuclear destruction of the host cities (American, British, NATO) promoting this danger.

To imagine that the United States would remain unscathed after all this provication (not to mention their color revolution that set up the current Neo-Nazi regime in 2014) is unfathonable.

But there you have it. Spin the narrative…

Others, including myself, have suggested that it might include a nuclear first strike. Maybe or maybe not. As I see things, the USA is already half destroyed as it is. Why use a cannon when a slingshot will do?

But seriously, and cautiously, realize that Asia is defining the rules right now. And the expectations of the collective West might as well be thrown out the window. They are as obsolete as a buggy whip.

Putin goes to Siberia

Whoa!

Russia Fires “Warning Shots” at American Navy

Russian ship “Admiral Essen” fires warning shots in front of US ships in the Black Sea.

Russian ship “Admiral Essen”.

The Russians report that the frigate “Admiral Essen” fired warning shots in front of American ships in the Black Sea.

"The appearance of three US Navy ships has forced Russia to show strength to the US military and use radical methods to reassure them of the protection of its borders."

That is why the frigate “Admiral Essen” fired Kalibr cruise missiles in front of American ships.

At the moment we are talking about a practical training ” the Russian media report and emphasize the” for now “while adding:

"All the targets were successfully hit by the Russian cruise missiles, although the exact area and the distance they traveled were not known."
"Russia has successfully completed the launch of the missiles and has shown its readiness to use these weapons against anyone who threatens Russia,"

…said a Russian expert.

[link to 2gtdmthbqrehz3iksvu4arzody-adwhj77lcyoafdy-warnews247-gr.tran​slate.goog (secure)]

Nuclear thoughts…

Look at some “nuclear strike maps”.

Many of the nuclear strike maps were made before Russia and China developed systems to shoot down ICBMs and SLBM missiles. They also reflected an industrial base that disappeared in the 1980s.

In the map below, it suggests that the Russians would hit the underground ICBM silos, knock out Pittsburgh, and Syracuse. My guess that it would be a quite different target map.

And here in this map, the strikes as triangles are most accurate. Though you wouldn’t need to launch all those nuclear bombs to take out the coastal cities. Just generate a huge tidal wave with the Satan 2 standoff weapon.

And here we see that FEMA still ignores the Satan 2, and the irrelevance of the Underground Minuteman silos.

Not a joke

The United States has grown accustomed to picking on nations, sanctioning them, starting “color revolutions”, sabotaging their food supplies and all the rest. Now, both Russia and China told the United States to STOP.

And the United States said no.

And it’s allies agreed with the United States, and also said no

And I really don’t think thay are ready for the consequences of dealing with a very angry and pissed off Asia. As the consequences can end up being most lethal…

 

Conclusions

There’s a major realignment of global power taking place. The fulcrum is now directly under us. And as such the balance of power is now tipping and changing. And like all changes in equilibrium, once the tipping point has been reached, the changes come quick, fast and sudden.

Look at all the things that happened since three months ago. Things are moving fast, and swift.

No need to panic, that is unless you are an avid consumer of Western “news” or are a technology billionaire of some pedigree.

Just stay calm and let the changes manifest. Things will be fine in the afterwards. They really will.

In the meantime, appreciate what you have. Worrying about a future that might not materialize is fruitless. It has been my experience that our fears never happen, but change does.

So enjoy what you have…

A Nice Chinese girl

She looks like she could really use a nice delicious meal. Along with a nice light wine, and some delicious salad.

I love her eyes. They are really big.

video 3MB

Seriously.

Don’t worry too much. Spend time with people, pets and your loves. Food should never be an afterthought, and if you have been putting off drinking because of some health reason, then stop. Start enjoying life while you still can.

Good thoughts.

Good actions, words of kindness and support, and being a contributor to the betterment of your community are the tickets out of the cage of fear that the medica has created for you.

Kick that damn door down.

Get the hell out.

Grab a partner and live life.

Cuddle on the beach.

What are you waiting for?

An invitation?

Tracking the Ukraine offensive

You can follow the Russian suppression of the US-installed puppet regime in the Ukraine here…

  • Hal Turner has a great blow-by-blow real-time running thread HERE.
  • GodLikeProductions has a pretty decent forum HERE.
  • Victoria has a nice Facebook page in great detail HERE.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings 3

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

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Rambling thoughts during an extreme period of change

It is happening.

What? You might ask.

Historic times.

Well, it is the big sequence of long overdue change. And this time, it’s not unwinding due to emotion, or traps or public opinion. No. Instead, it is being orchestrated by talented merit-driven leaders with strong consensus and direction from very powerful entities.

No. They are not like this fella…

Florida, 1956

So what we are going to do here is ramble on and discuss s series and sequence of events on the global stage.

And no. It’s not going to be like what is being reported. As what President Putin did is unexpected. He did not invade the Ukraine. But rather recognized that it fractured into separate nations and is supporting the separation via policing it.

All American “news” is now on PAUSE as they figure out how to “spin” these events and concoct a new narrative.

The day Russia’s patience ran out

2022-02-22

Today’s date, commonly written out as 22.02.2022, will be an easy one for future schoolchildren to remember. Various people will remember it in various ways. The residents of Donetsk and Lugansk, the two formerly Ukrainian, now once again Russian cities that have been subjected to conditions bordering on genocide since the US-instigated government overthrow of 2014 will remember jubilantly dancing in the streets, shooting off lots of fireworks, waving Russian flags and hollering the Russian national anthem. For them, this is the day on which new hope arrived that their eight-year nightmare would soon be over and life would finally return to normal.

The badly informed new German chancellor inadvertently helped to resolve the situation by saying that the idea of a Ukrainian-caused genocide in the Donbass is ridiculous. Given the history of the region, the public spectacle of a German leader using the words “genocide” and “ridiculous” in the same sentence made the moment pregnant with possibilities. Here is the information the seemingly rather dim-witted chancellor was missing. There were 9,282 dead on the Donbass side (70% of them civilians) and 114 children. The dead on the Ukrainian side (the Ukrainian troops and various assorted mercenaries that had been attacking and laying siege to the Donbass since 2014) numbered 20,186. This was prior to the renewed Ukrainian shelling of recent days. There were also over two million Donbass refugees in Russia, more than one million in the Ukraine and around 50 thousand in Belarus.

Most Russians will also remember this day with relief as the day their government finally—finally! after eight literally bloody years!—determined that a negotiated settlement in the Ukraine would simply never happen and that there was no point in waiting any further before going ahead and cleaning it up.

The following is BIG news. Real news. Not the fake “manufactured narrative” out of the United States media mills. Pay attention. This is the English translation form the Russian ministry website HERE.

Address by the President of the Russian Federation

The Kremlin, Moscow
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Citizens of Russia, friends,

My address concerns the events in Ukraine and why this is so important for us, for Russia. Of course, my message is also addressed to our compatriots in Ukraine.

The matter is very serious and needs to be discussed in depth.

The situation in Donbass has reached a critical, acute stage. I am speaking to you directly today not only to explain what is happening but also to inform you of the decisions being made as well as potential further steps.

I would like to emphasise again that Ukraine is not just a neighbouring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space. These are our comrades, those dearest to us – not only colleagues, friends and people who once served together, but also relatives, people bound by blood, by family ties.

Since time immemorial, the people living in the south-west of what has historically been Russian land have called themselves Russians and Orthodox Christians. This was the case before the 17th century, when a portion of this territory rejoined the Russian state, and after.

It seems to us that, generally speaking, we all know these facts, that this is common knowledge. Still, it is necessary to say at least a few words about the history of this issue in order to understand what is happening today, to explain the motives behind Russia’s actions and what we aim to achieve.

So, I will start with the fact that modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia or, to be more precise, by Bolshevik, Communist Russia. This process started practically right after the 1917 revolution, and Lenin and his associates did it in a way that was extremely harsh on Russia – by separating, severing what is historically Russian land. Nobody asked the millions of people living there what they thought.

Then, both before and after the Great Patriotic War, Stalin incorporated in the USSR and transferred to Ukraine some lands that previously belonged to Poland, Romania and Hungary. In the process, he gave Poland part of what was traditionally German land as compensation, and in 1954, Khrushchev took Crimea away from Russia for some reason and also gave it to Ukraine. In effect, this is how the territory of modern Ukraine was formed.

But now I would like to focus attention on the initial period of the USSR’s formation. I believe this is extremely important for us. I will have to approach it from a distance, so to speak.

I will remind you that after the 1917 October Revolution and the subsequent Civil War, the Bolsheviks set about creating a new statehood. They had rather serious disagreements among themselves on this point. In 1922, Stalin occupied the positions of both the General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the People’s Commissar for Ethnic Affairs. He suggested building the country on the principles of autonomisation that is, giving the republics – the future administrative and territorial entities – broad powers upon joining a unified state.

Lenin criticised this plan and suggested making concessions to the nationalists, whom he called “independents” at that time. Lenin’s ideas of what amounted in essence to a confederative state arrangement and a slogan about the right of nations to self-determination, up to secession, were laid in the foundation of Soviet statehood. Initially they were confirmed in the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR in 1922, and later on, after Lenin’s death, were enshrined in the 1924 Soviet Constitution.

This immediately raises many questions. The first is really the main one: why was it necessary to appease the nationalists, to satisfy the ceaselessly growing nationalist ambitions on the outskirts of the former empire? What was the point of transferring to the newly, often arbitrarily formed administrative units – the union republics – vast territories that had nothing to do with them? Let me repeat that these territories were transferred along with the population of what was historically Russia.

Moreover, these administrative units were de facto given the status and form of national state entities. That raises another question: why was it necessary to make such generous gifts, beyond the wildest dreams of the most zealous nationalists and, on top of all that, give the republics the right to secede from the unified state without any conditions?

At first glance, this looks absolutely incomprehensible, even crazy. But only at first glance. There is an explanation. After the revolution, the Bolsheviks’ main goal was to stay in power at all costs, absolutely at all costs. They did everything for this purpose: accepted the humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, although the military and economic situation in Kaiser Germany and its allies was dramatic and the outcome of the First World War was a foregone conclusion, and satisfied any demands and wishes of the nationalists within the country.

When it comes to the historical destiny of Russia and its peoples, Lenin’s principles of state development were not just a mistake; they were worse than a mistake, as the saying goes. This became patently clear after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Of course, we cannot change past events, but we must at least admit them openly and honestly, without any reservations or politicking. Personally, I can add that no political factors, however impressive or profitable they may seem at any given moment, can or may be used as the fundamental principles of statehood.

I am not trying to put the blame on anyone. The situation in the country at that time, both before and after the Civil War, was extremely complicated; it was critical. The only thing I would like to say today is that this is exactly how it was. It is a historical fact. Actually, as I have already said, Soviet Ukraine is the result of the Bolsheviks’ policy and can be rightfully called “Vladimir Lenin’s Ukraine.” He was its creator and architect. This is fully and comprehensively corroborated by archival documents, including Lenin’s harsh instructions regarding Donbass, which was actually shoved into Ukraine. And today the “grateful progeny” has overturned monuments to Lenin in Ukraine. They call it decommunization.

You want decommunization? Very well, this suits us just fine. But why stop halfway? We are ready to show what real decommunizations would mean for Ukraine.

Going back to history, I would like to repeat that the Soviet Union was established in the place of the former Russian Empire in 1922. But practice showed immediately that it was impossible to preserve or govern such a vast and complex territory on the amorphous principles that amounted to confederation. They were far removed from reality and the historical tradition.

It is logical that the Red Terror and a rapid slide into Stalin’s dictatorship, the domination of the communist ideology and the Communist Party’s monopoly on power, nationalisation and the planned economy – all this transformed the formally declared but ineffective principles of government into a mere declaration. In reality, the union republics did not have any sovereign rights, none at all. The practical result was the creation of a tightly centralised and absolutely unitary state.

In fact, what Stalin fully implemented was not Lenin’s but his own principles of government. But he did not make the relevant amendments to the cornerstone documents, to the Constitution, and he did not formally revise Lenin’s principles underlying the Soviet Union. From the look of it, there seemed to be no need for that, because everything seemed to be working well in conditions of the totalitarian regime, and outwardly it looked wonderful, attractive and even super-democratic.

And yet, it is a great pity that the fundamental and formally legal foundations of our state were not promptly cleansed of the odious and utopian fantasies inspired by the revolution, which are absolutely destructive for any normal state. As it often happened in our country before, nobody gave any thought to the future.

It seems that the Communist Party leaders were convinced that they had created a solid system of government and that their policies had settled the ethnic issue for good. But falsification, misconception, and tampering with public opinion have a high cost. The virus of nationalist ambitions is still with us, and the mine laid at the initial stage to destroy state immunity to the disease of nationalism was ticking. As I have already said, the mine was the right of secession from the Soviet Union.

In the mid-1980s, the increasing socioeconomic problems and the apparent crisis of the planned economy aggravated the ethnic issue, which essentially was not based on any expectations or unfulfilled dreams of the Soviet peoples but primarily the growing appetites of the local elites.

However, instead of analysing the situation, taking appropriate measures, first of all in the economy, and gradually transforming the political system and government in a well-considered and balanced manner, the Communist Party leadership only engaged in open doubletalk about the revival of the Leninist principle of national self-determination.

Moreover, in the course of power struggle within the Communist Party itself, each of the opposing sides, in a bid to expand its support base, started to thoughtlessly incite and encourage nationalist sentiments, manipulating them and promising their potential supporters whatever they wished. Against the backdrop of the superficial and populist rhetoric about democracy and a bright future based either on a market or a planned economy, but amid a true impoverishment of people and widespread shortages, no one among the powers that be was thinking about the inevitable tragic consequences for the country.

Next, they entirely embarked on the track beaten at the inception of the USSR and pandering to the ambitions of the nationalist elites nurtured within their own party ranks. But in so doing, they forgot that the CPSU no longer had – thank God – the tools for retaining power and the country itself, tools such as state terror and a Stalinist-type dictatorship, and that the notorious guiding role of the party was disappearing without a trace, like a morning mist, right before their eyes.

And then, the September 1989 plenary session of the CPSU Central Committee approved a truly fatal document, the so-called ethnic policy of the party in modern conditions, the CPSU platform. It included the following provisions, I quote: “The republics of the USSR shall possess all the rights appropriate to their status as sovereign socialist states.”

The next point: “The supreme representative bodies of power of the USSR republics can challenge and suspend the operation of the USSR Government’s resolutions and directives in their territory.”

And finally: “Each republic of the USSR shall have citizenship of its own, which shall apply to all of its residents.”

Wasn’t it clear what these formulas and decisions would lead to?

Now is not the time or place to go into matters pertaining to state or constitutional law, or define the concept of citizenship. But one may wonder: why was it necessary to rock the country even more in that already complicated situation? The facts remain.

Even two years before the collapse of the USSR, its fate was actually predetermined. It is now that radicals and nationalists, including and primarily those in Ukraine, are taking credit for having gained independence. As we can see, this is absolutely wrong. The disintegration of our united country was brought about by the historic, strategic mistakes on the part of the Bolshevik leaders and the CPSU leadership, mistakes committed at different times in state-building and in economic and ethnic policies. The collapse of the historical Russia known as the USSR is on their conscience.

Despite all these injustices, lies and outright pillage of Russia, it was our people who accepted the new geopolitical reality that took shape after the dissolution of the USSR, and recognised the new independent states. Not only did Russia recognise these countries, but helped its CIS partners, even though it faced a very dire situation itself. This included our Ukrainian colleagues, who turned to us for financial support many times from the very moment they declared independence. Our country provided this assistance while respecting Ukraine’s dignity and sovereignty.

According to expert assessments, confirmed by a simple calculation of our energy prices, the subsidised loans Russia provided to Ukraine along with economic and trade preferences, the overall benefit for the Ukrainian budget in the period from 1991 to 2013 amounted to $250 billion.

However, there was more to it than that. By the end of 1991, the USSR owed some $100 billion to other countries and international funds. Initially, there was this idea that all former Soviet republics will pay back these loans together, in the spirit of solidarity and proportionally to their economic potential. However, Russia undertook to pay back all Soviet debts and delivered on this promise by completing this process in 2017.

In exchange for that, the newly independent states had to hand over to Russia part of the Soviet foreign assets. An agreement to this effect was reached with Ukraine in December 1994. However, Kiev failed to ratify these agreements and later simply refused to honour them by making demands for a share of the Diamond Treasury, gold reserves, as well as former USSR property and other assets abroad.

Nevertheless, despite all these challenges, Russia always worked with Ukraine in an open and honest manner and, as I have already said, with respect for its interests. We developed our ties in multiple fields. Thus, in 2011, bilateral trade exceeded $50 billion. Let me note that in 2019, that is before the pandemic, Ukraine’s trade with all EU countries combined was below this indicator.

At the same time, it was striking how the Ukrainian authorities always preferred dealing with Russia in a way that ensured that they enjoy all the rights and privileges while remaining free from any obligations.

The officials in Kiev replaced partnership with a parasitic attitude acting at times in an extremely brash manner. Suffice it to recall the continuous blackmail on energy transits and the fact that they literally stole gas.

I can add that Kiev tried to use dialogue with Russia as a bargaining chip in its relations with the West, using the threat of closer ties with Russia for blackmailing the West to secure preferences by claiming that otherwise Russia would have a bigger influence in Ukraine.

To be continued.

Breaking News Feb 21, 4pm US Central Time: Today the World Changed

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I listened to Putin’s address to the Russian people, indeed, to the entire world, following his meeting with the Security Council. He expressed his sadness that negotiating with the West has taught him complete distrust of Washington, and Putin made it clear that Russia would be prepared for the war that Washington is intent to bring to Russia.

Putin said that for 8 years he had tried to bring peace to the Ukraine situation in a way that would keep the breakaway republics as part of Ukraine, but had been frustrated by Washington. Consequently, he has no alternative but to announce Russia’s recognition of the two republics, something he says should have been done years ago. He signed mutual aid treaties with both republics.

Andrei Martyanov provides in Russian and in English translation Moscow’s demand to Ukraine:

Президент подчеркнул, что Москва требует от киевских властей “незамедлительно прекратить боевые действия, <…> в противном случае, вся ответственность за возможное продолжение кровопролития будет целиком и полностью на совести правящего на территории Украины режима”.

Translation: Moscow demands from Kiev to immediately stop all hostilities, otherwise all responsibility for possible continuation of the bloodshed will be fully on the consciousness of the regime ruling in Ukraine.

Russian armed forces have been issued orders to ensure provision of peace on the territory of the Independent Republics.

https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/02/free-free-at-last.html

Of course, this will be described by the presstitutes as a Russian invasion, and the fool in the White House will highlight US impotence by imposing sanctions.

From this time forward, provocations of Russia will become increasingly dangerous.

Russian military systems

Just a review of things that are not reported in the West..
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Now, let’s go to China.

Nice Chinese girl at harvest time

This gal is showing how to pick tea leaves to make the best tea. You know, China is a great land of tea, and there are so many kinds and types of tea to drink and choose from. This great video illustrates her technique and you can easily see the time and effort that goes into making the best blend of tea.

video

Crock-Pot Beef Bourguignon

Watching all these tumultuous changes really builds up an appetite.

This is the kind of food that my mother used to make for me. It’s not made at restrurants. No. You have to make it at home with talent and love. Look at it. It’s awesome.

Beef Bourguignon.

Beef Bourguignon traces its roots back for centuries, and this crockpot version guarantees you can fix up this classic dish with minimum hassle. This rich stew of beef, carrots, onions, and more will make you long for the old country and times past, even if you’ve never tasted it before.

Get the recipe from The View from Great Island.

Major Matt Mason

Now, for an escape to the 1960s. There was a brief time when Americans focused on going into Space instead of fighting wars. And even though there was a Vietnam war, most people just wanted to make love instead of war.

As I said; it was a brief period of time.

This was a toy that I used to play with when I was a boy in the 1960s. I had the white-suited Major Matt Mason, and his basic accessory kit, as well as the Space Station. In truth I was enviouos of my friends who had the tractor, and the other vehicle kits.

I would imagine myself going into space and meeting space aliens and working with them for the good of all humanity.

LOL.

"Major Matt Mason. He was a great astronaut: a full-on, lifelike astronaut, made with rubber and wire, kind of like Gumby. He was bendable and poseable, and I went through a few of them because after a while the wires get all twisted."

-Tom Hanks, when asked "What was your favorite toy as a kid?" by Disney Adventures magazine

1967 was not a good year for America. The military was beginning to get bogged down in the quagmire that was Southeast Asia, though the disastrous Tet Offensive was still a year away.

Hot on the heels of the successful Project Gemini, NASA was dealt a crushing blow on January 27th, 1967, when the crew of Apollo 1 burned alive on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

President Lyndon B. Johnson was so disgusted with his role in the whole state of affairs that he eventually chose not to run for reelection.

Despite troubles at home and abroad, a toy line emerged that hinted at happier, more imaginative times ahead. The toy was Major Matt Mason, “Mattel’s Man in Space”.

Major Matt Mason was a rubber astronaut who stood six inches tall, wore a white space suit and came with a removable space helmet and visor.

His internal wire skeleton allowed him to bend at any joint, and his space suit was based on an actual NASA prototype. The space program was quickly making a comeback from Apollo 1, and with a real lunar landing a mere two years away, Mattel could not have asked for a better time to market a toy based on exploring the moon.

Initially, Mattel had intended to make a simple line of space toys centered on a single astronaut. Major Matt Mason, “the bravest astronaut yet”, was rolled out in the summer of 1967 and gave Mattel a huge hit in the Christmas season of that year.

That first year’s offerings consisted of a carded accessory pack known as the Flight Set, which featured a Major Matt Mason figure, the Jet Pack, the Space Sled, and the flamethrower-like Decontamination Gun.

The Jet Pack could be strapped to a figure and made to travel along a string, giving the illusion of flight. When attached to the Space Sled, that toy could “fly”, too.

Also available were the Space Crawler, the two-story Space Station, and a clunky bell-shaped Moon Suit.

One of the major selling points for the toys was Mattel’s claim that they were based on actual NASA designs, and for the very first toys, this was at least partially true.

Mattel’s Moon Suit toy is a carbon copy of the prototype seen on the cover of the April 27th, 1962 issue of LIFE Magazine, right down to the red stripes and large “3” emblazoned on the front.

Photos have surfaced of an early space suit that features bellows-like joints, just like the space suits of Mattel’s astronauts.

The public’s early naiveté towards lunar conditions carried through to Matt’s tools. Among other items, the Flight Set came with binoculars and a flare gun, two items that would’ve been completely useless on the moon.

Of course, the toys were designed at a time when one of NASA’s prototype lunar landers had astronauts descending to the moon’s surface by way of a knotted rope. (Yes, really.)

Impressed by the line’s sales, Mattel quickly sent more vehicles, astronauts, and aliens to join the lonely Major on the moon.

The Astronauts

First and foremost in the line was Major Matt Mason, who could be purchased individually or on a blister card with various accessories, such as the Talking Rocket Pack or Moon Suit.

Sergeant Storm landed in 1968 clad in a red space suit and was available alone or combined with other toys, just like Matt. Astronauts Doug Davis (wearing a yellow space suit) and Jeff Long (in blue) followed in 1969.

The figures’ packaging denoted Davis as a radiation expert, while Long, in addition to being the only astronaut who’s last name doesn’t form an alliteration with his first, scouted out rocket landing sites.

Unlike Mason and Storm, who could be purchased in a plethora of other sets, Davis was only available by himself or with two other sets, both of them rare. Long, an African-American, was only sold individually and is the least common of the human figures.

The Aliens

Any line of space toys worth its stardust will have an interesting array of aliens; Mattel made no exception with Major Matt Mason’s extraterrestrial friends.

Captain Lazer

I don’t care what anyone says. This was not part of the Major Matt Mason world.

Many collectors speculate that Captain Lazer, a humanoid Martian released in 1968, was actually intended for another toy line altogether.

Besides standing twice the height of the other astronauts, Captain Lazer was made of hard plastic instead of flexible rubber and was so large that he was only compatible with one of the line’s vehicles.

Not that Captain Lazer wanted for cool features…by pressing buttons on the figure’s backpack, his eyes, chest emblem, and lazer gun attachments could all be lit up. Although the Captain Lazer figure is fairly common, his accessories are frequently missing, driving up the cost of loose, complete figures. (A decade later, Captain Lazer’s mold was recycled by Mattel for the large figures in the Battlestar Galactica line.)

Callisto

My brother got this character, but really didn’t like to play with it. So, I acquired it. I thought that it was stupid and ugly, but what are you going to do, eh?

Callisto, the mysterious alien from Jupiter, came out in 1969. Callisto’s translucent green head coincided with his “advanced mental powers”, while his accessory, The Space Sensor, could fire and retract a yellow string to gather samples. Despite his somewhat ominous appearance, the back of the toy’s package made it known that Callisto was an ally and personal friend of the Major’s.

Scorpio

Scorpio, a pink and purple insect-like creature, was released in 1970 and is the rarest of the aliens. Hailing from a desert planet in the Scorpio star cluster, Scorpio realized he had the ability to read minds moments after his hatching and quickly blasted off into space, where he later landed on the moon and met Major Matt Mason.

Scorpio came with snap-on arm and leg shields, as well as a device that strapped onto his chest and fired “search globes”. Although the market has cooled off somewhat in recent years, mint-in-package Scorpio figures have been known to sell for as much as $1,500.

Or from Orion

A fourth alien, dubbed Or from Orion, was to be a tiny blue creature who flew inside the Orbiter, a yellow Frisbee-like disc that could be vertically launched with Or inside. Although Or appeared in Mattel’s 1970 catalog (both as a stand-alone toy and as part of the unproduced “Voyage to Galaxy III” play set), there is no hard evidence to suggest that this toy made it out of the prototype stage.

The Vehicles

The vehicles in Major Matt Mason’s universe were very innovative for the time and nearly all of them featured working lights or motorized features of some type. It is beyond the scope of this node to describe each and every mode of transportation used by the Major and his friends on the moon, but these are some of the more notable ones…

The most distinctive vehicle produced was the Space Crawler, one of the first toys released. The Crawler’s large, four-spoked wheels could conquer any terrain, although the astronaut in the driver’s seat was in for a rather bumpy ride. A winch protruding from the back of the Space Crawler could tow accessories and acted as a crane when the Crawler was attached to the top of the Space Station.

The Firebolt Space Cannon was the only vehicle that could be operated by the oversized Captain Lazer. Basically a large laser cannon mounted on a wheeled platform, the Firebolt’s rotating barrel and control panel flashed as it moved forward. As many as three astronauts (or one Captain Lazer) could operate the Firebolt at once, and it is the only vehicle in the line that could light up and move at the same time.

An especially interesting vehicle was the Star Seeker, which could hold one astronaut under its blue, semi-transparent dome. Beneath the cockpit was a primitive mechanical computer, operated by a series of orange plugs. Inserting (or removing) the plugs in various combinations programmed the Star Seeker to take a specific path; a paper solar system was included so kids could make a spacey obstacle course for the toy.

Owing to the simplicity of 1960’s electronics, many of the Major’s rides can be easily found in working condition today.

The Accessories

Mattel kept their astronauts busy by releasing a number of interesting accessory “paks”, which were relatively inexpensive and were most often packaged on blister cards. Though far too numerous to be systematically described here, the plethora of accessories had many high points.

The largest and most expensive accessory was the somewhat misnamed Space Station. Standing two feet tall when fully assembled and complete with a flashing beacon, large blue windows, and a light-up computer console, the Space Station was Major Matt Mason’s lunar command post.

The Space Station’s interchangeable nature made for hours of play with endless combinations of girders, windows, and the Station’s white honeycomb platforms. The toy’s possibilities were only limited by a child’s imagination, and today the Space Station is fondly remembered.

Due to the abundance of loose Space Station parts floating around, many collectors will assemble a Space Station for their collections by simply buying enough individual parts to piece one together. The Station contained several small, fragile pieces, making original, mint Space Stations somewhat pricey.

Mattel made three different carry cases so kids could take their astronauts on the go. The most common is the Satellite Locker, a colorful vinyl case with three compartments for storing figures or gear.

Coveted by collectors today is the Talking Command Console, which could be opened to resemble the control panel of a space ship, complete with an illuminated star field and chairs for the figures.

Although it was intended as a carry case, the toy also included a pull-string talking mechanism, which said one of five “authentic space sound tracks”. The Rocket Ship Case, a stubby Titan V-like space ship, rounded out the selection of carry cases and is the most uncommon today. Noted for its simple yet fragile construction, this case is usually found in pretty lousy shape.

From 1967 to 1970, Mattel did a fantastic job on a series of “Launcher” accessories. The Satellite Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Space Probe, and Gamma Ray Gard added greatly to the toy line’s playability and were so well built that they’re usually found in working shape today.

The Satellite Launcher sent plastic whirlybird “satellites” spinning into orbit and used Mattel’s Greenie Stik-M-Caps to simulate the mighty roar of liftoff. The Rocket Launcher hurled a single, large projectile into space and also made use of caps for blastoff pyrotechnics. (This is known as the most fragile of the launchers and is usually found with parts broken or missing.)

The Space Probe Launcher fired smaller missile-like probes, while the Gamma Ray Gard launched golden Mylar bolts by way of an ingenious firing mechanism.

Since the Gamma Ray Gard relied on the springy properties of the projectiles to launch themselves, the cannon itself has few moving parts and rarely turns up in nonworking condition these days. The slender, conical torpedoes it fires, however, are easily broken and often missing.

Themes

Even a casual inspection of the toys turns up something interesting: as 1960’s playthings go, they’re pretty liberal.

Aside from the Firebolt Space Cannon, the ray guns included in some early accessory paks, and Captain Lazer’s pistol, there are no weapons for the characters to use. (Although accessories such as the Rocket Launcher and Gamma Ray Gard could be used as weapons, their packaging clearly states they’re meant for zapping dangerous asteroids and repelling harmful gamma rays, respectively.) At a time when many folks looked toward the militarization of space, the astronauts in Major Matt Mason’s universe had an agenda of peaceful exploration.

The human characters work alongside the aliens, all of whom are bizarre-looking, yet friendly. Jeff Long, the blue-suited African-American spaceman, was released at a time when black G.I. Joes came in boxes with a bold NEGRO label. Long’s packaging simply denotes him as a rocketry expert and Major Matt Mason’s “space buddy”. These toys are a product of their times in more ways than one.

Today, forty years after his release, nostalgia buffs, toy collectors, and many children of the era speak fondly of Major Matt Mason, his friends, and equipment.

With collectors of everything from space toys to lunchboxes actively pursuing the line, there is little chance of these unique toys being forgotten anytime soon. The Major’s enduring popularity can probably be attributed to the feelings many people get from the toys.

After all, they hearken back to a different age, a time when the first lunar landing was still in the future, colonizing outer space seemed viable and inevitable, and children across the world could live out their dreams of spaceflight through a diminutive rubber astronaut.

Shepherd’s Pie

Gosh! This all makes me so hungry.

My mother sometimes made this, as well as the school cafeteria. I really loved it, but alas no one cooks it these days. Such a shame.

Shepherd’s Pie.

Shepherd’s pie was once a go-to meal that every family would clamor for. But with such involved preparation, this dish was an easy candidate for falling to the wayside.

These days, it’s easier than ever to whip up this classic casserole, which has found a massive fanbase for good reason. If you’ve never tasted this scrumptious combination of beef and potatoes, now is the time.

Get the recipe from Gimme Some Oven.

…

So, from Geo-Politics to 1960s toys, to food, and now strange history in England. We are all over the place today…

Glastonbury Tor: The Mysterious British Hill Steeped in History and Legend

There’s all sorts of interesting mysteries all around us. All we need do is look at them with an open mind.

Updated 20 February, 2022 – 18:00 Joanna Gillan

Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, where a very important hill exists known as the Glastonbury Tor. On top of the Tor stands the remains of St. Michael’s Tower, with a strange system of terraces around its sides. In legend, these terraces are said to form a  maze with magical symbolism.

The Tor rises to an elevation of 518 feet (158 meters) and is clearly visible from many miles around. It is formed from rocks dating to the early Jurassic Period. The low-lying ground is known to produce a visual illusion known as Fata Morgana, where the hill appears to rise out of the mist. It occurs due to the bending of rays of light as they pass through layers of air of varying temperatures.

A Rich History

The recovery of Neolithic flint tools from the top of the Tor has revealed that the site has been visited since prehistory. Archaeological investigations show that there was an Iron Age settlement there in about 300-200 BC. Roman pottery, 6 th century Mediterranean amphorae, a Saxon staff, medieval burials and a metalworker’s forge show repeated occupation of the Tor throughout the centuries.

Glastonbury Tor.

During the late Saxon and early medieval period, there were at least four buildings on the summit, which may have been a hermitage. In the 11 th or 12 th century, a timber church dedicated to St Michael was built atop the Tor. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1275 AD and rebuilt out of sandstone in the 14 th century by the Abbot Adam of Sodbury.

St Michael’s Church survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 when it was demolished, except for the three-storey tower which remains on the Tor today.

St Michael’s Tower at the top of Glastonbury Tor.

The Legends of Glastonbury Tor

There are many myths associated with Glastonbury that go back thousands of years to figures like  Joseph of Arimathea  and King Arthur  . Myths about the Tor claim that it was a ‘land of the dead’, a portal, a magic mountain, and a glass hill among many others.

One of the legends mentions that more than two thousand years ago, the Tor was in the middle of the sea, which later became a lake. The old Celtic name of the Tor, according to this legend, was the ‘ Island of Glass’  , known in Welsh as ‘Ynys Gutrin’. During the Roman Empire there are references mentioning the Tor as an island. At this time, the plain was flooded, the isle becoming a peninsula at low tide.

Avalon, Meeting Place for the Dead

One legend attributes the name  Avalon to the Tor, linking it to the Avalon of Arthurian legend. The 12 th century historian Gerald of Wales recounted the discovery of King Arthur’s and Queen Guinevere’s labelled coffins in 1191, which were later moved.

The myths say that Avalon was a meeting place for the dead and that the Tor was the home of the Lord of the Underworld. In these legends, the Tor is the gateway into the land of the dead (Avalon).

The Holy Grail

There is also a Christian legend which mentions that Joseph of Arimathea brought a young Jesus to Glastonbury Tor.

When Joseph came to England, it is said that he established the first Church of England at Glastonbury. Indeed, according to archaeological studies, there may have been a very  early Christian Church at Glastonbury  .

Another Christian legend claims the Holy Grail is buried in Glastonbury. Author Christopher Hodapp asserts that the Tor is one possible location of the grail due to its close proximity to the monastery that housed the Nanteos Cup, a wooden bowl believed to offer a supernatural healing ability, allegedly due it being fashioned from a piece of the True Cross.

Mystery of the Terraces

The sides of the Tor have seven deep, roughly symmetrical terraces, their origins of which remains a mystery to this day. One explanation is that they were made during the Middle Ages to make ploughing for crops easier.

However, this has been largely discounted due to terracing also being on the north side, which would have provided little benefit.

Another explanation includes the construction of defensive ramparts, possibly linked to Ponter’s Ball Dyke, a linear earthwork about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the Tor. Some historians have alternatively proposed that they are the remains of a “spiral walkway” or labyrinth created for pilgrims to reach the summit.

The terraces that circle the Tor seven times would lead the pilgrim to the church of St Michael. But Celtic legends would say that this maze is the path that would lead you to the entrance of Annwn, the Celtic underworld.

The terraced hillside of Glastonbury Tor.

Glastonbury is immersed in extremely interesting mythology and fascinating legends and is a very special place that is worth a visit.

Now to China…

Nice Chinese girl in a nice yellow miniskirt

That’s one thing that I really love about China. So many people go out and socialize. They love to go out and dress up and have fun. Such as this gal. I really like the cute little outfit, and the environment.

video

No answers, just some interesting observations…

UFO watchers stumped by jaw-dropping clear footage of mystery black shape in the sky

Certainly unusual thingy…

Leonie Chao-Fong
Mirror

The unexplained UFO sighting in Chicago, Illinois left mum Aiyana “creeped out” and is just one of several reported in the US in recent weeks.

A woman was left in “total confusion” and “creeped out” after she saw a strange black shape floating in the skies.

Aiyana, who asked that her second name be withheld, recorded the surreal footage from the roof of her home in Chicago, Illinois.

The video shows a long black wishbone shape hanging in the air, with both its wings ending in some sort of sphere.

She said:

"I literally have no idea what it was. There is nothing comparable. 

"It was a ball of some sort with two long strings or belts hanging from it. The strings had knobs in the middle and bottom."

Aiyana and her son said neither of them “had any idea what we were seeing”. She said she stayed watching it until it disappeared from view.

It seemed to just float slowly south east without any other major movement," she said. "It covered a few miles in about 20 minutes. I felt total confusion and a bit creeped out,"

Hoping to find answers, a friend shared Aiyana’s footage with UFO watchers online but no one was able to explain how an object could float so calmly above the famously “windy city”.

One person wrote: “I’ve never seen a balloon just hang still in the open air like that. It should bob, even if just a little. There must be absolutely zero wind there.”

Another person described the sighting as “bizarre”, adding:

"I have no explanation. It looks like something hanging from a helicopter, except there is no helicopter. The shape is too weird for it being a balloon, and I think I can also exclude it being an antenna on top of a building in cloud cover - for this, it is way too clearly defined. I have no idea!"

A third said:
"A balloon usually has some movement. I live in Chicago. Even on a still, calm day, Chicago and the surrounding areas have wind of some sort and would move something in the air."

The unexplained sighting is just one of several in the US in recent weeks.

Another video, captured in Baltimore, Maryland, attracted a deluge of comments revealing identical sightings in numerous states.

In September, a man spotted what appeared to be glowing orange UFOs “flying in formation” when returning home.

When he posted the footage online, social media users recalled similar sightings in Washington DC, Las Vegas, St Louis and Detroit.

Meanwhile in the UK, a woman was left baffled after capturing an image of a possible UFO hovering in the evening sky over St Helens, Merseyside while taking a friend on a late-night drive.

She later told the Liverpool Echo : 

"I couldn't see any lights around it or anything, you can just see the blue thing in the sky. I was just taking a picture of the Moon while we were out because I thought it looked nice."
She added:
"We were just like oh, my god, it does look like a UFO. It does look like a ship, it doesn't look like a plane or a light, it looks like a UFO. I sort of believe in them. I'm not a strong believer but I do believe there are aliens out there and stuff like that. It's interesting. You can see it but it was strange. I believe more now I can see it."

Maybe it’s swamp gas, eh?

Nice Chinese girl – Amazingly beautiful

I think that she really is pretty. She reminds me of  something tasty and wonderful. Like a real special dish. You know, like beef wellington.

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Beef Wellington

This is a great dish that housewives used to prepare for their families in the 1950s and 1960s. As the value of the US dollar collapsed due to the constant military adventures, the household unity fell apart. Couples both had to work. And people resorted to easy to cook, fast to make and eat food.

They stopped eating well.

They became machines.

And as machinese, they became easily manipulated.

Beef Wellington.

WWII Redux: the Endpoint of U.S. Policy, from Ukraine to Taiwan

The Threatened Peoples of East Asia and Europe Can Stop the U.S. Drive to Restore its Global Domination.

• February 20, 2022

From HERE
"This is not going to be a war of Ukraine and Russia. This is going to be a European war, a full-fledged war.” So spoke Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky just days after berating the U.S. for beating the drums of war.

It is not hard to imagine how Zelensky’s words must have fallen on those European ears that were attentive. His warning surely conjured up images of World War II when tens of millions of Europeans and Russians perished.

Zelensky’s words echoed those of Philippine’s President Rodrigo Duterte on the other side of the world at the Eastern edge of the great Eurasian land mass: “When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled flat.” We can be sure that Duterte, like Zelensky, had in mind WWII which also consumed tens of millions of lives in East Asia.

The United States is stoking tensions in both Europe and East Asia, with Ukraine and Taiwan as the current flashpoints on the doorsteps of Russia and China which are the targeted nations. Let us be clear at the outset. As we shall see, the endpoint of this process is not for the U.S. to do battle with Russia or China but to watch China and Russia fight it out with the neighbors to the ruin of both sides. The US is to “lead from behind’ – as safely and remotely as can be arranged.

To make sense of this and react properly, we must be very clear-eyed about the goal of the U.S. Neither Russia nor China has attacked or even threatened the U.S. Nor are they in a position to do so – unless one believes that either is ready to embark on a suicidal nuclear war.

Why should the U.S. Elite and its media pour out a steady stream of anti-China and anti-Russia invective? Why the steady eastward march of NATO since the end of the first Cold War? The goal of the U.S. is crystal clear – it regards itself as the Exceptional Nation and entitled to be the number one power on the planet, eclipsing all others.

This goal is most explicitly stated in the well-known Wolfowitz Doctrine drawn shortly after the end of the first Cold War in 1992. It proclaimed that the U.S.’s “first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet union or elsewhere….” It stated that no regional power must be allowed to emerge with the power and resources “sufficient to generate global power.” It stated frankly “we must maintain the mechanism for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global power.” (Emphasis, jw)

The Wolfowitz Doctrine is but the latest in a series of such proclamations that have proclaimed global domination as the goal of U.S. foreign policy since 1941 the year before the U.S. entered WWII. This lineage is documented clearly in the book by the Quicny Institute’s Stephen Wertheim “Tomorrow, The World: The Birth of US Global Supremacy.”

Let us consider China first and then Russia, the foremost target of the U.S., first. China’s economy is number one in terms of PPP-GDP according to the IMF and has been since November, 2014. It is growing faster than the U.S. economy and shows no signs of slowing down. In a sense China has already won by this metric since economic power is the ultimate basis of all power.

But what about a military defeat of China? Can the U.S. with its present vastly superior armed forces bring that about? The historian, Alfred McCoy, answers that question in the way most do these days, with a clear “no”:

“The most volatile flashpoint In Beijing’s grand strategy for breaking Washington’s geopolitical grip over Eurasia lies in the contested waters between China’s coast and the Pacific littoral, which the Chinese call “the first island chain.”

“But China’s clear advantage in any struggle over that first Pacific island chain is simply distance. …The tyranny of distance, in other words, means that the U.S. loss of that first island chain, along with its axial anchor on Eurasia’s Pacific littoral, should only be a matter of time.”

Certainly the U.S. Elite recognizes this problem. Do they have a solution?

Moreover, that is not the end of the “problem” for the U.S. There are other powerful countries, like Japan, or rapidly rising economies in East Asia, easily the most dynamic economic region in the world. These too will become peer competitors, and in the case of Japan, it already has been a competitor both before WWII and during the 1980s.

If we hop over to the Western edge of Eurasia, we see that the U.S. has a similar “problem” when it comes to Russia. Here too the U.S. cannot defeat Russia in a conventional conflict nor have U.S. sanctions been able to bring it down. How can the U.S. surmount this obstacle? And as in the case of East Asia the U.S. faces another economic competitor, Germany, or more accurately, the EU, with Germany at its core. How is the U.S. to deal with this dual threat?

One clue comes in the response of Joe Biden to both the tension over Taiwan and that over Ukraine. Biden has said repeatedly that he will not send U.S. combat troops to fight Russia over Ukraine or to fight China over Taiwan. But it will send materiel and weapons and also “advisors.” And here too the U.S. has other peer competitors most notably Germany which has been the target of U.S. tariffs. The economist Michael Hudson puts it succinctly in a penetrating essay, “America’s real adversaries are its European and other allies: The U.S. aim is to keep them from trading with China and Russia.”

Such “difficulties for the U.S. were solved once before – in WWII. One way of looking at WWII is that it was a combination of two great regional wars, one in East Asia and one in Europe. In Europe the U.S. was minimally involved as Russia, the core of the USSR, battled it out with Germany, sustaining great damage to life and economy. Both Germany and Russia were economic basket cases when the war was over, two countries lying in ruins.

The US provided weapons and materiel to Russia but was minimally involved militarily, only entering late in the game. The same happened in East Asia with Japan in the role of Germany and China in the role of Russia. Both Japan and China were devastated in the same way as were Russia and Europe. This was not an unconscious strategy on the part of the United States. As Harry Truman, then a Senator, declared in 1941: “If we see that Germany is winning the war, we ought to help Russia; and if that Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and in that way let them kill as many as possible.. . ”

At the end of it all the U.S. emerged as the most powerful economic and military power on the planet. McCoy spells it out:

“Like all past imperial hegemons, U.S. global power has similarly rested on geopolitical dominance over Eurasia, now home to 70% of the world’s population and productivity. After the Axis alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan failed to conquer that vast land mass, the Allied victory in World War II allowed Washington, as historian John Darwin put it, to build its “colossal imperium… on an unprecedented scale,” becoming the first power in history to control the strategic axial points “at both ends of Eurasia.”

“As a critical first step, the U.S. formed the NATO alliance in 1949, establishing major military installations in Germany and naval bases in Italy to ensure control of the western side of Eurasia. After its defeat of Japan, as the new overlord of the world’s largest ocean, the Pacific, Washington dictated the terms of four key mutual-defense pacts in the region with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Australia and so acquired a vast range of military bases along the Pacific littoral that would secure the eastern end of Eurasia. To tie the two axial ends of that vast land mass into a strategic perimeter, Washington ringed the continent’s southern rim with successive chains of steel, including three navy fleets, hundreds of combat aircraft, and most recently, a string of 60 drone bases stretching from Sicily to the Pacific island of Guam.”

The U.S. was able to become the dominant power on the planet because all peer competitors were left in ruins by the two great regional wars in Europe and East Asia, wars which are grouped under the heading of WWII.

If Europe is plunged into a war of Russia against the EU powers with the U.S. “leading from behind,” with material and weapons, who will benefit? And if East Asia is plunged into a war of China against Japan and and whatever allies it can drum up, with the U.S. “leading from behind,” who will benefit?

It is pretty clear that such a replay of WWII will benefit the U.S. In WWII while Eurasia suffered tens of millions of deaths, the US suffered about 400,000 – a terrible toll certainly but nothing like that seen in Eurasia. And with the economies and territories of Eurasia, East and West, in ruins, the U.S. will emerge on top, in the catbird seat, and able to dictate terms to the world. WWII redux.

But what about the danger of nuclear war growing out of such conflicts? The U.S. has a history of nuclear “brinksmanship,” going back to the earliest post-WWII days. It is a country that has shown itself willing to risk nuclear holocaust.

Are there U.S. policy makers criminal enough to see this policy of provocation through to the end? I will leave that to the reader to answer.

The Peoples of East and West Eurasia are the ones who will suffer most in this scenario. And they are the ones who can stop the madness by living peacefully with Russia and China rather than serving as cannon fodder for the U.S. There are clear signs of dissent from the European “allies” of the U.S., especially Germany but the influence of the U.S. remains powerful. Germany and many other countries are after all occupied by tens of thousands of U.S. troops, their media heavily influenced by the U.S. and with the organization that commands European troops, NATO, under U.S. command. Which way will it go?

In East Asia the situation is the same. Japan is the key but the hatred of China among the Elite is intense. Will the Japanese people and the other peoples of East Asia be able to put the brakes on the drive to war?

Some say that a two-front conflict like this is U.S. overreach. But certainly, if war is raging on or near the territories of both Russia and China, there is little likelihood that one can aid the other.

Given the power of modern weaponry, this impending world war will be much more damaging than WWII by far. The criminality that is on the way to unleashing it is almost beyond comprehension.

Nice Chinese girl

This girl looks like a nice big blue fish. A dlicious and yummy fish, that is.

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Baiting the Bear Is Becoming a Dangerous Game

What the so-called Russian experts and politicians all forget is that the US does not have troops scattered about in Poland, Romania, the Baltic states and other Eastern European late comers to NATO because Washington cares about these countries and feels morally obliged to protect them from Russia, which does not want them. In truth, Washington doesn’t care a hoot about Ukraine, Poland, Romania and neither do Americans.

The reasons for Washington’s presence in Eastern Europe are entirely different. One reason is that Washington wants the countries as locations for missile bases such as Washington has placed in Poland and Romania. These bases are on Russia’s borders leaving no response time to nuclear missiles launched from them. The bases give Washington the advantage in a confrontation to back down Russia.

Another reason is that the NATO countries provide customers for the US armaments industry. Washington keeps pressure on NATO members to “do their part” and spend more on their own defense. So much of the analysis and commentary about the current situation in Ukraine presents Washington and NATO as rescuers on white horses riding to the defense of states threatened by Russia. If Russia really were a threat, Washington and NATO would not be so aggressive.

The Soviet Union had Eastern Europe as a buffer.

Most Russian experts at the time concluded that the Warsaw Pact was a net drain on Soviet resources. Responsibility for these countries today is the last thing Russia wants.

All Russia wants is for the US to get military bases off her doorstep. This is a reasonable demand, and compliance with it would relieve the tensions that otherwise could break out in war. Washington’s aggressive policy seems designed for one reason only: to cause a war.

Few people understand that the US sanctions against Russia are based entirely on lies and are in effect acts of war. That Russia has tolerated them is interpreted by Washington as Russian weakness. The reason Russia gets so much abuse is that she doesn’t do anything about it.

The narrative is that Russia invaded Ukraine by accepting the vote in Crimea to be reunited with Russia. Until 1991, Crimea had been part of Russia since 1783. The vast majority of the people who live there are Russian. Between 1991 and 2014 when the US overthrew the Ukrainian government in a coup, Crimea was occupied by Russia as Russia’s Black Sea naval base is there. The Russian forces were already there, because Russia had a long term lease on the area.

It was the US that invaded Ukraine while the Kremlin was preoccupied with the Sochi Olympics. The US plan was for the puppet government it installed to revoke the lease and kick the Russians out of their naval base. It was an audacious plan that had no chance of success. To prevent Americans from understanding the situation, the narrative was started that Russia invaded Crimea.

There are Americans who pose as Russian experts who maintain that Putin has territorial ambitions to restore the Soviet empire. These people are not experts. They are liars. If Putin has territorial ambitions, why did he not reincorporate Georgia into Russia? Why has he refused for 8 years to honor the vote of the Donbass Russians to be returned to Russia? The Donbass area, like Crimea, is historically part of Russia. Both were transferred to the Ukrainian province of the Soviet Union by the Soviet government, but Russians, not Ukrainians live there.

In US universities and think tanks, researchers’ analyses come to conclusions consistent with the views of those who fund their research. This is why there are no more Stephen Cohens who give an independent objective analysis of the real situation. Indeed, in the US today an objective analysis is considered to be pro-Russian and the author is said to be a Russian agent.

As a result, we get a one-sided story.

The problem with one-sided stories is that the implication is the other side is entirely to blame and hasn’t a leg to stand on. This is the position that Russia finds herself in, and it is the reason that the West doesn’t listen to a word she says. It is very dangerous to ignore Russia when she says she finds the situation intolerable.

Russia seems at times to be masochistic, but sooner or later she will bite back.

Nice Chinese girl in cute confusion

Yes. She’s a tad confused.

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Breaking News: Russia Has Given Up On Negotiations and Will Resolve the Donbass Issue by Recognizing the Independence of the Republics

• February 21, 2022
.

As I sit down to write Tass has not yet announced Putin’s decision about Russia’s recognization of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, formerly Russian territory that the Soviet government attached to Ukraine. However, as the decision of the Russian Security Council was unanimous, supported even by the pro-American Atlanticist Integrationist member, Putin will not go against the position of the Security Council. Putin himself was of the same opinion as his statements and questions indicated.

Understand that this is not about reabsorbing Donbass into Russia like Crimea, but merely recognizing the republics as independent countries.

This will give the protection of international law to the republics, and Russia being a stickler for international law, unlike the West, will see that law defends the republics.

I listened to the one hour, 35 minute Security Council meeting during which the various members discussed their eight years of frustrations with negotiating with the US, NATO, EU that never went anywhere. During these eight years many Donbass Russians were killed by Ukrainian forces which have succeeded in occupying some of the territory of the republics.

What is not clear at this point is whether the recognition of the Donbass republics includes all of the territory including those areas occupied by Ukrainian forces and neo-Nazi militias.

If you watch the video of the meeting, which has English translation, you will see for yourself that Russia has tried for eight years to resolve the situation by keeping the Donbass in Ukraine but protected by the Minsk Agreement signed by Ukraine and guaranteed by Germany and France. It is impossible not to admire the patience of the Russians, although it was patience at the expense of the lives of Donbass Russians.

Today the Russian government ran out of patience, and I don’t think they will have much patience with the West in the future.

This is a good thing because it will make Europe less an enabler of Washington’s trouble-making for Russia.

Every European government knows that it is impossible for Washington/NATO to protect them without recourse to nuclear weapons, which of course means their destruction, not their protection. Europe will be more interested in having good relations with Russia.

I would bet that Ukraine President Zelensky, whatever he says, is also relieved. Zelensky has not been able to function as president, because he is caught between Washington and the CIA controlled neo-Nazi militias and is up for reelection. Now that Russia has given recognition to the republics, Zelensky can resist Washington’s push to use Ukraine’s military to attack the Donbass Russians. Zelensky will gain authority from the Kremlin’s decision as the decision will make it more difficult for Washington to use Ukraine against Russia. Of course, Washington won’t stop trying.

We know how this will play out in Washington and in the whore media. The New York Times will be handed a “news report” from the CIA. It will say that the recognition of the republics is a prelude to a Russian invasion. Washington, which is always for “self-determination” but only if “self-determination” is the result of a Washington led coup, will not recognize Donbass independence and will try to foment war between Ukraine and Russia. The New York Times and the rest of the whores will continue to predict “Russian invasion.”

But Europe is now wary, whatever is said publicly, and Ukrainians know that no one is coming to their aid if they are shoved into a war with Russia.

There is a good chance that Washington will lose control of the narrative. If not, it will be Ukraine and Europe that pay the price.

Night time in China.

Oh yeah. This is pretty much what it is like. I’ll tell youse guys that China is day and night, meaning that there’s a entirely different “vibe” at night than there is in the daytime. You see, most people in China are active. They don’t hide inside their homes watching the “news”. Instead they go out and socialize.

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Oh, these Chinese girls are so lovely.

Nice cinnamon toast Chinese girl

Here’s my fine nice cinnamon toast girl. Isn’t she lovely, and look at the day. Can you believe that I have wasted so many beautiful days by sitting infront of a computer monitor working in cubicles all my life, when instead I could have been frolicing with fine attractive and cute ladies like this. Sheech!

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In my dreams, of course, it might resemble something more like this…

Remember, boys and girls, life is what you make of it. Stop dreaming. Start doing. And you start, mind you, with the people near by you that you say “hi” to.

Nice Chinese girl super in the Fall

Or perhaps, something a little different maybe. Like this woman in the crisp air of Fall.

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Nice Chinese Girl

Or maybe a little bit more lively and playful. Like this girl.

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Conclusion

There’s a lot of change going on right now.

It’s impossible to see the entire picture.

Instead, all we see are glimpses, and if you live inside the United States, those glimpses will be terrible distortions of reality.

There are all sorts of people, organizations, companies, and special interests that intentionally distort the visible part of what is going on to manipulate others. Resulting in this bastardization.

Distortion.

And thus, you “feel things”, but it’s impossible to put all the pieces together. This is because your observations do not match your “gut feelings”. They do not fit together, and thus things appear frightening and confusing.

But don’t worry about it too much.

Remember; You cannot control the world. You can only control your little part of it.

  • Be the Rufus.
  • Be prudent and conservative on household supplies and food.
  • Center your mind with Hemi-Sync.
  • Be good, say nothing bad.
  • Consume less.
  • Turn off the “news”.
  • Surround yourself with pets, cats and dogs.
  • Conduct your affirmation campaigns.
  • Monitor your fate forecast daily, follow the advice no matter how strange it might seem.

And that means observe the rambling and chaotic article herein. Individually each item is coherent and sensible, but as a whole they seem disjointed. They seem unconnected. They seem like the ravings of a madman.

They seem…

Yes.

They seem, they appear, it all looks… disjointed.

But…

Quantum physics teaches us that all things are interconnected, and entanglement occurs over impossibly great distances.

Stop THINKING. Listen to your inherent GUT FEELINGS more.

The “news” manipulates your thoughts and emotions, but you have full control over your gut feelings and intuition. Listen to them instead.

A pretty girl, in China, smiling and being nice is more important than any screeching “news” out of your media feeds.  And yes, things ARE going on. But the observed actions are only the “tip of the iceberg” of an event train that has been years (if not decades) in planning.

You do not know the entire story, so don’t worry about it.

Stop THINKING. Listen to your inherent GUT FEELINGS more.

It’s important at this time. Very important.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings 3

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
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Perspective in a world undergoing change; what’s going to happen to all the trolls?

The world is a changing.

During change, somethings die, while other trends are birthed. New starts, and new understandings flavor the lives and lifestyles of the survivors of the change.

I have long argued that many of the on-going bad elements that we have long endured are now starting to come to an end. It’s all about time and good riddance.

I just banned a jackass because a newcomer just simply PISSED ME OFF. I suppose that his voracious reading of my articles should have pleased me, but it did not. I don’t like to hear things like…

"What do these girls have to do with the article title? –It’s just more juvenile objectification of women, and a form of trolling."

I love women. Somehow that’s wrong? What’s the matter with you? And, by the way, how can I troll my own venue?

Don’t go a pulling that SJW shit with me bucko.

I don’t like, nor appreciates these mindless comments, as well as endless snipes, and swipes at myself and what I am doing here. Such as…

(On the subject of trolls and their behaviors)  I stated; “They can take your nice happy and calm, pleasant day, and turn it into a sad stormy day of worry and distress.”

"If this is the case, then I submit that you have ego issues and need to learn to master your emotions."

So, then Trolls make everyone happy. And of course, if you disagree then you have a brused ego?

As well as a long steam of other silly bullshit such as…

Please accept my apologies, as I had to redact large portions of this section. It is not proper that I speak so freely about this at this time.

It cannot be “redacted” if it was never published.

Of course it’s published, you dunderhead. It’s published on the internet, and it’s published in book form. Haven’t read the main index? Obviously not. You can’t possibly be this moronic, this stupid, this foolish, this much of a simpleton.

You know, I waited two full days. Hoping that some other MM influencers would come to my defense, but no one did. I guess I must have expected too much.

“All MAJestic members, are service to others sentience.”

I doubt that far more than I doubt your story.

Sheech!

I don’t like getting up in the morning and checking my feeds to read comments about my life by a jackass. Do you? Do you feel better about yourself by reading those things? Do you think that this “individual” has improved your life, or helped you to understand the dialog or text better?

Rufus he is not.

I will argue that this individual is more sophisticated than most of the trolls and jerk-offs that I encounter. So it took me two entire days before I erased his presence. I will say one thing though, he was plowing though my articles at a prodigious rate.

He sure must have had [1] a lot of time on his hands, and [2] enjoyed the free stuff without appreciation of the effort it represents. Both high-swater-marks of trolling.

So he’s gone. Bye bye.

Well, for youse guys that is. I still have to manually erase him out. If he persists then I’ll give him some things to work out. There’s nothing quite like a cornfield to really occupy your time and give you a dose of “humble pie”.

How about this for a new world-line template?

A template map of the cornfield.

Anyways, on to this article…

This article here is just a mish-mash of stuff that I have lying around and cluttering up my thought streams. It’s all over the place, and that’s fine. I just want to put some things down on paper and then move forward.

First up is a …

Pretty girl and her car

Here’s a photo taken some time around the 1940s. My guess is that she just bought the new car and was proudly photographed near it, being all “dolled up” and all. Looks to be early winter. Maybe Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio or New York.

She’s wearing a fox stole, white gloves, to match her white hat, and a black skirt outfit. The image takes me to a time and a place far away from here. That was not the reason for the photo (in the first place) but it is why I so admire it so.

When white gloves were an everyday fashion accessory for women.

She’s lovely.

Right?

Yes she is. She really is.

Here’s a beautiful Chinese girl…

She’s one of my favorites, don’t you know. (Actually, I think you all do know.) I think she is lovely.

video 4MB

Am I objectifying her?

Yeah. Maybe I am. You all got a problem with that? She’s beautiful. She’s pretty. She’s awesome and when I see her in the video it takes me away to calmer and sweeter states of being. And I love that feeling. I love the images and feelings that she generates inside of me.

The video is an object. But she is a teleporter to a new mental state. She carries me away.

Like a beautiful cat pal. Or, a nice hot fudge sundae. Or, a freshly baked fudge brownie with some nice delicious vanilla icecream on top.

Hot fudge brownie with ice cream on top.

Now, let’s go to something contemporaneous.

I mean, the United States does this all the time, but China (somehow) is a very bad entity for soing so. Right?

Is it legal for the Chinese government to build artificial islands, airfields, and deploy troops in the South China Sea islands?

From my morning email feed…

Just for fun!

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-legal-for-the-Chinese-government-to-build-artificial-islands-airfields-and-deploy-troops-in-the-South-China-Sea-islands/answer/Gavin-McGregor-1?__nsrc__=4&__snid3__=32994900067

It is often claimed that China is breaking international law by building artificial islands in the South China Sea and that it is illegal to militarise those islands.

The short answer is that it is “not illegal” to build an artificial island if it does not conflict with some other nations legal rights that might be defined under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), or other international agreements of which both China and the other nation was a signatory.

Building airfields and deploying troops on those islands is also “not illegal” if you are entitled to build and occupy the islands.

An analogous question might be “Is it legal for warships and aircraft carriers to cast anchor in International waters?”. An anchored aircraft carrier is an artificial island with an airfield and a military presence.

The UNCLOS offers a general protection to a nations territorial waters and exclusive economic zones that extend from baselines derived from recognised land territory’s baselines. However outside those boundaries, in the high seas, any nation is free to construct artificial islands and erect installations that are not otherwise restricted under international law.

The territorial sea extends to a limit of 12 nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal State. Within this zone, the coastal State exercises full sovereignty over the air space above the sea and over the seabed and subsoil. There is also a contagious zone of an additional 12 nautical miles that grants certain rights of legal enforcement.

The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends no more than 200 nautical miles (370 Km) from the territorial sea baseline and grants exclusive rights to marine resources, including the “exclusive” right to establish artificial islands, structures and installations.

Where zones intersect the zones of other states, the zones default to the median point between the respective baselines.

To be clear, artificial islands cannot acquire territorial rights on their own; they at best obtain a safety exclusion zone. So a nation cannot extend their territorial claims by constructing or extending islands anywhere. Smaller natural islands may be entitled a 12 nautical mile territorial claim but not a 200 nautical mile zones.

Having said that, two or more nations could be in dispute over every aspect outlined above or could be in dispute with the interpretation of international law applying to particular cases. And various interpretations of definitions and determinations could lead to quite different outcomes.

I am not commenting specifically on which islands could or could not be considered legally or illegally constructed or the selective outrage at China’s activities in the area to the exclusion of all others. But consider the following:

In the application of the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling on the status of Taiping Island, currently occupied by the Taiwan, which regards the largest island in the Spratly archipelago as a “rock” with limited maritime rights, and allows the Philippines to extend its EEZ at least as far as the island.

Taiwan, however, has a reasonable case to reject the ruling, and in any event continues to claim full maritime rights.

The Peoples Republic of China, with an overlapping claim to Taiping island can also dispute the ruling, even make a reasonable claim not to be bound by it, and therefore argue the legality of the establishment of an artificial island within Taiping Island’s claimed EEZ at Mischief Reef less than 80 nautical miles from Taiping Island.

And a very nice follow-up commentary…

It’s a well stated commentary rather than a rebuttal.

Answering a lie is to perpetuate it. If you gather all your information about China from the West, you will not get a smidgen of truth. China is not in the habit of engaging in tongue jousting. They simply defend their rights — bloviate all you want but I dare you to touch my cheese. I think they have good reasons to do so, as they are not adept at lying, and the West is a cesspool of lies populated by lying maggots who consume bullshit and regurgitate bullshit and know nothing but bullshit.
 
Here are a few facts that can be found if one makes a bit of effort and look underneath the superficial scum. I read these on the same day the Hague Arbitration Court came out with its decision. I think it’s by a female blogger who seemed to have some knowledge on the issues. The truth is therefore not arcane or hidden, it’s just never spoken in the Western lying machine. I’m doing this from memory but you’re welcome to check. The truth is out there.
 
1. The issue of the South China Sea (SCS) is not UNCLOS but sovereignty. There is overlap of course, but they are two very different issues. To talk only about UNCLOS but not China’s sovereignty claim is Big Lie Number 1. The Nine Dash Lines is China’s claim of sovereignty of the area of the SCS within those lines including all its islands and EEZ. It is a successor claim from the Republic of China (which is why Taiwan, still run by the government of the ROC, must maintain the same claim), as it was not contested by the victorious allies of the Second World War, and was recorded on maps of the era (published by the West). The PRC, which is the globally and UN accepted government of China, has a duty to defend this claim.
 
2. One must defend one’s sovereignty and negotiate for peaceful borders, not rely on third parties to decide your rights, especially not by those which have no jurisdiction and no teeth. The lesson of Munich comes to mind, when France, UK, and Italy decided to cede Czech Republic’s Sudetenland to Germany. That is what happens to countries which cannot defend their sovereignty. The meme that China is the big bully encroaching on its neighbors is laughable. It is Big Lie Number 2. Except for India, China has in fact negotiated stable land borders with all its neighbors including Vietnam and Russia, considering both these countries had land wars with China in recent decades. Even Bhutan, a de facto protectorate of India which had been prevented from reaching a border agreement with China, appears ready to defy its overlord in the near future.
 
3. The Nine Dash Lines and UNCLOS do have overlaps. It is not strange, as almost all neighbors sharing a coastline or are island nations have UNCLOS claims that overlap. UNCLOS has a suggestion for how to settle these disputes. Negotiate or arbitrate. Arbitration is however not a court of law, where one party can sue another based on the jurisdiction and laws of where the court is located. Even this jurisdiction must have some basis of prior agreement or when none is available, some basis in law. It does not get decided by one party of a dispute. Anyone who has any experience in arbitration (a mechanism actually used by many international companies doing business in China) understands that arbitration must be agreed to by both parties of a dispute. They must also agree to the quasi-judiciary organization that holds the hearing and makes the adjudication, share in the costs, and accept the decision with no further recourse. Since China never agreed to the arbitration initiated by the Philippines, never agreed to the jurisdiction of the court, never participated in the hearing, and never paid any costs relating to the one-sided arbitration, it was just a farce and a circus. To answer any questions coming from this comedy is to give substance to fart.
 
With the internet, everyone can have a voice and an opinion. I’ll readily admit that I have no real legal expertise. I have however quite a bit of experience working with top lawyers in Canada on both litigation and quasi-judiciary (Broadcast Commission) matters for well over ten years. For several years, I was also a court appointed receiver manager for the national television station I built. So I’m not speaking out of a vacuum. In fact, some of the cases I was involved in became landmark cases, causing the government to make real changes. While I’m no expert on UNCLOS or sovereignty claims, I usually apply whatever legal ideas I can understand and in most parts commonsense.
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As I like to say, the First Law of Economics is “you do not own anything you cannot defend.” That is the meaning of sovereignty, the rest is bullshit and balderdash.

A beach beauty….

Looks like the 1960s. I can easily see myself (as a young boy) wearing the same clothes (as those two boys wore) as the folk in the picture. I can see myself there. Enjoying the sun. Listening to the waves crash, and enjoying the late afternoon sun as the beach gets deserted. Nice times.

I see the woman in the back is holding either a set of binoculars, or a purse. It’s difficult to see what it is. I don’t think that it is a purse. She’s also wearing a sleeveless top over her stunning green one-piece swimsuit.

Judging from the cars in the background, I would guess 1963, maybe 1965.

Family outing.

I do love these old photos.

It makes me want to crawl up into some old dusty attic and explore. Who know what I’ll find. Maybe a 1950 Lionel train set, a metal closet with all sorts of 1950’s womans’ hats, or a mason jar full of old pennies, buttons and indian arrow heads.

A beautiful girl showing off a nice pair of jeans

Actually I really like these jeans because they are warm. Today is frosty cold, and I am shivering while I type this. Normally Zhuhai is around 30°C (86° F) and 80% RH. But over the last few weeks it has been cold. 7°C (44°F) and spitting cold drizzle rain. Keep in mind that the homes here in the tropics are not heated. THus her outfit looks mighty appealing to me.

video 50MB

Trying to tie China to the Ukraine debacle

Sheech! Can’t these “people” give it a rest?

It was US & NATO military expansion and deployment to Russia border that caused the current Russia – Ukraine drama.  However, the United States aggression against Russia can not be effective as long as Russia has the support of China.
So, in the past weeks, there are so many imaginary articles and news that link China to the conflict.
Below are 13 links and their headlines from the western media + a piece from the Global Times explaining the Western efforts to smear China. It’s the “Smear China campaign”.
First up, the United States overt propaganda mill; VOA…
China Eyes Risks and Rewards of US-Russia Standoff Over Ukraine
https://www.voanews.com/a/china-eyes-risks-and-rewards-of-us-russia-standoff-over-ukraine/6416467.html
Next, the UK overt propighanda mill; BBC…
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China: What does it want from the Ukraine crisis with Russia? – BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-60242549
More from the “5 eyes”. Here’s “The Diplomat”…
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Why China Will Not Support a Russian Invasion of Ukraine – The Diplomat
https://thediplomat.com/2022/02/why-china-will-not-support-a-russian-invasion-of-ukraine/
LOL. Russia is not moving into the Ukraine. Sheech!
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Analysis: China would back Russia, diplomatically, if it moved on Ukraine | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/china-would-back-russia-diplomatically-if-it-moved-ukraine-2022-02-19/
In all the bone-headed actions of morons, this has to be the most bone-headed of all…
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The United States’ Russia Sanctions Package Must Include Secondary Sanctions Against China
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/17/russia-ukraine-china-united-states-secondary-sanctions-putin-xi/
And from the massive NBC mouth-piece…
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China would ‘end up owning some of the costs’ if Russia invades Ukraine, national security adviser warns.
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In a joint statement with Russia last week, China said it opposed NATO expansion and blamed the U.S. for rising tensions
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/china-would-end-owning-some-costs-if-russia-invades-ukraine-n1288712
A neocon publication…
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What China Is Actually Saying About Russia and Ukraine
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Bits of pro-Russian rhetoric are a far cry from substantive support—or preparations for an invasion of Taiwan.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/02/what-china-actually-saying-about-russia-and-ukraine/361561/
Another neocon publication; “Foreign Affairs”…
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China’s Ukraine Crisis; What Xi Gains—and Loses—From Backing Putin
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2022-02-21/chinas-ukraine-crisis
The United States “says” as reported by the rabid anti-China SCMP…
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US says China ties won’t stop Russian economic ‘catastrophe’ after any Ukraine invasion | South China Morning Post
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3165764/us-says-china-ties-wont-make-consequences-if-russia-invades
The United States warns… (sigh. That’s all they ever do, eh?)
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U.S. warns Chinese firms not to help Russia avoid potential Ukraine sanctions
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/04/us-warns-chinese-firms-not-to-help-russia-avoid-potential-ukraine-sanctions.html
More silliness. No. If Russia moves into the Ukraine, it would be a win for the Untied States…
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Russian war in Ukraine could win for China, Iran, North Korea
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2022/02/17/russian-war-ukraine-winners-china-iran-north-korea/6784820001/
The United States warn some more. This is from a hardline neocon publication…
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United States Warns China Not to Ignore Sanctions if Russia Invades Ukraine | The National Interest
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/united-states-warns-china-not-ignore-sanctions-if-russia-invades-ukraine-200360
More nonsense…
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How China could win in Russia-Ukraine row. Potential conflict in Europe highlights ‘deepening ties’ between Beijing and Moscow
https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/china/955616/what-does-china-think-russia-war-ukraine
And let’s put a bow on all of it.
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US media smearing China-Russia ties on Ukraine issue: foreign ministry – Global Times
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1246802.shtml
Enjoy your leisure reading

Chinese elementary school.

As I have often stated that everyone in China gets military training. It starts in first grade, and it really appeals to me. With disipline and organization, self esteem follows naturally.

Here’s a third grade mortar crew. video 6MB

Nice short girl.

This next Chinese girl is short and so very cute. I just want to run around with her in the wide forest and drink hot coco with her, and eat some buttered cinnamon toast. video 5MB

From my dad’s generation…

This next phot comes from the 1950’s somewhere in the United States.  It’s a couple “making out” (i.e. “smooching”) in the back seat of a station wagon. Notice how the rear window opens up and is held up with a nice strut.

I’ll bet that they were playing some fine 1950s music. Maybe some Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, or Bobby Darin. Good times.

Young Love.

Those days are gone. But, you know, there are new days here that we can enjoy in a similiar manner.

Have you ever thought about a fine coffeecake and a cup of coffee?

Coffeecake

China High Speed Train

China started making, designing and building their own domestic trains at the same time that the United States announced that it would build a High Speed Train network starting in California. Today, they are all over China and a normal everyday sight. Meanwhile 15 miles of track has been laid down in California. No trains. No stations. America has bumpkis.

video 1 – 4MB

A video from above showing just how many there are. Impressive.

video 2 – 3MB

Here’s the interior of a HST sleeper car. Most HST travel too fast to need a sleeper car, but these sleepers are great for long distance travel.

video 3 – 3MB

Nice Chinese girl in her living room

I actually really like the display console behind her. It’s go these glass cabinets that you can display your treasures inside. Whether it is these cute collectable dolls, or dishes, artwork, or brick-a-brack. I really like it. Of course, I would stain it a dark brown instead of the light color but that’s just me.

You’ll notice that she has a fine oval face. Oval faces really fit the Chinese face and with a nice long black hair, it’s a super nice effect.

video 3MB

A beautiful cat

This is a very beautiful white kitty.

video

Downtown America

If it wasn’t for the styles of the automobiles, you would say that this is pretty much contemporaneous America. Most of America hasn’t changed much. Sure, theres some cell phone and all that, but the Untied States has been spending it’s money destroying mud huts, strafing cows, and bombing cabbage patches. Very little remains for domestic improvements and infrastructure.

And it hasn’t happened yet either, no matter the promises that President Biden made. The federal budget is all about more machines of war, and more efforts to “contain” China.

Philadelphia, 1957

Some pictures of cats

Why not? Right?

I do love my relationships with the kitties and they always really mellow out the place and terrorize the rats and mice. I am a strong believer that every household needs a good mouser.

This cat here reminds me of my first childhood cat; Sedwick. We called his “Sedgie”. He died a ripe old age when I was living in Indiana. He was a good cat.

Sedwick clone.

Cycles of life

So much truth here… perhaps the reason why everyone in China gets military training. Learns how to shoot, fight, and endure.

Video 28MB

Little military soldier in China.

China understands.  Build strong little soldiers for a stong unified nation. This is how it is done. Training starts in first grade. video 3MB

The start of the Playboy Empire

He was a man who had a dream. Then he followed his dream and it took him to many interesting places, along with attractive and interesting people. In this photo below he is in England in 1966. Ah. The “swinging 60s”.

Playboy editor and tycoon Hugh Hefner is greeted by a group of bunny girls from his Playboy Clubs, upon his arrival at London Airport, 1966. (Photo by Dove/Getty Images)

Here’s the cover for the August issue of Playboy in 1966…

Playboy cover.

And a glimpse of what it looked like on the inside… this is the September 1966 issue…

Index page.

And what the advertisements were like. This is the back side of the magazine. Each issue seemed to have either a cigarette ad, or a alcohol advertisement of one sort or the other…

Advertisement.

My guess is that the men-folk would keep the playboy magazines in the bathroom on a low stool with other magazines, and then flip the cover over so that the Mrs’s wouldn’t notice (too much). Thus predominantly displaying the cigaretter or booze ad inside the privacy of the “man’s” bathroom.

Ladies! Get yourself an ugly man.

So funny, but…

video 82MB

A photo before going off to war!

You know, to fight those evil Japanese! Those horrible Germans, and those pesky Communists! We MUST spread freedom™ and democracy™ to the world, don’t you know!

A group poses for a picture at Pier 86, on 46th Street.

This kid below has some wisdom to share…

You can do anything you set your mind to…

This kid is going places. He’s right. I hope, I sincerely hope, that school teachers, and peers don’t beat this inner strength out of him. video 50MB

Russia Has Just Issued An Ultimatum To Ukraine, And The Conditions For War Are Now Set

by

This is not a game.  As this crisis has been unfolding in Ukraine, I have been seeing people all over the Internet cheer for either side like they would cheer for their favorite football teams.  But these people don’t understand what is at stake.  If World War III erupts in Ukraine, it will very likely lead to nuclear war between the United States and Russia down the road.  So we should all be deeply grieved over what is happening, because we are getting really close to a point of no return.

One of the good things about the Trump years was that President Trump was not interested in messing with Russia.  So the status quo in Ukraine was respected by both sides for four years, and there was relative peace in the region.

But then Joe Biden took power, and he has surrounded himself with an all-star team of warmongers.  National security adviser Jake Sullivan, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are all card-carrying members of the War Party, and they don’t seem interested in finding a way to have peace with Russia at all.

After having his security concerns mocked and laughed at for the past year, Vladimir Putin finally admitted that negotiations are at “a dead end” on Monday.  It would have been so easy to negotiate a peaceful solution with the Russians that would have kept Russia out of Ukraine, but that isn’t what the War Party wanted.

Now Putin has run out of patience, and on Monday he greatly escalated the crisis by formally recognizing the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and by announcing that he would be sending troops into the two separatist republics…

Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent on Monday and ordered the Russian army to launch what Moscow called a peacekeeping operation in the area, upping the ante in a crisis the West fears could unleash a major war. Putin told Russia’s defense ministry to deploy troops into the two breakaway regions to “keep the peace” in a decree issued shortly after he announced recognition for Russia-backed separatists there, drawing US and European vows of new sanctions.

I think that Putin wanted to make a move before the Ukrainians did.  According to one Russian official, there were “almost 60K Ukrainian military personnel concentrated near the borders of the Republics of Lugansk & Donetsk”, and I think that Putin decided that the only way to keep Ukraine from overrunning the two republics was to move his own forces in first.

Hopefully that actually works.

Hopefully the Russians will stay in Donetsk and Luhansk, and hopefully the Ukrainians will stay on their side.

Ukraine crisis assets Showing the area of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine

If that is the end result, there may still be hope of defusing the situation.

But I wouldn’t count on it.

Putin sounds like a man that is convinced that war is coming.  The following comes from a very rough translation of his speech on Monday…

“from those who took power in kiev we demand to stop any and all military actions against donbass. otherwise, the consequences will be on ukraine. i count on the support of all patriotic forces in russia.”

Russia has essentially issued an ultimatum to Ukraine.

If Ukraine invades Donetsk and Luhansk, the Russians will invade Ukraine.

Of course some western media sources are actually using the term “invasion” to describe Russian troop movements into the separatist republics.

If you have bought into that propaganda, let me ask you a question.  Do the people in this video look like they have just been “invaded”?…

Twitter can be a horrible place at times, but tonight’s decision by President Putin to recognise the Donbass republics is the news people there have been looking forward to for 8 years. I’ll sign off tonight with this video from Lenin Square in Donetsk. #Donbass 🇷🇺 pic.twitter.com/l8YJVF84tf

— Dean O’Brien (@DeanoBeano1) February 21, 2022

This would be a good opportunity for both sides to take a deep breath and start backing down.

But that isn’t going to happen.

Western leaders continue to use extremely harsh rhetoric and they continue to insist that a full-blown invasion of Ukraine is imminent.  The following is what Jake Sullivan just told the Today Show…

“We believe that any military operation of the size, scope and magnitude of what we believe the Russians are planning will be extremely violent. It will cost the lives of Ukrainians and Russians, civilians and military personnel alike,” Sullivan said during an appearance on NBC’s “Today.”

“But we also have intelligence to suggest that there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies,” he added. “It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people to repress them, to crush them, to harm them.”

And another U.S. official is alleging that Russia has a list of people that they will be specifically targeting once the invasion has been completed…

“Disturbing information recently obtained by the United States that indicates that human rights violations and abuses in the aftermath of a further invasion are being planned,” Ambassador Bathsheba Nell Crocker, the US Representative to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, alleges in a letter to Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“These acts, which in past Russian operations have included targeted killings, kidnappings/forced disappearances, unjust detentions, and the use of torture, would likely target those who oppose Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons,” reads the letter, which was first reported by The Washington Post and obtained by CNN.

So Russia plans to violently round up dissidents, activists and anyone else that is opposed to their rule?

Oh, you mean that it will be kind of like what just happened in Canada with the full approval of the U.S. government?

If the Biden administration actually cared about human rights, they would be condemning the horrific brutality that we just witnessed in Ottawa.

But of course that will never happen.

Let’s watch and see what happens over in Ukraine during the next several days.  One very alarming sign is that the Russians have just closed off much of the airspace over the Sea of Azov…

Russia’s Aeronautical Information Center issued a NOTAM (a Notice to Airmen) on Sunday which will close most of the airspace over the Sea of Azov starting at midnight between Sunday and Monday, as the US continued to warn that Russia intends to invade Ukraine.

I don’t think that this indicates that a full-blown invasion of Ukraine is imminent.

But at this point the conditions for war have been clearly set.

If Ukraine invades Donetsk and Luhansk now, the Russians have made it exceedingly clear that they will invade Ukraine.

So this actually puts a lot of power into the hands of the War Party in Washington.

Joe Biden and his all-star team of warmongers now know exactly what it will take to spark a war.

Will they decide to pull the trigger?

Let us hope not, because once World War III begins nothing will ever be the same again.

Nice Chinese girl

With nice S-shaped body and a rocking red sweater. I like this build. I’ll bet you that she has that kind of smoth “baby bottom” stomach. You know, when you are thin and you feel comfortable in you clothing, and in your skin, everything fits you wonderfully. Like this gal.

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Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy

Do you know what I haven’t had in a while? Yes. That’s right. Home made Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy.

Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy.

If you have memories of eating the microwave meal version of Salisbury steak, don’t be scared off by this retro favorite. The home-cooked steak pairs excellently with a creamy sauce and when seasoned to perfection redefines what people loved about this classic in the first place. Take a second chance with this meal and it will be your new all-time favorite. It certainly is mine.

And for youse guys who wants to cook this bad boy up, well…

Get the recipe from Tin Eats.

Why there are no internet trolls in China.

It’s true.

All behaviors are monitored by AI. Troll behaviors are observed and then the police come by and evaluate the criminal to set up treatment and punishment on a individual to individual basis.

That is why China is a nation of Rufus’s and many Trolls find themselves spending substantial time in work camps, and re-programming facilities.

Here’s what the world looks like when you imprison the mentally ill, and criminal in society… it becomes a paradise.

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Managerial Menticide

Posted on 
The Monday Taki post is up. The subject of it and today’s post is the new way to look at the system ruling over us. Of course, Sunday Thoughts is up behind the green door for those needing audio stimulation. Much of it is about the situation in Europe and the evolving Canadian dictatorship.

One of the problems with the Opposite Rule of Liberalism is that it relies on the old Left-Right dichotomy of American politics. This framing persists despite the fact that it is a vestige of a bygone era that no longer works today.

  • Democrats = Liberals
  • Republicans = Conservatives

It no longer exists.

The political divide is now between those who adhere to the basket of ideas called Western liberalism and those who defend the post-Marxist managerial state. The latter group is made up almost entirely of members of the ruling class.

  • The Haves = The post-Marxist managerial state.
  • The Have-nots = Western liberalism

In other words, we now live in a world divided by those in the system of control that hovers over the West and those who live under it. The Dirt People versus Cloud People framing is a much more honest, if a bit sarcastic, framework for the world.

  • Cloud People = Rulers
  • Dirt People = Serf / slaves

The ruling system is like a miasma that hangs over society, infecting the minds of the people and their relations with one another. We can see the elites at the top, just barely, but the system they control is all around us.

A big part of what ails society is this sense that things are not as they seem, but it is hard to get a read on why.

That noxious miasma that lingers in every aspect of society often leads people to doubt their own senses. Their experience tells them things about the world and people in it, but everywhere they look they are getting messages telling them that what they think they see is not true.

Instead, they are to believe something that is often the opposite of what they experience.

This is where the Opposite Rule continues to work. Those who are aware of the contradictions of daily existence can apply the rule to the information stream that comes from the system, filling the area around them. Whatever is in the air at the moment, start from some version of the opposite, and the truth will be near. The Opposite Rule of Liberalism is best restated as the Opposite Rule of Managerialism. This organic, self-aware system that rules over us is the opposite of truth.

A useful example comes from the daily barrage of “information” from the system about the crisis in Ukraine.

Here is a story from the New York Times headlined, “Russia has been laying groundwork online for a ‘false flag’ operation, misinformation researchers say.” Note that this story is not behind the usual paywall, as they want wide circulation of it. Note also that the writer is one of the infants they employ to copy and paste material into “news reports.”

This news report starts with a news report from a European based group called European Expert Association, which is described as “a research group that focuses on security in Ukraine.”

When you take a look at who these people are, it becomes obvious that they are Ukrainian activists.

These are not neutral observers searching for the truth about the crisis. More important, when you look at their resumes you see all the familiar NGO’s that are pushing for war with Russia.

  • NGO = CIA funded Neocon organization.

Of course, this is the New York Times, the first draft of history and the leader in the American news media. They do not just take this at face value. They hand it to a group called the Global Disinformation Index, a nonprofit “research” group. These are the go-to guys for the Times reports on misinformation and disinformation.

To the shock of no one in the Times offices, the researchers at Global Disinformation Index confirmed everything said the European Expert Association.

The reason the Times was not surprised by what they heard back from the Global Disinformation Index is the person running it is Anne Applebaum. She is a notorious warmonger and neoconservative.

Anne Applebaum.

Here she is advocating for the liquidation of the Afghanis and the Syrians as a “solution” to those problems. Applebaum is a big believer in what Stalin supposedly said about people causing problems for the regime. No man, no problem. Applebaum just scales it up.

Her partner in this enterprise is a Ukrainian activist named Peter Pomerantsev, who is probably on the payroll of a Western intelligence service. His biography does not pass the laugh test. His role in life has been to seed Western media with anti-Russian information dressed up as Ukrainian nationalism. The rest of the staff of the Global Disinformation Index all have an axe to grind with some enemy of the neocons, past, present or in the future.

Peter Pomerantsev.

The point of this walk through the swamps behind the ministry of disinformation is to illustrate how the new rule works;

  • If a media outlet is claiming to root out disinformation, you can be sure they are not doing that.
  • Instead, start with the assumption that they are waging a disinformation campaign.
  • That is what you see in the New York Times story and any story containing the words “Global Disinformation Index.”
  • Then you can begin to figure out what is really going on with the story.

Of course, the entirely new obsession with misinformation and disinformation by government and mass media is a big lie. Since forever, people have known that governments lie all the time.

They have known that the media is partisan, a form of activism more often than not. Yet suddenly we are being told that the media and the government are now declaring war in false information.

Since they are the only possible source of disinformation, this means war on themselves.

The big lie, for those unfamiliar, is a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. This is now the default tactic of the managerial state.

  • They tell us that Eskimo truckers protesting vaccine rules are white supremacists.
  • Then they bring in a “hate expert” to claim that freedom is a form of violence.

These outlandish whoppers are then signed off on by new experts who sagely tell us the moon is made of cheese.

Unlike normal propaganda techniques, this new tactic is not to further a cause, although it can be used that way as we see with Ukraine. The neocons are simply taking advantage of a defense mechanism that has evolved since the Cold War.

By flooding the zone with outlandish nonsense, the system prevents cogent analysis of what it is doing or contradicting it in any way.

It is a form of menticide to paralyze the people by suspending them in a solution of false narratives.

The concept of "menticide" indicates an organized system of judicial perversion and psychological intervention, in which a powerful tyrant transfers his own thoughts and words into the minds and mouths of the victims he plans to destroy or to use for his own propaganda.

-menticide

This is the utility of the Opposite Rule.

It helps clarify the new relationship between the leviathan and the people.

  • Rulers = leviathan
  • People = serf / slaves

Instead of viewing society as a hierarchical structure that is responsive to the will of the people, you see that it is an adversarial relationship between a ruling organism and the people.

This ruling organism is the vast administrative state made up of government, corporations, the academy, non-profits and the mass media.

It is a fully integrated organism.

The endless waves of information, mostly false information, is its primary defense mechanism against what it sees as a threat.

That threat is the people over whom it hovers like a noxious cloud.

The point of the false information is to keep the people in a fog of confusion about who really rules over them.

You cannot rebel against that which you are not even sure exists.

Menticide is the primary defense mechanism of this system of social control we call managerialism.

A nice night in the city

Isn’t she just great? Well, I love her.

One of my favorite things to do is get dressed up a tad and go out for a night in the city. Though it’s mostly a nice meal in a restrurant, followed by a coffee and a snack at one of the bars or coffee houses, I would love to go out and feel the night city air. Great times.

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Chinese J-20

Superior or roughly comparable (depending on who your read) to all the American fighter aircraft. 100% Chinese designed. 100% Chinese avionics. 100% Chinese engines.

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According To The ‘Big Mac Index’, China’s Yuan Is 34% Under-Valued

The Big Mac was created in 1967 by Jim Delligati, a McDonald’s franchise owner in Pennsylvania. It was launched throughout the U.S. the following year, and today you can buy one in more than 70 countries. However, as Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross details below, the price you pay will vary based on where you are, as evidenced by the Big Mac Index.

What Does the Big Mac Index Show?

The Big Mac Index was invented by The Economist in 1986. It is intended to be a lighthearted way to demonstrate the concept of purchasing power parity. In other words, it helps illustrate the idea that market exchange rates between countries may be “out of whack” when compared to the cost of buying the same basket of goods and services in those places.

Given that McDonald’s is one of the biggest companies in the world and the Big Mac is widely available globally, it means that the famous burger can be used as a basic goods comparison between most countries. It also has the advantage of having the same inputs and distribution system, with a few minor modifications (like chicken patties in India instead of beef).

Using the price of a Big Mac in two countries, the index can give an indication as to whether a currency may be over or undervalued. For example, a Big Mac costs ¥24.40 in China and $5.81 in the United States. By comparing the implied exchange rate to the actual exchange rate, we can see whether the Yuan is over or undervalued.

According to the Big Mac Index, the Yuan is undervalued by 34%.

Beyond currency misalignment, the index has other uses. For instance, it shows inflation in burger prices over time. If we compare the price of a Big Mac across countries in the same currency—such as the U.S. dollar—we are also able to see where burgers are cheaper or relatively more expensive.

Burger Costs Around the World

Big Mac prices have been converted from local currency to U.S. dollars based on the actual exchange rate in effect at the time.

Switzerland takes the cake for the priciest Big Mac, followed closely behind by Norway.

Both countries have relatively high price levels but also enjoy higher wages when compared to other OECD countries.

Venezuela has seen the largest jump in burger prices, with the cost of a Big Mac climbing nearly 250% since 2004. The country has been plagued by hyperinflation for years, so it’s no surprise to see large price swings in the country’s data.

While it appears that the price of a Big Mac has decreased in Turkey, this is because the prices are shown in U.S. dollars. The new Turkish lira has depreciated against the U.S. dollar more than 90% since it was introduced in 2005.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Russia has the cheapest Big Mac, reflecting the country’s lower price levels. Labor costs in Russia are roughly a third of those in Switzerland.

The Limitations of Burgernomics

The Big Mac Index is useful for a number of reasons. Investors can use it to measure inflation over time, and compare this to official records. This can help them value bonds and other securities that are sensitive to inflation. The Big Mac Index also indicates whether a currency may be over or undervalued, and investors can place foreign exchange trades accordingly.

Of course, the index does have shortcomings. Here are some that economists have noted.

  • Non-traded services can have different prices across countries. The price of a Big Mac will be influenced by the costs of things like labor, but this is not a reflection of relative currency values. The Economist now releases a GDP-adjusted version of the Big Mac Index to help address this criticism.
  • McDonald’s is not in every country in the world. This means the geographic reach of the Big Mac Index has some limitations, particularly in Africa.
  • The index lacks diversity. The index is made up of one item: the Big Mac. Because of this, it lacks the diversity of other economic metrics such as the Consumer Price Index.

Despite all of these limitations, the Big Mac Index does act as a good starting place for understanding purchasing power parity. Through the simplicity of burgers, complex economic theory is easier to digest.

Walking the rails in the countryside.

Gosh! I’ll bet this woman is so much fun!

She’s one of my favorites and she’s on the tracks. I used to do this don’t you know. We had all these traintracks that ran in and out and though the countryside in Western Pennsylvania. I would go hiking with my friends (when I was a boy) and often we would try walkign on top of the rails. Just like this girl does. So nice. Good memories.

When was the last time that you walked the rails?

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Do you all know what would be good and fun?

How about taking a little short walk down some tracks alone with your cell phone set to OFF.

A reminder of how unified the Chinese are

This is a clip from a movie. It depicts a true event where (during the Korean war) no matter how many times the American military destroyed the bridges, the Chinese rebuilt them and kept on moving forward. True story. Remember that.

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Nice healthy Chinese girl

Gosh she looks good. Doesn’t she?

I really like her lipstick. Personally, I think that many women look great wearing lipstick, but the color and texture selection is critical. Not every color and texture fits every woman. In this case, this red sade really complements her skin complexion and her hair color. Don’t you think?

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Final Thoughts

Do you all know what really pisses off a lot of Trolls?

It’s one of the first things that Trolls disparage.

It’s off-subject meandering. Whether pretty girls. Food. Cats. Personal stories, and all the rest.

It drives them bonkers.

It’s rambling trains of thought. They are unable (due to some kind of mental block, or mental illness) focus on wide-ranging topics. They can handle a singular topic, and get involved in it, but they really, REALLY hate meandering expressions of thoughts, images, senses and pictures of another life in it’s great complexity.

They cannot handle articles like this.

Their tiny minds cannot handle it.

You all know, that I am going to continue on my meandering adventures, for most healthy people can easily handle my topics and how they are presented. I hope that you too (my dear reader) understand why I structure MM the way I do.

There’s an order and a reason behind the “madness”.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings 3

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
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  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
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