We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
All indications are that the world has already reset.
It’s not being reported.
What remains is the military angle. War. Prep for war.
Hopefully the United States will collapse internally, but starting a war of desperation is still on the table, and it makes me extremely nervous.
Industry is flocking to China.
But, madmen are running the United States right now, and it is a true fiasco.
Did I summarize this well?
Stay calm. Be positive and eat well.
What the United States says about Ukraine…
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Bangkok Beef with Basil
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Ingredients
1 (1 pound) top sirloin or flank steak, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water or stock
1 tablespoon rice wine
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 serrano or jalapeno chiles, minced
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
Pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 cup canned bamboo shoots, well drained
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
3/4 cup fresh Thai basil leaves
Oil for sautéing
Instructions
Mix water, wine and cornstarch in a zip-type bag, add beef and marinate 10 minutes.
Heat oil in wok or large skillet.
Stir-fry garlic and chiles until fragrant, then add beef and tomatoes.
After 1 or 2 minutes, add all other ingredients except basil.
Cook 3 to 4 minutes more, then add basil.
Stir once more, then serve.
Serve hot over Asian noodles or warm with mixed greens as a salad.
Kamala Harris Offered $60M For LGBTQ acceptance in Africa
This is a very interesting video out of Africa. It tells you clearly, and in a loud voice, what the Africans think of the Untied States and it’s “human rights”.
For those who never have, it starts with a loaf of Cuban bread that has a crispy crust and a moist tender crumb. The bottom half is slathered with mustard and dotted with dill pickle slices, the other half gets mayo. Slices of roast pork and ham are piled on, topped with Swiss cheese and the sandwich goes into a press, where it is toasted to perfection.
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A Cuban is one hell of a good sandwich.
A lot of people don’t know there’s another version of the sandwich named the Medianoche. The fillings are the same as those found in a Cuban but it calls for a softer brioche style roll. It’s equally delicious, but a slightly different experience.
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So, why is this sandwich so popular?
Because it’s delicious.
Have You Noticed? NOTHING in the MSM about Ukraine
Clearly, “the word” has gone out. Two days ago nearly 1 in 4 articles in the Main Stream Media (propaganda) feed were Ukraine stories. Yesterday it dried up to under 1 in 20 articles as Ukraine stories. Today: NOTHING.
The feeds haven’t been Ukraine-free like this for over a year.
It looks to me as though the memo went out; Ukraine is finished, no more coverage.
This entire Ukraine thing was clearly coordinated across the whole propaganda platform of MSM. Very similar to the “mostly peaceful” coordination of Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. Also very similar to all MSM outlets being told to call the Waukesha Parade Massacre the Waukesha Parade Crash.
When every single outlet starts using the same ridiculous term at the exact same time . . . it was ordered.
When every single outlet drops the hottest set of propaganda stories about Ukraine at the same time . . . it was ordered.
Free press does not exist today.
Something is definitely up with Ukraine. They were pushing it at a thousand miles an hour and then it just slammed into a brick wall and we hear nothing at all.
One possibility is the story about Zelensky embezzling the $400 MILLION in Diesel fuel money. That is definitely something the criminals in DC wish to keep out of the news.
Then too, it might also relate to the Classified documents allegedly released publicly by that 21 year old Airman via a Gamer chat forum. Have you noticed the coverage . . . it’s all about “the leak” and not one word about the CONTENTS of the leak.
These documents PROVE the US and NATO have actual boots on the ground in Ukraine, engaged in actual fighting against Russia. Not one peep about this from the MSM. Why?
Because the government knows it has crossed the final red line with Russia by having boots on the ground, and government doesn’t want the American (or European) people to have any idea WHY Russia slams us, when that slamming takes place. They want the public kept dumb.
Rabbit hole the whole thing then no one will know why Russia attacks the US.
Of course, Ukraine is losing to Russia even after the 100s of billions sent there by Biden . . . and . . . U.S. election campaigns for 2024 are getting ready to kick off.
How is Biden going to explain another Afghanistan debacle when the US/NATO tuck tail and run from Ukraine? So the MSM is quiet; thinking the country will focus on something else in the 72 hr news cycle.
Lastly, it could also be a lot more sinister. The PTB and NATO are about to escalate the war in Ukraine and they want no coverage while they start WW3.
Island Near Spain Reveals Evidence of Hallucinogenic Use in 1,000 BC
A new study has produced evidence that ancient peoples living on a Mediterranean island off the coast Spain nearly 3,000 years ago were regularly consuming hallucinogenic drugs obtained from plants. Scientists examined hair samples removed from a Bronze Age burial site on the island of Menorca, and were quite excited to find that these strands of hair contained traces of psychoactive ingredients. This is the first confirmed proof that ancient inhabitants of Spain’s Balearic Island chain were using mind-altering substances, which may have been taken during religious ceremonies as a way to induced altered states of consciousness and perception.
As reported in the latest edition of Scientific Reports , a group of scientists from Spain, led by Valladolid University professor of archaeology and prehistory Elisa Guerra Doce, carefully analyzed strands of human hair removed from Menorca’s Es Càrritx cave, to gather data about their chemical makeup. The researchers used Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography and High-Resolution Mass Spectroscopy to test for a variety of chemicals in the hair strands, and found psychoactive ingredients in three of them.
The alkaloids they discovered were atropine and scopolamine, which come from nightshade plants, and ephedrine, a stimulant that can be extracted from a few species of pine trees and shrubs. The chemicals from the nightshade plants are known to induce hallucinations and alterations in perception , while ephedrine boosts energy levels and increases alertness.
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Studying the Miraculously Preserved Human Hair of Menorca
Es Càrritx cave was first occupied by humans in approximately 1,600 BC. Among its many wonders, it featured a vast burial chamber that had remained in use up until 800 BC.
Normally, hair from skeletons buried so long ago would not have been preserved. But in this instance strands of hair from some individuals were dyed red, put inside wooden containers and stored in a separate sealed chamber found further back in the cave. Testing has shown that this well-preserved hair, which is believed to have been removed from the heads of shamans or medicine men, is about 3,000 years old.
Based on their knowledge of the types of plants that would have been on the island of Menorca in 1,000 BC, Guerra-Doce and her colleagues know the people living there would have had no trouble finding sources for hallucinogens. The psychoactive alkaloids could have entered their bodies following their consumption of extracts from a bush known as the joint pine, and from chemicals taken from nightshade plants like the mandrake, henbane and thorn apple.
The researchers speculate that the plants or their extracts would have been consumed during rituals, specifically those organized by shamans who specialized in the exploration of altered states of mind. It was believed that shamans could visit different dimensions, including those occupied by deceased spirits, while under the influence of mind-altering substances. With information gathered in these distant dimensions the shamans would have been able to diagnose illnesses and learn how to cure them, and possibly see into the future as well—or so they would have claimed.
Interestingly, there were concentric circles on the wooden containers that held the dyed strands of hair. The scientists think these may have been meant to depict eyes, and could have referred to the unique type of inner vision shamans experienced while under the influence of hallucinogens. They speculate that the wooden containers were essentially created as time capsules, as a way to preserve the record of certain cultural or metaphysical traditions that were abandoned 2,800 years ago. They were sealed in a deep cave chamber to ensure their unconventional contents (the dyed hair of shamans) would be preserved, thus honoring the activities of those who served as healers and holy men in their ancient communities.
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Prehistoric Travelers in the Shamanic Realms
The evidence of prehistoric hallucinogenic use uncovered in this latest study is consistent with what has been discovered at many other ancient sites around the world.
Human consumption of drug plants is a long-standing tradition,” the study authors wrote in their Scientific Reports paper. “By combining many different fields of study (archaeology, anthropology, chemistry, pharmacology, ethnobotany, and iconography, among others) it has been possible to trace back this habit to prehistoric times in Eurasia, North America and South America.”
Fortunately, traces of psychoactive alkaloids can sometimes be preserved for several millennia. This has helped archaeologists and anthropologists identify many prehistoric cultures that were using hallucinogenic drugs, establishing just how popular and widespread this practice has been throughout human history.
In their study, the researchers listed many discoveries that have revealed the ubiquitous pattern of hallucinogenic plant use over the millennia. For example, opium alkaloids have been found in Late Bronze Age (1,400 to 1,200 BC) containers recovered from archaeological sites in the eastern Mediterranean. They’ve similarly been found in jugs, mugs and bowls unearthed in Iberia (modern-day Spain and Portugal) dating to the Copper Age , Bronze Age and Iron Age , covering the period of more than 3,000 years up to the first century BC.
In the Americas, multiple types of hallucinogens have been found in artifacts manufactured in pre-Hispanic times. In China the psychoactive ingredients in cannabis have been discovered inside wooden boxes, dating back to the country’s prehistoric era.
Organic remains that contain psychoactive alkaloids have been unearthed more rarely, but they have been discovered from time to time. Hair samples taken from mummified bodies linked to ancient Mesoamerican cultures have been found to contain psychoactive alkaloids, and they’ve also been detected in prehistoric human bones excavated in China. In Vietnam alkaloids from the Areca nut have been found in dental enamel of individuals who lived during the Iron Age. And predating other finds on the Iberian Peninsula, bones removed from ancient mines in Gavá have produced evidence of hallucinogenic consumption dating to the Late Neolithic period (4,500 to 3,250 BC).
The use of hallucinogenic substances likely goes back tens of thousands of years, into the Paleolithic period. But hard evidence that shows exactly when and how mind-altering psychoactive chemicals were being consumed is rare, and that’s why the discovery of the sealed wooden boxes with the contaminated hair strands in the cave on Menorca is so important. The researchers involved in this new study are convinced that the boxes were made to preserve a kind of record of ancient ceremonial practices, with the dyed hair strands serving as artifacts directly linked to the shamans who were in charge of communications with other realms.
VIDEO: U.S. M1A1 Abrams Tanks Already Inside Ukraine
Video has emerged showing United States M1A1 Abrams Tanks sitting in a field inside Ukraine. The person recording the video is speaking Ukrainian. Watch:
Japanese Artist Creates Epic Anime Costumes For His Cats
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If you’re a fan of cats, anime, and adorable cats dressed in tiny anime costumes, this one is going to be a treat. Apparently, there’s a talented Japanese man likes to create handmade anime costumes for his two cute cats and you can find his beautiful creations on his Twitter account.
If you know your anime well enough, you might be able to tell that most of the costumes he creates are based on those seen in productions from Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation film studio. It’s also worth noting that all of his designs are made from scratch and with his own two hands.
Loongson, a Chinese fabless chipmaker, has launched the new 3D5000 processor for data centers and cloud computing. MyDrivers (opens in new tab) reported that Loongson claims its 32-core domestic chips deliver 4X higher performance than rival Arm processors.
The 3D5000 still leverages LoongArch, Loongson’s homemade instruction set architecture (ISA) from 2020. The chipmaker was previously a firm believer in MIPS. However, Loongson eventually built LoongArch from the ground up with the sole objective of not relying on foreign technology to develop its processors. LoongArch is a RISC (reduced instruction set computer) ISA, similar to MIPS or RISC-V.
The 3D5000 arrives with 32 LA464 cores running at 2 GHz. The 32-core processor has 64MB of L3 cache, supports eight-channel DDR4-3200 ECC memory, and up to five HyperTransport (HT) 3.0 interfaces. It also supports dynamic frequency and voltage adjustments. Officially, the 3D5000 has a 300W TDP; however, Loongson stated that the conventional power consumption is around 150W. That’s roughly 5W per core.
The 3D5000 flaunts a chiplet design since Loongson has glued together two 16-core 3C5000 processors. Loongson developed the 3C5000 server part to compete with AMD’s Zen and Zen+ architectures. The latest 3D5000, which measures 75.4 x 58.5 x 7.1mm, slides into a custom LGA4129 socket.
The processor supports 2P and 4P configurations; therefore, Loongson has launched the 7A2000 bridge chip to manage the communication between the processors and other components. As per the chip designer, the 7A2000 is up to 400% faster than the previous generation. Furthermore, with the help of the 7A2000, there’s a possibility to scale up to 128 cores per motherboard.
According to Loongson’s provided numbers, the 3D5000 scores over 425 points in SPEC CPU 2006, a depreciated benchmark replaced with the newer SPEC CPU 2017 version. The 3D5000 also delivers over 1 TFLOPs of FP64 performance, up to 4X higher than regular Arm cores. Meanwhile, the processor’s stream performance with eight channels of DDR4-3200 memory crosses the 50GB mark.
While performance isn’t the 3D5000’s strong suit, security is. The 32-core processor allegedly has a custom-made mechanism to defend against vulnerabilities such as Meltdown or Spectre. The chip also has its Trusted Platform Module (TPM), so it doesn’t rely on an external solution. In addition, according to MyDrivers’ report, the 3D5000 also supports a secret national algorithm with an embedded security module that seemingly delivers excellent encryption and decryption efficiency higher than 5 Gbps.
In addition to the 3D5000 and 7A2000, Loongson also announced the 2K050, the company’s baseboard management controller (BMC). The 2K050 features LA264 cores at 500 MHz, integrated 2D GDP, 32-bit DDR3 support, and outputs at a 1080p (1920×1080) resolution at 60 Hz.
Loongson’s 3D5000 is no match for AMD’s EPYC Genoa or Intel’s Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors. It was never about beating the foreign competition but pushing for self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, with the ongoing U.S. sanctions, Chinese companies have no means to secure chipmaking tools originating from the U.S. In addition, the U.S. Department of Commerce recently blacklisted Loongson, which likely derailed some of the company’s plans.
Brazil’s Lula Backs BRICS Currency to Replace US Dollar in Foreign Trade – Bloomberg
The world no longer want to live with the risk of US confiscating their dollar assets at will :
He spoke after visiting headquarters of BRICS bank in Shanghai
Brazil’s president has a bilateral with Xi Jinping on Friday
Two weeks ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the African nation of Sudan. One of the topics discussed: A Russian Naval Base on the Red Sea. Here we are two weeks after that discussion, the U.S. has fomented a military Coup in Sudan.
Russia’s agreement . . . out the window. That’s how utterly RUTHLESS the USA is. It took our CIA just two weeks to make it all happen.
You see, when the USA cannot get what we want by peaceful means, or bribery, we foment the overthrow of an entire country’s government.
It comes down to power. The USA is the Top Dog of this planet, and the people running the USA are not going to “allow” anyone else to unseat us.
Whatever it takes to keep hold of our power, the people running our government seem willing to do. Economic sanctions, trade war, election fraud, bribery, or, as we see with Sudan (and as we saw with Ukraine) the OVERTHROW of a government.
The USA will not be dislodged from its perch above the world and anyone who tries, gets crushed, ruined, destroyed, or dead.
That is what our country has become.
That is why much of the world is distancing itself from us, and from our currency.
Unless the American People step up to put a stop to the way our government is doing things, I FEAR our country will get stopped. By Russian nuclear missiles.
What choice are we leaving the Russians? We won’t leave them alone. We’ve been surrounding their country for decades with more and more NATO members — all of whom then start aiming missiles at Russia.
We smash countries — like Syria — who are allied with Russia. We takeover countries that we cannot induce to join NATO (i.e. Ukraine), and when Russia tries to peacefully negotiate a naval base on the Red Sea with Sudan, we are now overthrowing the Sudan government.
No matter what Russia does, we interfere. Sometimes peacefully. Sometimes legally. Most times through Bribery and force.
Sooner or later, the Russians are going to realize that the USA simply will not stop; will not peacefully co-exist.
When that realization happens, there will be only one choice Russia has left: To either utterly destroy the United States, or capitulate to it.
The sleazy douchebags who infest the US Government think Russia will capitulate. I think Russia will push the launch button.
Asch Conformity Experiment
Once again Gonzalo is wayyyyy ahead on this story. We'll hear the other talking about this in a few months!
Nua Yang Nam Tok (Waterfall Beef – Thai)
If you’ve got a broiler/grill you can cook this one anytime, otherwise wait for the barbeque season. In Thai nua is beef, yang means broiled (over a charcoal burner), and nam tok is a waterfall. The name comes from the sound the juices dripping from the beef onto the open charcoal brazier.
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Ingredients
Steak
1 pound steak, cut fairly thick
Marinade
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon tamarind juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped red birdseye chiles (prik ki nu)
Remaining Ingredients
1/3 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup lime juice
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped shallots
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped coriander/cilantro (including the roots if possible)
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped mint leaves
2 tablespoons khao noor (see the Pad Thai recipe for this)
1 tablespoon freshly roasted/fried sesame seeds
1 to 3 teaspoons freshly ground dried red chiles
Instructions
Marinade: Mix the marinade, coat the steak with it and marinade it for at least 3 hours.
The steak is then barbecued, broiled or grilled until on the rare side of medium rare, cut into half inch thick strips and the strips cut into bite sized pieces. The meat can be kept cool until just before you want to eat.
Remaining ingredients: In a wok, bring a little oil to medium high heat, and add the strips of beef, immediately followed by all the remaining ingredients, stir fry until heated through (about a minute).
Serve with Thai sticky rice. (Alternatively I rather like it as part of a meal with pad thai and a soup such as tom yum ghoong (hot and sour shrimp soup).
China and Russias MASTER PLAN is About to Begin.
Sometimes being a rufus can test you.
I will keep anotherwise long story short. Suffice it to say i had oversight (although) not ultimate responsibility for a major US airport. Part of my job was just observing, that security was ok, equipment was function, queus and staff was managed well and general aiport customer stervice what i believed our standards should be.
I1 situation of a mantraveling alone who had been sitting next to our help desk, often asking to use the phone. Of course in a big airport this normally isnt allowed. When i was boss I always allowed it.
Anyways on the 2nd day this man was still sitting there, decent street clothes not in anyway dishelved. I went to talk to him and ask what his problem was. It turned out he was an afghan refugee (US interptreter for the US army in Afghan. The state department had made arrangements for him to stay with a sponsor so he wouldnt be assisinated and who never showed so this man was stranded in the US no money, no one to help.
First thing idid was give himn $20 bucks to go get food. He hadnt eaten in 2 daays. Knowing full well helping this guy was way outside my job authority, I did it anyway. I had my staff call every aphfan refugee organiation in the US. Finally enough of us pooled money for him to get a room. After he returned from the hotel, my staff had found aa sponsor for him.
In the mean time i guess the original sponsor felt guilt and showedup and gave the guy $200. THis was better than nothing. the place we found waas in sacramento $450 plaane flight and another $60 transfer to the bus station.
I looked for another way and found good old 7-11 would give him aa bus ticket 1 way for 60 buCks. I sent my staff over to pick up his ticket and the nexxt morning he was on his way to support.
When you do the right thing you risk nothing. Always be the Rufus
Over the past 24 hours, Russia has begun a very large “surge” of tanks and other heavy military equipment into Ukraine. In the video below, a single train is seen carrying 36 more tanks, older T-62M models, into the war zone.
It is already known that at least five additional trains, each carrying more than 36 tanks, are also entering the war zone.
Meanwhile, today’s briefing from the United Kingdom Defense Intelligence ADMITS Ukraine is withdrawing troops from Bakhmut:
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No matter how much military assistance NATO provides Ukraine, Russia simply adds more and continues to destroy the Ukrainians.
It appears to many reasonable people that NATO is now willing to fight Russia, to the last Ukrainian!
When will Ukraine admit they have no hope at all, and negotiate a surrender?
Being a daddy
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“Today at Meijer, I walked up to select my shaving cream and overheard a mother talking to her daughter about shaving her legs. It was her first time shopping for razors, and her mom was explaining what kind of razor she needed, how to shave her legs, etc. I felt that little punch in the gut that I normally feel when I see a mom and daughter doing mom and daughter things. I can’t help it. You’d think after 14 years without mine, seeing someone with their mom wouldn’t make me sad or jealous, but it just does.
This time, however, I couldn’t help but giggle. I was transported back to a similar moment I shared with my Dad. I’ll never forget the look on my dad’s face when I told him I wanted to shave my legs. It was the summer after mom died and some of the girls I went to summer camp with started teasing me about my hairy legs. I remember coming up to dad and being so embarrassed to ask him for help, but man, did he handle it like a champ! For a moment he put his head down; and then he turned the TV off, took me into the bathroom, gave me a new blade on his razor, gave me his shaving cream, and taught me how to shave my legs.
Single dads don’t get the credit they deserve; especially mine and all dads who are left playing both roles. There was never a time in my childhood where I truly thought I was missing out on anything. My dad was so good at fulfilling both roles and making sure my childhood was as normal as possible; that there was never a time I thought Life or God had screwed me over. My dad handled everything: periods, shaving, broken hearts, catty girlfriends–you name it and my dad took it like a champ.
Dad, I know I haven’t said it enough, so here’s a big public THANK YOU for never, ever, ever being too much of a man to be my mom. Thank you for never being too embarrassed to do the girl stuff you had to do, thank you for never making it embarrassing for me to ask you for help. Growing up without a mom is obviously something no one ever wants, but growing up with you was the best. I love you, Dad!” ❤️
OK, so as of late, I have been experimenting with this “new” kind of Artificial Intelligence system. This one takes a sentence, a statement and then generates art from it. It’s fun, cool and quite an amusement. Something that I am just starting to “toy around with”.
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DeepAI offers an easy-to-use text-to-image generator that produces decent results with the right prompts. There are many image styles on offer, and almost half of those are free.
The free ones include basic text-to-image, cute creatures, fantasy worlds, cyberpunk, old, renaissance painting, and abstract, among a few others.
All of these styles produce images according to that theme, pretty much like the other tools on this list. However, among these styles, there is a logo generator as well that you can use to produce interesting logo ideas. It’s particularly useful for artists who are looking for inspiration to build on or to overcome a block.
Here’s some examples when I typed in a sentence, and then clicked on the style icon…
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Pretty good.
You need to play with it, because if you use the wrong feed generation icon, your images won’t look “right”.
Here, I used the architectural icon for a house-based sentence…
The United States crazed mad-dog seems to be effectively muzzled. It seems to be on “pause” for a spell, and the rest of the world is galloping as far away from the United States as possible. Not just France, but India, Brazil, Australia, and many, many African nations. It’s almost a rout.
Meanwhile those in the “West” must be the most ignorant, and ill-informed people in all of history.
American “news” is like American Supermarkets; One long isle of sodas, only two brands (Coke and Pepsi). With a single tiny shelf in the far, back corner with one or two “off brands”.
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Sheech!
China did it again! Yemen and Saudi Arabia mend ties!
Figuring things out
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Shrimp in Caramel Sauce
(Tom Kho – Vietnamese)
The onions should practically disintegrate into the sauce. Adding the oil at the end lends a bit of extra richness; traditionally more lard or oil was added than prescribed here to also give an appetizing sheen to the shrimp.
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Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds (31-40 count) medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
Place the shrimp, salt, fish sauce and Caramel Sauce into a shallow saucepan. Bring to a vigorous simmer over high heat.
Add the yellow onion and pepper, stirring to evenly distribute. Continue cooking over high heat, occasionally turning the shrimp so that they’re well coated with sauce. They’ll curl up and release their juices to combine with the other ingredients and concentrate into a dark sauce. Add a little water if things get too dry.
The shrimp are done when they’ve taken on an orange-brown color and have a pleasant sweet chewiness, about 8 to 10 minutes after you’ve added the onion and pepper. There will be a few tablespoons of sauce in the pan.
Remove from the heat, add the oil and stir to coat the shrimp.
Scatter the green onion on top and serve with lots of steamed rice.
The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration has announced that the People’s Liberation Army Navy will be conducting a “Major Military Operation” in the Yellow Sea off the Coast of Qingdao on April 18th between 0900 and 1200 Local-Time.
This is the first time they have ever used the term “Major Military OPERATION.” Usually, they say “military exercise(s)” Now, they’re saying “operation.”
Not quite certain what this entails. ALso not certain why they gave less than 24 hours notice. That part of China is about 12 hours AHEAD of US East Coast.
The Fall Of America ? | China’s Exposure
The first minutes of the video are a great demonstration on how distorted Americans see the world and how badly the mainstream media can spin stories into their favor.
Massive Numbers of Military-Age Chinese Men Lining Up in Panama to ILLEGALLY Cross into USA
Massive Lines Of Military Aged Men From China Are Lining Up In Panama Headed For The United States open southern border! This is an Invasion that the President is NOT Stopping! Look at the one minute video below . . .
Here is what is taking place right now in Panama, heading to the USA unabated:
Now, pretty much EVERY American knows that relations between the USA and China are not good anymore. There is very candid talk that China is going to “re-unify” with Taiwan, and that may happen by force. . . war.
The US has publicly (and foolishly) stated it will “Defend” Taiwan. Quite a goal given that Taiwan is 8000 miles from the USA but only 90 miles from mainland China.
Just how does the US think it will supply a logistics train for wartime operations which has any hope of overcoming mainland China’s ability to supply Chinese troops?
Yet pledge to defend Taiwan, the US has . . .
So here we are, with talk of war and lo and behold, thousands of MILITARY-AGE CHINESE MEN are moving to cross into the USA illegally.
Is there any doubt in your mind that these men are part of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) being sent here by their Communist China bosses to attack the USA from within once hostilities break out?
One would have to be a fool to think otherwise.
If they were coming lawfully, they wouldn’t be doing this in Panama. They’re coming ILLEGALLY because they want no records of them being in the country! No records of who they are, where they will be staying, or for how long.
HAL TURNER ANALYSIS
Americans with guns need to start thinking to themselves “What if war breaks out and these people actually DO start attacking us from within? AM I ABLE TO SHOOT A HUMAN BEING TO DEFEND MY COUNTRY?”
Few normal people in any country, have had to contemplate shooting another human being. Even fewer have ever had to do it. It’s a big deal to do that. On an emotional and intellectual level, killing another human being is a tremendously big deal. It takes a considerable amount of thinking — in advance — to figure out if YOU are capable of actually doing that.
If you are, in a combat/fight/life-threatening situation, fine.
If you’re “not sure” then you’d better think long and hard, NOW, before any confrontation occurs. Because if you’re not sure . . . and, God Forbid, war comes . . . then YOU will get killed BY THEM in the moments you hesitate to shoot them.
None of us want war. I certainly don’t. Especially not here, inside my own country. But it sure looks as though that is exactly what’s coming.
What will you do after retirement?
I retired at 49, 6 years ago. Top 4 lessons for a successful transition from a rewarding career:
Don’t buy things that don’t include potential for building a community and friendships. Floating in a wakeboard boat alone is not much fun
180 degree shift of focus from wealth to health. Read books on nutrition. Take cooking classes. Take college courses on nutrition and wellness.
Pick a big goal that few have accomplished. Make the plan to attain. Write it down. Do the work. It took 2 years to train, completed two full Ironman races with my adult kids last summer. Next up Ironman Portugal.
Hang out your shingle. Never say retired. “I’m a consultant”. Offer your services and advice to a start up venture-even if you get paid in free lunches!
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In a nutshell, the skills one learns during a working life will be essential to flourish in retirement. We only get one shot at life.
80s Time Capsule – Tribute to 80’s Entertainment
This is pretty darn good!
How many Taiwanese consider themselves Chinese and would accept an invasion?
I am from Taiwan.
With some pseudo-research, one might come up with some statistics from dubious sources to pretend to answer your question, but one needs to realize that questions of this ilk are utterly irrelevant and useless in providing any insight into the ongoing Taiwan question.
Yours is the wrong question to ask.
Can Taiwan reunite peacefully with China?
I was born and grew up in Taiwan. I have never lived in mainland China, and do not consider myself enamored with the CCP. I see answers here, totally off the mark, from quite a few fellow Taiwanese. They talk about how they love freedom or democracy, or how they hate the CCP, etc., as an argument for why Taiwan cannot re-unify with China, as if such criteria, or even what they prefer, had ever been a deciding factor in any similar situations in human history. I challenge them to cite a precedent to support their thesis. Quite the opposite, let me give you a few counter-examples to show how futile and useless your arguments are: CSA (The Confederate States of America), Catalonia, Scotland, Kurdistan, …… In all the above examples, the constituents of respective Countries (not Provinces) wanted freedom and democracy, hated the other country that denied their independence, and either completed or are on the verge of completing the democratic procedure to secede. Maybe you can tell me what happened to all of them, and how the international community acted toward their causes. There are happy stories as well. The USA, after paying a steep price in blood and fire, relied on its own struggle and sacrifice to earn its independence, not stealing it under the table by telling the world how they loved freedom or hated King George. That kind of childish whining never cuts it. More counterexamples: Algeria and Vietnam. Both countries achieved independence through bloody and brutal wars of independence from France, incurring a huge loss in lives and properties. And Taiwan, a mere province whose own Constitution still stipulates itself to be a part of China, and who repeatedly refused to even conduct an independence referendum, because its politicians deep down are only interested in using such excuses to oppress its people and steal their money, is in a much worse position to talk about seceding from China. Its case is much, much less defensible than the self-proclaimed independent countries (not provinces) of the CSA, the Catalan Republic, Kurdistan, or a future Scotland. Nobody is asking you what you want or what you like, or whom you hate. The question is whether it is conceivable that Taiwan will re-unify with China, or more accurately, whether it is likely that the Province of Taiwan of the Republic of China (ROC) will be absorbed back into the People’s Republic of China (PRC) through peaceful means. To put it another way, what is your reaction when a 6-year-old screams that she doesn’t want to go to school, or she wants to eat 10 ice creams all at once? I have addressed this question, more on-point, here: And, if a peaceful re-unification is not possible, here are the three options faced by the people of the Province of Taiwan, Republic of China, all equally honorable in my opinion: I also have much more comprehensive background information on this issue in the following links, and nested links therein:
Let me ask you this:
How many Catalonians considered themselves Spanish in 2018? Does it matter at all?
How many citizens of the Confederate States of America (CSA) considered themselves citizens of the USA in 1863? Does it matter at all?
How many Kurds considered themselves Syrians, or Turks, or Iraqis in 2010? Does it matter at all?
How many Scots consider themselves British? Does it matter at all?
In most of the above, they not only considered to be someone else, but they also voted democratically to become someone else!
Does it matter at all?
And this might surprise you. Every single Taiwanese voted in multiple democratic elections in the past two and half decades to send multiple parties into office. All these parties (KMT or DPP) have
Chosen to uphold its Constitution, which stipulates in no uncertain terms that Taiwan is a province of China, and national re-unification is the ultimate goal, despite many rounds of Constitutional revisions on other issues,
Chosen to prosecute diplomatic relations with the entire world in the capacity of the Republic of China (ROC), with Taiwan being only one of its 35 provinces and two autonomous regions,
Chosen to repeatedly strike down motions to conduct referendum on independence, even disciplining party members who stepped out of line,
Chosen to maintain the appellation “Republic of China” for all its governmental units in all three branches, its military, its central bank, its passport, its state owned businesses, its public schools, etc..
These parties, on opposing ends of the spectrum, have both won landslide victories during the past 25 years, giving them impressive mandates each time in turn. Together, the two parties enjoy probably over 80% of the popular support*. Think hard about this fact!
The conclusion that one must draw from the above facts is clear, that Yes, the people in Taiwan do consider themselves Chinese.
Otherwise, you cannot explain the above facts. There is simply no other explanation!
How does it go? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, ,……? And a very “democratic”, a very “self-determining” duck at that.
I implore all you foreigners, to please respect the will of the Taiwanese people, if you agree Taiwan is a self-determining democracy. They have spoken, loud and clear. Please! Be consistent!
But then, don’t forget, as I said, it doesn’t really matter what the Taiwanese think either. Just ask the CSA, the Catalonians, the Kurds, and the Scots in a couple of years.
* The remaining 20% mostly goes to the TPP, which is yet to win a major election, but also upholds all the principles listed above. (Sorry to disappoint you?)
Pla Nung Khing Sai Het
(Steamed Fish with Ginger and Mushrooms – Thai)
Traditionally this is prepared with the fish known in the West as a pomfret, but any similar (flat) fish will do.
2023 04 16 16 50
The traditional recipe calls for phak kaat dong (pickled Chinese cabbage). In the highly likely event that you don’t have this on hand, the best substitute is probably pickled red cabbage.
Ingredients
Fish
Pomfret (or any similar flat fish
Marinade
1 large field mushroom, thinly sliced,
2 tablespoons grated ginger
2 tablespoons phak kaat dong, thinly sliced (see above)
1 tablespoon prik chi fa daeng, sliced (red jalapeno)
1 tablespoon whiskey (optional, but, if omitted, add 1 tablespoon fish stock)
Instructions
Clean the fish and score the sides with several cuts to allow the marinade to penetrate.
This is steamed, and as such is best done in a bamboo steamer, because in a metal steamer condensation on the lid drips onto the food, and marks it, spoiling the appearance, and also possibly affecting the cooking process (fish is best steamed in “dry” steam). If you use a metal steamer you should cover the fish with a paper towel which is not in contact with the fish. Alternatively you can cook this dish in a microwave, using low to medium power.
Mix the Marinade ingredients and rub them into the fish, leaving it to marinade for about an hour in a cool place.
Transfer the fish, and the marinade, on a dish large enough to hold it, to a bamboo steamer (see note above), and steam for about 20 to 25 minutes (if microwaving, cook until the flesh adjacent to the bones is cooked, allowing it to rest for 1 minute after each 3 minutes cooking before testing).
US Troops on the Ground in Ukraine
It’s official – the US is at war with Russia. This is no longer a proxy war regardless of whether an official declaration has been made.
Washington confirmed that there is “a small U.S. military presence,” but only made the admission after the Pentagon data leak.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby insists American soldiers are not fighting on the battlefield.
“I won’t talk to the specifics of numbers and that kind of thing. But to get to your exact question, there is a small U.S. military presence at the embassy in conjunction with the Defense Attachés office to help us work on accountability of the material that is going in and out of Ukraine,” Kirby said, claiming the troops are connecting to a specific embassy. The initial data leak showed that there are also at least 50 troops from the UK on the ground in Ukraine, along with military personnel from 33 NATO nations.
The New York Times reported on Monday morning that NATO members are amassing their troops along the border. “NATO is rapidly moving from what the military calls deterrence by retaliation to deterrence by denial. In the past, the theory was that if the Russians invaded, member states would try to hold on until allied forces, mainly American and based at home, could come to their aid and retaliate against the Russians to try to push them back,” Steven Erlanger wrote.
But NATO is going on the offensive rather than the defensive this time around. “To prevent that, to deter by denial, means a revolution in practical terms: more troops based permanently along the Russian border, more integration of American and allied war plans, more military spending and more detailed requirements for allies to have specific kinds of forces and equipment to fight, if necessary, in pre-assigned places,” the journalist wrote.
The war in Ukraine has already cost more than any war since World War II. Ukraine is not a NATO member, and there has never been a situation where NATO prepared its troops to battle a country unaffiliated with its alliance. Russia is completely backed into a corner now and the war must escalate. Putin will not retreat or surrender.
Russia does not have the option to surrender as the world powers would swoop in and take over the nation, including its very valuable resources, which they’ve wanted all along. Zelensky is no longer running the show, and the global elites will decide how quickly to escalate this battle.
Countless men, women, and children will die, all for the pride of a few who want to destroy the world to Build Back Better.
90s Time Capsule – A Tribute to 90’s Entertainment
https://youtu.be/vS_jGUIqcQ4
US warship sails through Taiwan Strait days after China drills
A US warship sailed through the waters separating Taiwan and mainland China, the US Navy said, days after Beijing staged war games around the self-ruled island.
2023 04 18 11 46
Led by the United States, multiple Western navies regularly conduct “freedom of navigation operations” to assert the international status of regional waterways such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
The USS Milius guided-missile destroyer “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit April 16 (local time) through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law”, the US Navy said in a statement.
“The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State.” This was the first such US operation through the waterway since January.
The US 7th Fleet shared images Monday on Twitter of crew looking out into the strait, one of the most crucial waterways in the world for international shipping.
China said on Monday it had tracked a US warship through the Taiwan Strait, adding that the United States had “hyped up” the transit.
Colonel Shi Yi, a Chinese military spokesman, said troops in the area “remain on a high level of alert at all times and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability”.
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to bring the island under its control one day. It also claims the entire Taiwan Strait as its territorial waters.
China launched three days of military exercises around Taiwan on April 8, simulating targeted strikes and a blockade of the island.
The drills were in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s recent visit to the United States, where she met with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.
“The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese PLA fully monitored the US warship’s passing operations, maintaining a high-level alert at all times and resolutely defending national sovereignty and security,” a spokesperson said via the Global Times.
Beijing bristles at any official contact between Taipei and foreign governments. On the final day of last week’s drills, Taiwan’s defence ministry said 54 Chinese planes crossed into Taiwan’s southwestern and southeastern air defence identification zone (ADIZ) — the highest recorded in a single day since October 2021.
That same day, the USS Milius sailed through waters claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea.
That deployment triggered condemnation from China, which said the vessel had “illegally intruded” into its territorial waters.
Since the war games ended, Chinese warships and aircraft have continued to circle Taiwan.
On Monday, Taipei’s defence ministry said it had detected four warships and 18 aircraft, four of which had crossed its southwestern ADIZ.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon sailed through the Taiwan Strait on January 5, months after McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi visited the island.
Pelosi’s trip sparked China’s largest-ever war games around Taiwan.
Do you know what this reminds me of?
The neighbor down the street taking his dog to go shit in my flower garden.
The world is pinging on the “shit meter”. The world is being sprayed with kerosene and the American bat-shit crazy neocons are playing with matches. Jesus.
2023 04 21 12 01
I need a drink.
Finian Cunningham
April 20, 2023
What makes the situation all the more dangerous is that Western media are working shamelessly to promote the war agenda.
Russian fishing trawlers are on stealth missions to spy on transatlantic communications and sabotage energy supplies in Europe, according to a coordinated “investigation” by European state-owned media outlets.
Excuse the pun, but there is something putridly fishy about this Russian trawler story.
Britain’s state-owned BBC reported that its counterparts in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are this week airing the results of a joint investigation (sic), which makes the frightening (sic) claim that the Kremlin has ordered a fleet of disguised ships to tap undersea telecom cables and sabotage wind farms in the North Sea.
Western media standards have been degrading over many years now. But this latest concerted public orchestration is scraping the bottom. Apart from no evidence to substantiate the breathless story, it is also plainly admitted that the claims rely on Nordic intelligence agencies as sources. It is well known from previous Wikileaks’ disclosures and other reputable sources that the Nordic state intelligence apparatus is a surrogate for the American CIA.
So, here we have government-owned media bombarding European nations with propaganda blatantly intended to whip up public fear of Russia as a threat.
This is while the United States and its NATO allies are due to begin over the next few weeks conducting the biggest-ever military maneuvers in the Nordic region. These war games dubbed “Defender 23” will stretch over several months and involve the largest transfer of U.S. troops to Europe since the supposed end of the Cold War more than 30 years ago. The deployment of NATO forces near Russia’s western border is brazenly touted as forming a “war fighting alliance”, reports the New York Times approvingly.
This massive Washington-led mobilization of tens of thousands of troops, warplanes and naval vessels in Russia’s backyard is happening at the same time that the United States and its NATO partners are pumping weapons to a rabidly anti-Russian regime in Ukraine. We know from recent Pentagon leaks that American and Western special forces are confirmed to be on the ground in Ukraine fighting against Russia. All this is somehow normalized by Western media while these same media are animated to scare their public about mysterious Russian fishing trawlers that are allegedly planning to spy on phone calls and cut off power supply from wind farms.
The gaslighting going on is truly awesome. For while the Western media try to scare the public with outlandish and unverified speculative tales about Russian villains allegedly trying to spy on European civilians and sabotage power supplies in Europe, the actual real world is willfully ignored.
The recent Pentagon leaks confirm what Wikileaks and former NSA analyst Edward Snowden have long ago revealed. Namely, that the U.S. state intelligence agencies are routinely spying on their NATO allies.
Secondly, never mind about speculated Russian intentions to blow up North Sea wind farms, what about the actual blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea? Those pipelines, which took more than a decade to construct at a cost of over $20 billion to deliver affordable natural gas from Russia to Europe, were mined by the United States and NATO accomplices last September.
The sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, as reported over two months ago by renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, was ordered personally by U.S. President Joe Biden with the deliberate objective of cutting off Europe from Russian energy. It was a gargantuan act of state terrorism and arguably an act of war against Russia. Washington’s treachery involves impoverishing Europe to make it a captive slave of American capitalism.
The Western media have systematically blanked out any in-depth reporting on Seymour Hersh’s investigation. Instead of carrying out their own follow-up investigations, these bastions of “free press” have sought to distract and muddy the waters with claims fed to them by Western intelligence agencies. The New York Times, Washington Post and German media have tried to flog absurd reports about “pro-Ukrainian militants” bombing the Nord Stream pipelines using a yacht.
The Scandinavian countries have reportedly carried out preliminary investigations into the Nord Stream incident but they have refused to disclose their findings and they have also denied Russia access to their research data – even though Russia is the major shareholder of the bombed infrastructure.
Washington and its European allies have stonewalled all calls made by Russia and China for the United Nations Security Council to commission an independent probe into the Nord Stream sabotage – potentially a crime of the century.
Incredibly, the BBC report this week on “ghost Russian trawlers” purportedly menacing undersea cables and wind farms did not make a single mention of the credible allegations that the United States and its NATO partners blew up the Nord Stream pipelines.
The BBC, New York Times and other Western media outlets have become nothing but dirty laundromats for Western intelligence services with the relentless mission of smearing Russia over Ukraine and China over Taiwan. It’s a feat of Orwellian achievement where the aggressors are made into victims and defenders. Western reportage on Russia and China has become a travesty. It is out-and-out demonization with no pretense of factual balance or historical context.
We are living in perilous times of war that could escalate into nuclear conflagration. The United States and its imperialist European vassals are pushing war as a last-gasp bid to prop up Washington’s waning unipolar hegemony.
What makes the situation all the more dangerous is that Western media are working shamelessly to promote the war agenda.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu Claims “The Whole World Hates America
He’s got a point. Fair dinkum statement: Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu Claims “The Whole World Hates America”
2023 04 21 14 54
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu Criticizes America and Europe
In a bold statement, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has claimed that “the whole world hates America” while suggesting that Europe is merely a pawn of the United States. Soylu further downplayed Europe’s significance, asserting that it is a trend in America’s column.
Soylu’s Comments Reflect Anti-American Sentiments
Süleyman Soylu’s remarks reflect a growing anti-American sentiment in some segments of the international community. By claiming that “the whole world hates America,” Soylu is highlighting the perception that the United States is losing credibility on the global stage. This sentiment can be attributed to various factors, such as foreign policy decisions, economic policies, and perceived cultural dominance.
Soylu’s characterization of Europe as an American pawn suggests that he believes the continent lacks independence and is heavily influenced by the United States. By stating, “There is no such thing as Europe. There is America. Europe is a trend in the Americas column,”
Soylu implies that Europe’s actions and policies are primarily driven by American interests rather than its own.
This perspective further underscores Soylu’s negative view of the United States and its global influence.
Seriously, the fences are being torn town with everyone and their dogs flowing into China to do business, but all the “news” media wants to talk about is war in Taiwan!
What the FUCK?
2023 04 21 12 04
Why Do People Still Buy Vinyl Records?
Some people claim that vinyl sounds better than digital formats and will shut their ears to any arguments to the contrary.
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There is plenty of evidence out there supporting these claims, especially when you compare pre-compression era recordings to modern mastering.
There are also people who will tell you that a digital format such as a cd will never have the same sound quality as vinyl.
Most of the proponents of that argument base their pinions on the earliest examples of said format, conveniently ignoring the fact that quality has increased significantly since the 80s.
Personally, I have heard more depth and musical detail in vinyl than in digital formats.
Most of the time… I’ve had a few experiences where I was really impressed with a digital copy over its vinyl cousin.
I’m a professional musician and I pay pretty close attention to music when a critical opinion is required.
As for convenience, there’s no doubt that digital wins.
When I’m out running errands or heading to and from work, I plug in to my DAP and happily go about my business.
Likewise, if I’m puttering around the house cleaning and doing laundry or working out, it’s super easy to hit shuffle and get moving.
But when I really want to sit and listen and enjoy my music, I go for my records.
Vinyl requires a certain level of engagement.
You can’t throw a record on shuffle and forget about it.
You need to go flip that thing every 20 minutes and choose what you’re going to listen to next.
You reach without needing to look for an old, well-worn favorite whose sleeve has seen better days or you flip through you collection and find something you haven’t listened to in a while.
Maybe you’ve got a friend over our perhaps a date and you share the experience with them.
The covers and inner sleeves are meant to be looked at.
Often you get a sense of what sorry of music you’re in for based on the artwork.
The point is that you’re staying involved in the music rather than it just becoming background noise.
There are the trendy ones.
The hipsters who buy into vinyl because it’s “retro” and they think it’s cool to have something that’s outdated. I’m glad they’re into it!
The hipsters that are spending their money on records on related paraphernalia are fueling a resurgence in the vinyl industry and that means good things for guys like me who love records.
I don’t think that either cds or vinyl records are better. They both have their merits and benefits. I do have my own preference though!
I need a drink…
2023 04 21 12 05
Excellent speech packed with facts by an African leader
My GOD! This is a MUST Watch! Watch the entire thing.
IMF (USA) interest rate = 31.0%
Chinese interest rate = 2.5%
As a Chinese, since I was very young (~40+ years ago) we were told that 亚非拉 (Asia, Africa and Latin America) are brothers and sisters, and that we should help our brothers and sisters when we can.
I agreed with that but was very confused because we were so poor - very difficult to imagine how we could help.
Now I'm so glad to see it happening.
Not saying Chinese are totally selfless like saints. But I'm pretty sure most of them are doing it with good faith.
China’s BRI into Africa, China has built in African Countries:
– 13,000 km of Railway
– 80 Large Scale Power Facilities
– 130 Medical Facilities
– 45 Sport Venues
– 200 Schools
Just the Railway development alone, China hired 130,000 local African workers.
Africa states that “China is a worthy partner in its efforts to break the age-old poverty trap based on centuries of underdevelopment”.
Centuries of USA loans and Africa has nothing to show for it because USA keep printing USD’s, weakening the loan pay backs from African Countries to USA, keeping them in perpetual poverty in a Debt Trap.
Whereas China’s BRI have 21st Century, AI Robotic Trading infrastructures actually BUILT for them by China, of which China gets 51% of the NEW trading gains to Africa for 20 years, and then Africa gets to own the entire infrastructures.
From the 33 African Countries in the BRI, 63% of their populations view China as a positive influence on the African Continent.
Deborah Brautigam (USA Political Scientist International Expert and Director of the China Africa Research) wrote, “The Chinese Debt Trap is a Myth” February 2021.
So, the United States is dying off, and it’s a painful thing to watch.
So, take note that it’s time to regress and dance!
Soulful House / Funk / Disco / Nu Disco Mix with Soul Train dancers DJ mix
Long, but you all need to take some time to enjoy and dance.
What You Should Know About Health Insurance in The US
Health insurance in the USA is deliberately tedious to deal with, because it obfuscates how much you are actually paying to the insurance company versus how much they actually pay out. In the United States, healthcare is a privilege of the wealthy. While you can get free temporary care if you are homeless, the majority of Americans must buy insurance as a protection against illness.
No. You cannot go to a hospital and pay in cash for services unless you have a trunk full of $100 bills.
The policies given out these days are mostly high deductible health plans and work the same way. There are some terms you should understand if you are unfortunate enough to live inside the United States.
Premium
This is what you pay out of your check each pay period for the plan.
This is the obvious up front cost. Health insurance premiums are taken from pre-tax money you earn and that should also factor into your decision on cost. If you have to come out of pocket for healthcare with after-tax money you’re paying that amount plus whatever income tax you paid on those earnings. That said, there are few reasonable plans where you can pay everything up front.
Usually, the trade off is that if you pay more up front for the premium you pay less later out of pocket. A lower premium means a higher out of pocket cost.
This isn’t always bad. If you are generally healthy and don’t go to the doctor and can cover the out of pocket cost in the event of an emergency then taking a higher deductible might save you money at the end of the year assuming that emergency never comes up.
I want to stress that if you do something like that, you want to have the out of pocket money available in case something does happen.
Deductible
This is the amount you have to pay out of pocket each year before the insurance will cover anything at all. Your premium does not cover any of this.
Co-Insurance
With some policies once you pay the deductible you are covered 100% afterwards. Plans that do that usually cost more up front in premiums.
With most other plans what they do instead when you reach the deductible is start paying a percentage for each procedure usually around 80% (can vary). When they do this 80/20 split they call this co-insurance. The insurance company pays that percentage until you reach your out of pocket maximum.
Out of Pocket Maximum
This is the maximum you have to pay out of pocket each year before the insurance company will start paying everything 100%. Your premium is not counted against this.
The most confusing part is that with co-insurance the deductible is not your out of pocket maximum. You might have a $1500 deductible and then have to pay another few thousand dollars to reach your out of pocket maximum.
It’s important to understand though, that the money you pay towards the deductible counts towards your out of pocket maximum. So, if you have an out of pocket maximum of $6500 and you pay $1500 towards the deductible you only have another $5000 to pay to reach the out of pocket maximum.
It can also be a bit confusing understanding that once that 80/20 co-insurance kicks in, only the 20% you pay is counted towards your out of pocket maximum. In the above 80/20 case if you have $5000 you have to pay to get to the maximum after you hit co-insurance, the insurance company will have been billed $25000 by the time you get to your max.
Insurance pays 80% – $20000
You pay 20% – $5000
HSA
In many cases these plans include a Health Savings Account that you can put money into pre-tax from your paycheck. The maximum you can put in per year is determined by the type of plan (single or family), but is usually set up to be right around the amount you need to pay out of pocket to satisfy your out of pocket maximum.
If you know that you go to the doctor regularly for service and will come out of pocket then it is smart to put money into the HSA to cover those expenses, because it is tax free money and it’s also your money, you control it, not your job. For instance, with my family we usually reach our out of pocket maximum before the end of each year so we take enough out of each paycheck to cover that.
Some employers will contribute a lump sump to your HSA, so if you have a choice between a non-HSA plan and one with an HSA check how much your employer will contribute to the HSA. Whatever they contribute becomes your money that you can use for medical expenses.
The other thing to note is that HSA funds do not have to be used in the same year they are deposited. They will carry over from year to year if unused.
The Reset
One more thing. The deductible, co-insurance and out of pocket maximum reset each calendar year (people have pointed out that some plans have ‘plan years’ which still run for a year, but start and end at different times of the year, unbelievable). Meaning you have to pay all of that again the next year.
If you reach your out of pocket maximum during a calendar (or plan) year take advantage of it if you or your family need further medical care. Have your doctors schedule as much as possible before the end of the year because it’s all on the insurance company at that point.
– MrBleah
Now, let me summarize…
This above is overly confusing, eh? Well, yeah it is. This is what it was like in 2007 when I was still in the USA…
You MUST buy health insurance. Cost is expensive around $5000/month for the cheapest plan. That’s the Obama Care Act.
If you opt out, then you will pay a tax fee for not buying insurance. Just a couple of thousand dollars.
Once you pay for insurance, you must pay for the medical care up to the deductible. Which is often (at least) $10,000.
Then the insurance pays a portion of the costs. Often 40%, maybe as high as 80%, but more only than not, on the low side.
That was how it worked when I lived in the USA. Now, I live in China. No insurance. Not excessive costs. Everything is affordable.
But the “news” says that America has the best medical care.
Whatever.
I don’t fucking care.
It’s a fucking mess. Case closed.
Fuck this shit. Enjoy a fine steak…
Shaker Flank Steak
2023 04 19 15 51
The vegetables cook down to a rich sauce to be served with the meat.
You may use round steak instead of flank steak.
Ingredients
3 pound flank steak
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped fine
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup ketchup
Instructions
Cut or score both sides of steak diagonally and dust with flour. Saute in heated butter until well browned on both sides.
Season with salt and pepper, then add vegetables; last of all, add lemon juice and ketchup. Cover tightly and simmer gently for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Yield: 6 servings
Now dance some more…
Don’t like it? Too bad.
If the world is gonna burn, then I’m gonna dance!
Oh, and by the way, I don’t want to hear anyone complaining. If you don’t like soul and funky music, don’t watch the videos. OK?
Chinese EV car marker (BYD) is a leader in EV car sales, their win-win joint venture across the globe will enable them to expand their market across the world.
On April 16, FAW-Toyota joint venture launched the bZ3 ‘electric Corrola’ in China, starting at 169,800 yuan (24,700 USD). Soon after the launch, Toyota announced it received 5000 orders for the new EV. bZ3 is Toyota’s first electric sedan and only second pure EV in the lineup – so behind the Japanese carmaker is. Their first electric car was a bZ4x SUV launched last year.
The bZ3 is built on Toyota’s e-TNGA platform and features lots of BYD tech inside, including an LFP Blade battery and an electric engine from Fudi Motor, a BYD subsidiary. Regarding body dimensions, the bZ3 has a length, width, and height of 4725mm, 1835mm, and 1475mm, respectively, along with a wheelbase of 2880mm.
Today I received an email from a freelance aircraft pilot. I thought you might find his information interesting, especially the part where Insurance Companies are allegedly NO LONGER ISURING PILOTS WHO ARE VACCINATED.
Here is the e-mail:
U R G E N T - S I T U A T I O NBig fan. You seem to be one of the only vocal people that’s actually awake.Please keep me anonymous. I use this as a troll account and for staying connected with all my conspiracy folks, political news, porn, comedy…etc!I work as a pilot part time. I do freelance for pax and some times cargo on heavy jets.You’ll hear this in the mainstream news in the coming months. As a contractor that’s type rated on several aircraft, I work with multiple airlines, private jet companies and aerial tour agencies. There’s an ongoing coverup of the amount of Pilots dying at the cockpit. There’s no technical emergencies. I know of At least 3 SouthWest Pilots who passed out during a briefing on ground. All vaccinated. Ages between 58 and the youngest was 31.But here’s the kicker, Insurance companies are refusing to insure pilots who got vaccinated or boosted. They are considered a priority 1 risk.
But wait, he has more to pass along:
On a separate note, we have been flying in large cargo boxes into Gatwick, Amsterdam, New York, Melbourne, and DFW over the past 3 months. The boxes are shipments of a drug called Oseltamivir and another called peramivir. We have never moved this much tonnage of a single product. I’ve personally done 5 runs full cargo on a 757. It’s the treatment drug for a avian flu virus H5N1. Apparently the only avian flu that’s recently been announced transfers to humans.Something is cooking. There are snakes in the grass. Stay vigilant.Please keep me anonymous. Thank you!Capt. D
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu – Kira Kira Killer
This is what I dance to with my little 3 year old girl, at least once a night after we practice our boxing. She enjoys the jumping up and down, and the spinning and hopping…
L-U-C-K
Happy. Happy. Happy!
If you cannot dance.
Then get a cat.
Artist Illustrates How His Adopted Cat Helped Him Cope With Depression Over The Past 2 Months
1 54
Yash Pandit is an artist from Mumbai, India who has been struggling with mental health problems for a while now. And recently he received much-needed help from someone unexpected – a cat named Bagheera.
In an interview with Bored Panda, the artist said he always wanted a dark-colored cat. “There’s always this stupid superstition surrounding dark cats about them being bad luck, so not many people wanted him anyway,” said Yash. “But mostly because out of all of the kittens there, he was the one I connected with, he was very calm. loving and always looking to cause some mischief. I fell in love with him the moment I saw him.”
The artist said that his new cat is a true rascal. “He will convince you that he’s sweet and calm, and then pounce on you when you look away. He’s the most friendly cat I’ve ever seen, has no problem in loving and greeting anyone new. He’s smart enough to pretend that he’s fallen asleep but also thinks his shadow is another cat and starts pouncing on it,” said Yash. He said that Bagheera loves to watch Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with him and that the cat won’t fall asleep until Yash puts on Frank Ocean songs. “I love him with all my life,” says the artist.
The artist suffered from Type 1 rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety. He says the latter were by-products of his primary disorder. “I have a therapist and a psychiatrist, and I have a strict regime of therapy and medications that I follow religiously to keep my disorder under my control,” revealed Yash.
The artist believes that it’s absolutely important to seek proper health for mental health disorders. “A lot of people mistook this comic as my cat being the sole reason that I’m out of my depression, which is not true. I had to work hard, get therapy, take my medication on time,” said Yash.
Given that close monitoring online (online surveillance) now begins at an early age, digital hygiene should be well taken care of ever since one’s childhood.
There seems to be an illusion with the inexperienced internet users that only some individuals are being closely monitored and secretly ‘surveilled’ online. An ordinary user tends to think that to secretly monitor and listen to an unsuspecting online user is too costly and complicated and that one particular individual, he or she i.e. a simple user, is not particularly interesting to anybody to be listened to or closely monitored at all.
But the facts have no mercy; data storage and information saving are nowadays rather affordable and so called ‘big data’ about each user has been being saved continually for about eight to ten years now, because those who closely monitor us, cannot possibly know what and who a student of today will be in ten or fifteen years (for instance a member of Parliament, a high-ranking civil servant, a successful businessman or perhaps what position the current middle level employee will hold in three to four years and who he or she will work with in the future.
To closely monitor hundreds of millions of users in the form of online surveillance is technically possible nowadays and it is not prohibitively expensive so that it is being done by many individuals in the USA and globally.
There are so called ‘markers’ – sensitive points, points of interest – which are determined by way of automatic procedures of mass data processing. Data analysis is at present rather inexpensive. Those individuals who perform the close monitoring of others are not even particularly interested in any particular individual precisely, but by means of the information conversion into its impact – on whom out of a huge number of users in the form of online surveillance in the course of years and years of close monitoring compromising data can be collated on this person’s relations, weaknesses, tendencies etc.
Thus, each individual should be wary of his or her own digital hygiene, especially a civil servant, a politician, a manager, a business person, a high-visibility person, or a celebrity and a person of high repute in any area of interest, that is, all those who already can be viewed as the risk group and who are already subject to close monitoring (surveillance) and influence. Given that close monitoring online (online surveillance) now begins at an early age, digital hygiene should be well taken care of ever since one’s childhood, because the collated compromising material about any child being simply prone to some mischief typical of a child, will be ‘precious’ at his or her adult ripe age, when the child of today becomes an adult, mature person who may well change their own views of the world in due time.
It is obvious that close monitoring (surveillance) online of people of significance is being carried out meticulously and in great detail, and complete with planting trojan horse programmes into one’s computer by blending all the channels of communication together by monitoring his or her immediate digital vicinity.
This new digital reality of literally total visibility and high risk calls for new rules of digital hygiene.
Anonymity: Is It Possible to Not Leave a Trace?
Person 1. Hello, is this the anonymous phone number of the FSB?
Person 2. Yes, Mikhail Petrovich, yes it is. We are here for you. What would you like to tell us?
Internet users seem to think that they can keep their privacy and remain anonymous and invisible if they so wish, entering the online network via anonymous accounts under the disguise of their avatars and nicknames, using various anonymizers which hide their own IP address, virtual private VPN networks which hide one’s IP address, private virtual addresses, entering the web via TOR network, without any police or special services cannot recognize this ‘cunning’ user and/or closely monitor.
There is some partial truth in it though. It is possible for a person to exist without being noticed and act in digital space if one possesses the knowledge and expertise of a professional hacker or a digital spy. Fortunately or not, this body of knowledge and habits are unavailable to most of the users.
An ordinary user continually leaves his or her own digital trace, which can use for his or her certain identification if there is interest to do so and with the appropriate tools,
Signature: Digital Fingerprints
Using digital devices with internet access, we continually, with each moment in time, create unique ‘digital fingerprints’ and traces of our actions and of our digital environment. These are called ‘signatures’ (from its Latin linguistic root to sign).
For instance, in geoanalytics, there is the rule of four points based on which ones you tend to visit most often one can analyse your personality. One point, for example, the underground station near your home is visited by tens of thousands of people with smartphones in their pockets and at the same time, two points: one in close proximity to your house and another point in immediate vicinity to your work are visited by just a few thousand people. Three points – two underground stations and your favourite restaurant – now the number narrows down to only a few dozens of people with smartphones in their pockets. And if they add your mum’s address, to which you go once or twice a week or the address of your gym – you will be the only person with that combination of geographical points you go to.
That is your individual geographical digital signature, your own ‘digital fingerprint’. Such digital signatures are aplenty and these get to be decoded by a huge number of those who closely monitor you (online and digital surveillance of a person).
Your browsing history i.e. the list of websites you visit on a daily basis forms your unique digital ‘impression’ of your browsers (search engines) both in the logs (journals) of your browsers, as well as the cloud of its producer and also in countless marketing and advertising systems and ‘the counters’ on the internet.
It might be possible that for your own unique accurate identification there need not be four websites being visited but for instance fourteen but that is not that relevant.
As a general rule, if the vector, which is a set of digits, made up of the traces you leave behind you (the geographical points, the website you visit, downloaded apps) is long enough, it defenitely identifies you perfectly well without any doubt. For example, if you post statuses on social media with an anonymous nickname, in that case you form a minimum vector of dates in time and the exact times these were posted and the comments and even regardless of their contents).
From the point of view of the internet provider you form one particular time vector = the dates and the times of going online.
The first vector is known by the users of social media – the platforms and the surveillance programmes for close monitoring of social media. The second time vector is known by your home internet provider or your mobile operator, which does not see your social media posts, but as a general rule, is familiar with your personal identity.
By way of blending and crossing these vectors for instance upon the formal request of legal investigation authorities (such as law enforcement, the courts of justice etc), one’s allegedly anonymous identity can be decoded relatively easily.
Yes, all the vectors of all the internet users will have to be viewed more closely and compared with the vector of your social media posts. This task is rather technical and can be resolved pretty easily with the internet servers of today and their technical capabilities.
All in all, one should bear in mind that your unique digital signature consists of:
1 factory identifier IMEI of your smart phone
the list of apps and files on your device such as your laptop or your mobile phone which is available to many devices and apps, your antivirus, your computer viruses and your Trojans, your browser, your operating system, your office apps and all the office apps of your colleagues etc
your Bluetooth environment – all the devices your Bluetooth gets in touch with to share data or which it has ever got in touch with and joined digitally, your music devices at home or in your car, your ear phones, your voice tools etc.
your Wi-fi environment – a list of all the Wi-fi devices around your place of work or your home.
your browser history – a list of the websites and internet services you regularly visit
your list of friends on social media – your social impression is unique even if you decide to use a pseudonym to go online. That list exists with the social media platform as such, and with all the ‘monitoring’ programmes and in your browser as well.
your lexical signature – a group of your favourite words, phrases and sayings, and even a unique combination of your common typos
your face and faces of others on your photos and videos on social media – a combination of all the faces including yours among others, is also a unique identifier.
your geographical signature – a list of your routes and geographical points you go to, either in your own city or outside. It exists in your navigator or your navigation apps
your voice signature – your voice digital footprint or ‘impression’ you leave either while using your mobile phone or the microphone on your laptop.
your search list key words – apart from the situational keywords to search depending on the situation, there are regular search keywords you often look up and type in, and their combination is certainly unique i.e. your own, and it exists on your favourite search engine and browser.
your list of favourite topics – for examples in the news portal
a list of the devices in your neighbourhood – for example, your internet provider ‘can see’ which other mobile devices are normally in the immediate vicinity such as your family members or close colleagues.
And the list goes on. All these signatures are saved in your smartphone and in a huge number of those independent viewers unrelated to you (advertising systems, mobile operators, internet providers, browsers, search engines, social media, online platforms, apps etc).
If by any chance some signature is missing, during the process of identification, other signatures can be added among those listed above, and then that combination will definitely be unique: your own combination.
What we have just pointed out above means that even an anonymous user on the web leaves his or her unique digital traces and ‘footprints’. If you have two accounts, one for regular communication under your real name and another one which is anonymous, rest assured that these can be automatically connected by analysing their signatures.
The test flight of SpaceX Corporation’s new “StarShip” ended in a fiery explosion as the Automated Flight Termination system blew up the rocket just minutes after liftoff from its launchpad in Texas.
All seemed to be going well after lift-off but minutes into the flight, at least five of the “Raptor” rocket engines turned off. The remaining 28 engines brought the rocket into “Max Q” which is the part of flight with the most dynamic stress on the vehicle, and while in MaxQ, the rocket began going off course and spinning.
A few short minutes later, the Automated Flight Termination system determined the rocket was no longer safe, and blew-up the ship so as to prevent a catastrophe if the rocket plummeted to earth.
While this test flight failed, there are literally mountains of data that have been received about the flight, the condition of the ship, and likely, whatever caused the flight to fail.
Now, it’s up to technicians and scientists to analyze that data, figure out what went wrong, and make changes in order to try again.
Bear in mind the entire purpose of this flight was to TEST the new StarShip and its design. Tests often fail, which is how improvements get made so that, at some point, flights will be successful. IT is literally trial-and-error. This is how progress gets made.
At some point in the future, SpaceX believes it will be able to safely carry humans to and from the moon, and other planets.
Full Text of US puppet in EU suddenly praised China after she visited China:
Speech by President von der Leyen at the European Parliament Plenary on the need for a coherent strategy for EU-China relations
Mr President,
Minister,
Dear Josep,
Honourable Members,
During my trip to China this month, I was fortunate to be in Beijing on the day of the Qingming Festival – one of the most traditional Chinese holidays. It is a day to honour and pay respect to past generations. And it is part of the very rich history and culture of China that certainly fascinates and captures the imagination of people all around the world. Seeing this country again first hand only reinforced my deep admiration and respect for the people of China.
For centuries they have helped to shape world civilization. And in the last decades, they have really transformed the economy of their country, lifting more than 800 million people out of poverty in the last 45 years.
We should never lose sight of the magnitude of this transformation into a modern-day economic powerhouse, key global player and a leaderin many of the cutting-edge technologies that will certainly shape the next decades of global civilization and progress.
This international and economic status – as well as our own interests – make it all the more important for Europe to manage its relations with China.
For me, that also shows that decoupling is clearly not viable, desirable or even practical for Europe.
But as I said back in January and as I set out in more detail a few weeks ago, there is clearly a need for Europe to work on de-risking some important and sensitive parts of our relationship. So de-risking but not decoupling.
Much has been said about this since I set out the principles of this de-risking strategy. And even more has been said since the last trip. In many ways, that reaction is good because Europe needs to have this discussion.
And so, I want to first and foremost thank the Parliament for putting this debate on today.
It is urgent and it is good that we have this debate. Most importantly, I say this because this relationship is too important for us not to define our own European strategy and principles for engagement with China.
I believe we can – and we must – carve out our own distinct European approach that also leaves space for us to cooperate with other partners, too. And the starting point for this is the need to have a shared and very clear-eyed picture of the risks and the opportunities in our engagement with China.
And this means acknowledging – as well as clearly saying – that the Chinese Communist Party's actions have now caught up with its stated ambitions and the hardening of China's overall strategic posture over the last years.
For example, the shows of military force in the South China Sea, in the East China Sea, and at the border with India, directly affect our partners and their legitimate interests.
Or on the issue with Taiwan. The EU's ‘One China' policy is long-standing. We have consistently called for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and we stand strongly against any unilateral change of the status quo, in particular by the use of force.
We must also never shy away from talking about the deeply concerning and grave human rights violations in Xinjiang. And just as China has been ramping up its military posture, it has also ramped up its policy of economic and trade coercion as we have seen from Lithuania to Australia and the targeting of everything from pop bands to trade brands.
We have also seen these tactics directed right here in the House of European democracy. And I want to express my solidarity to those Members of the European Parliament who have been unfairly sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party just for calling out human right violations. And all this is symptomatic for the fact that China has now turned the page on the era of ‘reform and opening' and is moving into a new era of ‘security and control'.
I heard this in Beijing from many European companies who have witnessed first-hand this shift towards security and away from the logic of open markets and free trade.
And to strengthen that security and control leverage, China is openly pursuing a policy of reducing its dependency on the world – that is completely okay, that is their right –, but while increasing the world's dependency on itself. You know the examples, for example, whether it is on critical raw materials or the renewable energy, on emerging tech like artificial intelligence, quantum computing or biotech.
Honourable Members,
Having this clear-eyed assessment of the Chinese Communist Party's actions and direction of travel – actually, including its relations with Putin's Russia and its attitude towards the war in Ukraine – is a pre-requisite for today's discussion.
And it will allow us to develop an approach that is tailored to our economic and national security imperatives.
One that we can all rally around. And one that is clearly understood in Europe, in the world and crucially also in China itself.
And this last point is one of the key reasons I felt it was important to make the trip to Beijing alongside President Macron.
It was a chance to discuss with President Xi the shared challenges that we need to work on together – whether in our bilateral trading relation or on global issues like debt relief, climate change and nuclear non-proliferation.
But equally important, the trip was necessary to ensure that we are as honest and clear in our messaging in Beijing as we are in Brussels or here in Strasbourg.
This is a core part of our efforts to de-risk through diplomacy – by reducing the space for misunderstanding and miscommunication regardless of how difficult the conversations may be.
The point I made in Beijing is that we do not want to cut economic, societal, political and scientific ties. We have many strong links and China is a vital trading partner – our trade represents some EUR 2.3 billion a day.
Most of our trade in goods and services remains mutually beneficial. But there is an urgent need to rebalance our relationship on the basis of transparency, predictability and reciprocity.
What we want is China to respect the level playing field when it comes to access for our companies to the Chinese market, to respect transparency about subsidies, to respect the intellectual property.
And beyond this, we also know that there are some areas where trade and investment poses risks to our economic and national security, particularly in the context of China's explicit fusion of its military and commercial sectors. This is why the central part of our future China strategy must be economic de-risking.
There are four key areas for us to work on which I want to very briefly touch on. The first is taking a critical look at our own resilience and dependency and making our own economy and industry more competitive and more resilient.
This is the work we have been doing together – you know it, it began in the investment in the green and the digital through NextGenerationEU, to the pillars of our industrial policy and the landmark Acts – you know them too –, it is the Chips Act, it is the Critical Raw Materials Act and it is the Net-Zero Industry Act.
And Leaders signed up to it in Versailles during the French Presidency. So now we must keep strengthening our resilience and sovereignty in key areas – you know them all –, it is energy, it is health and pharmaceutical products, it is food security, but also of course when it comes to our defence capabilities.
The second point is becoming bolder and better at using our existing trade defence instruments. We have given ourselves the right tools to deal with security concerns and economic distortions. So we must be more assertive in using them when we need them. And I want to take this opportunity to thank the Parliament for its leadership in agreeing on the new anti-coercion instrument just a few weeks ago.
The third element is the need to look at where we need to work on new tools for some critical sectors. We need to ensure that our companies' capital, their expertise, their knowledge are not used to enhance the military and intelligence capabilities of those who are also our systemic rivals.
That cannot be. So we have to look at where there are gaps in our toolbox which allow the leakage of emerging and sensitive technologies through investments in other countries. This is why we are currently reflecting on if – and how – Europe should develop an instrument on outbound investment for a very small number but very sensitive technologies. This will form part of a new Economic Security Strategy which the Commission will put forward in the coming months.
The fourth principle is cooperation with partners, whether on economic security or on trade – whether with partners we are close to in the G7 or with those with whom we have looser ties but some shared interests. This will be a core part of diversification and the strengthening of the resilience of our supply chains to reduce our own vulnerabilities.
Honourable Members,
As the High Representative said, in 2019, the Commission and the EEAS collectively proposed a strategic update of our China policy. Since then, the world has changed enormously. China has changed. Europe has changed. That is why our European strategy has to adapt, too.
A few weeks ago, when I gave my speech on China, I said that ‘a strong European China policy relies on strong coordination between Member States and EU institutions, and on a willingness to avoid the divide and conquer tactics that we know we may face.' We have already in the recent days and weeks seen those tactics in action. And it is now time for Europe to move to action, too. Now is the time to demonstrate our collective will, it is time to jointly define what success looks like, and to show that unity that makes us strong.
And in this sense, I say: Long live Europe.
Thank you.
Shaker Beef Goulash
2023 04 19 15 50
Ingredients
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 pounds beef, cubed
2 tablespoons oil
2 large onions
1 cup oil
1 cup apple juice
6 medium carrots
2 tablespoons snipped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/3 cup cold water
3 tablespoons flour
6 small potatoes
Instructions
In plastic bag combine first four ingredients. Shake.
In large skillet add 2 tablespoons oil and brown shaken ingredients.
Add onions, 1 cup water and apple juice. Cover and simmer for 1 1/4 hours until tender.
Add carrots, parsley and spices. Simmer 30 minutes more.
Blend 1/2 cup water and 3 tablespoons of flour. Stir into stew. Cook and stir until bubbly.
Cook potatoes while stew is simmering. Peel and boil.
Add 1/4 cup milk and 3 tablespoons of butter. Beat until smooth whipped potatoes.
Spoon mashed potatoes around edge of stew and sprinkle with parsley.
Serve while hot.
How Do People Afford To Live In NYC?
Beat's me. I never could figure that one out. But the smart people are leaving and moving to "greener pastures". Good for you all! -MM
This is a complicated question, I used to be a NYC rental broker so can answer this question as it relates to real estate.
There is still a lot of rent stabilized and some rent controlled apartments. These apartments are significantly lower than market rate. There are people paying $2000 and under for 1 and 2 BR apts. those people NEVER LEAVE. They do the best they can with the finishes and condition of the apt, sometimes negotiating with the landlord for some basic upgrades but they NEVER LEAVE. They even treat their stabilized or controlled status as a sort of asset that can be passed down to other relatives who are occupants to the apt. So if you’re paying very low rent, this can definitely help you with cost of living.
Roommates– Roommate culture is huge in NYC. Many people survive with roommates cutting the rent in half or more depending on how many roommates. There is such a thing as “Flexing” an apartment so to make an extra room out of the living room. A 600sqft 1BR can potentally be “Flexed” into a 600sqft 2BR with no living room A cheap 2300 1BR split between 2 is only $1150 a month each. To qualify for that portion of the rent you only need to make $46K which is really a starting salary for young professionals in NYC.
Higher Salaries-NYC salaries are huge compared to other parts of the country. And that’s mainly because they account for the higher cost of living. You can be starting at $55K and still struggling if your looking to live in prime NYC neighborhoods. People working on Wall Street with big five figure bonuses are really just making upper middle class. Especially families that choose to stay in the city. Include the cost of childcare and you can easily be living hand to mouth.
Rich Kids from other parts of the country: They say NYC is the playground for the rich. For some reason all the young rich kids like to live in this city. They have parents who are able to co-sign on their apartments. Mind you, a requirement for a consigning on a apt that costs $2500 is $200K in income. The cost upfront for an apartment can easily exceed 10K. I’ve seen parents give their kids 3K monthly stipends! If only their parents could adopt me!
There’s a variety of factors that make it possible for people to afford city living. I would consider prime (south of 96th st) NYC to be difficult for most people to afford. The cost of living for basic things like groceries and dry cleaning tend to be higher in these neighborhoods.
Good thing there are other reasonable nearby neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens, Upper Manhattan, and New Jersey where you can still find reasonable rent but with a short commute.
Retro Disco-Funky House 70 & 80s
I have this “feeling” that it’s gonna take more than a few minutes of funk to drive the bullshit off.
Stay positive you all. Avoid the negatives.
Indonesia helping to create an atmosphere inside Taiwan?
Jakarta drafting Taiwan pullout plan for citizens - Taipei Times
The Indonesian government has drawn up a contingency plan to evacuate Indonesians in Taiwan amid rising concern over tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
The emergency plan would involve evacuating 350,000 Indonesian nationals from Taiwan as “geopolitical conditions surrounding Taiwan have not abated,” Indonesian newspaper Kompas reported on Friday.
“To anticipate various possibilities, a contingency plan has been prepared in collaboration with the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office in Taipei,” Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director for Indonesian Citizen Protection Judha Nugraha was quoted as saying…
The Paris Stock Exchange EURONEXT building was brought to an abrupt halt today as hundreds of Protestors stormed past security and entered the building with flares, signs, horns, and other disruptive devices, to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plan.
The building is located in the La Défense business district, just on the outskirts of the capital.
“railway workers and others” are seen chanting and waving union flags. Additionally, a Euronext spokeswoman stated that the protest had concluded by 1 p.m. local time. Moreover, the protestors “had no impact on its operations and hadn’t disrupted trading.”
I need to overdose on FUNK!
Stay positive. Smile. Do something nice.
https://youtu.be/HqeK77wHcD0
Look, I can talk about write about anything. But the truth is that what I am seeing inside of China, and with all the changes in the Geo-political arena is completely different from what the “news media” is saying.
What is the United States problem?
One of many, many…many. It seems.
2023 04 21 12 10
Taiwan: Washington’s Quest to Provoke A Chinese War
This week, the People’s Liberation Army conducted aggressive military exercises in the South China sea. This act was a forceful response to the Taiwanese President’s meeting with Kevin McCarthy, where the two figures reaffirmed a mutual interest in “defending democracy.”
The display is unusual for two reasons. The first, is that the Chinese generally shy from gratuitous displays of force, so this should be taken seriously. The military drills were strikingly reminiscent to ones conducted by Russia on the eve of the Ukraine war.
The second, is the ludicrous fact that Washington does not even recognize Taiwan as a nation.
The US government gave up claims to the territory it controlled as a semi-colony when negotiating Chinese support for a common front against the Soviet Union. Chinese ownership of Taiwan was officially acknowledged in the 1972 Shanghai Communique authored by Henry Kissinger and presented by Richard Nixon. The 1955 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, which compels the US military to defend Taiwan in the case of a mainland invasion, was officially terminated in 1980 when Washington formally established diplomatic ties with China.
With the Soviet Union gone and China beginning to forge its identity as a world power, the self-selected judge, jury and executioner of the “rules based international order” has decided these agreements are no longer convenient and have, over the decades, used legalisms to establish the rat-like policy of “strategic ambiguity” on the matter of Taiwan.
But things are no longer so ambiguous. Following the Ukraine script, the Pentagon and State Department are now moving forward on furnishing Taiwan with billions of dollars worth of arms on top of the steady trickle of weapons the Biden Administration has already been sending. The US has a backlog of over $12 billion dollars worth of weaponry earmarked to “Ukrainize” Taiwan combined with an anti-China disinformation campaign seeking to stoke jingoism. This is a brazen provocation. Prior to this foreign interloping, China was on track for peaceful reunification, now in the blink of an eye, we have Lindsay Graham stating he would support sending US troops to fight them over the island.
In the post-Iraq era, nobody believes the saccharine self-righteous lectures about Truth, Justice and the American Way unless they’re paid to pretend to. Geopolitical analysts across the ideological spectrum have correctly identified the imperial economics behind the US government’s bellicose finger in China’s eye: Taiwan produces the majority of the world’s semiconductors, which are requisite parts of virtually all advanced electronic innovations from smartphones to modern automobiles. Possession of a monopoly on the production of this specialized technology, observers say, would allow China unprecedented global influence.
The Pentagon’s newspeak about Taiwanese sovereignty becomes increasingly preposterous when listening to some of the spastic outbursts emanating from our unelected national security hierarchs. At a March Global Security Forum in Qatar, former White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien stated that the United States was planning to blow up all of Taiwan’s semiconductor factories in the event of a Chinese military intervention. Such a brash action could instantly wipe trillions from the world economy and plunge the world into a depression. Some would argue that O’Brien may have been blowing hot air, but his words follow a pattern of incompetence and reckless disregard by Washington’s gay Jewish fanatics, who The Times has reported actually instructed Ukrainian forces to use HIMARs artillery to attack Europe’s largest power plant in Zaporizhzhia!
The semiconductor industry certainly plays an important role in the Sino-American stand-off, but economics alone are not the primary motive for Washington’s over-the-top aggression, which is so unhinged that it is even scaring some of its most loyal subjects.
The real dilemma for globalists is not that a non-Western state will control chip manufacturing, as some have theorized. US companies leaving China are moving chip manufacturing to nearby India and Vietnam. The real source of their protestation is that China’s influence could enable countries to have more say over their own affairs!
The Chinese government’s foreign policy doctrine is The Five Principles of Peaceful Co-Existence, which presents a direct challenge to the post-1945 Open Society model implemented by the Jewish controlled Allies, which Xi Jinping made clear in a recent meeting with Vladimir Putin. The Chinese model proposes an international system dictated by rational self-interest and Westphalian assumptions of national sovereignty. We can see this philosophy play out in Chinese brokered peace agreements between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a development that could bring stark relief to the bloody sectarianism that has engulfed the Muslim world for decades but enrages Jews in America and Israel. Xi’s offer to mediate peace between Ukraine and Russia is finding audiences in Europe and even some interest in Kiev, and China is a background participant in the Russian project to bring Syria and Turkey to the negotiating table.
The prospect of peace and stability appeals to the overwhelming majority of humanity, but the Jews and homosexual freaks flying down the wrong side of the highway at 120 miles per hour in Washington and New York are outraged because losing the monopoly on force nudges their unnatural and dangerous global aspirations to the sidelines.
Standing in the way is NATO, which is currently expanding into an Indo-Pacific “partnership” featuring liberal vassal states Japan, South Korea and Australia. This strategic alliance’s sole purpose is to manufacture a geopolitical problem for China where it otherwise does not exist. The purpose of this front is to combine economic and military power of several nations to arbitrarily dictate terms to nation-states — not only China, as the post-Soviet collapse actions of NATO have shown — and replace them with a single world order centered around enforcing the WW2 Allies’ self-serving definitions of “human rights” and “democracy.”
This ideology of “human rights and democracy” translates to establishing institutions that disempower ethnic majorities (especially in nations that embrace it), water down the state so that social and national policies are dictated by private wealthy individuals that put money and cosmopolitanism over nationhood, and full integration into an international construct of selectively enforced human rights laws that grants jurisdiction over day-to-day domestic affairs and defers an immediate influence sphere to global entities controlled by the people indoctrinated by Jews in this nonsense at elite schools in the US and parts of Western Europe.
Naturally, most countries that haven’t already been taken over reject this. That is why the post-1945 liberal order spreads death and chaos, insulting our intelligence by saying it is on humanitarian grounds. Exporting disgusting values, erasing unique peoples and cultures and cranking open markets for Wall Street predators by starting fires on every corner of the planet is a goal they strive for.
The Jew Barry Pavel, who has served in the Department of Defense and National Security Council, summarized this Bolshevistic ideology in NATO’s Atlantic Council publication in 2014. He asserts that the United States should actively combat Westphalianism by utilizing new technologies such as “3D and 4D printing, a biotechnology explosion, robotics, algorithms, big data and later, quantum computing” to manufacture subversion and instigate civil wars around the world. “It is this nexus of greater individual autonomy and more powerful and personalized capabilities that defines the coming era of people power,” Pavel declared.
Rather than US foreign policy aiming to build good-fences-good-neighbors diplomacy, Pavel recommends the tenets of Permanent Revolution, “when thinking about our world today and the value the United States places on regional stability, it becomes clear that this strategy is no longer viable. Washington needs a dynamic framework to deal with a dynamic world.”
Former Secretary General of NATO Javier Solana expressed an earlier iteration of this in a 1998 speech celebrating the bombing campaign against Serbia. Solana declared that common sense principles like non-interference and ethnic nationalism were obsolete and immoral, and that liberal values must be spread with sanctions, bullets and bombs because “democracies remain far better equipped to deal peacefully with the challenges of modernisation and globalisation” and “it remains a fact that open, multi-cultural societies are the best insurance against excesses of the kind we have seen in Bosnia.”
Traditionally, the Washington-London-Paris axis has sought passive measures when confronted by large, nuclear armed powers, though this has changed in the face of Russian assertiveness. US policy towards China since the 1980s was to shower the country with American capital at the expense of the economic interests of the domestic population, which has both failed in changing China and simultaneously played a role in turning much of the white working class against the government at home.
From the vantage point of arrogant policymakers, capitalists would benefit from the highly skilled but relatively cheap Chinese work force as well as its vast consumer market, with the downstream effect of creating a a young cosmopolitan middle class steeped in the values of Jewish low-culture — Hollywood, celebrity fixations, pop music, social media, etc. These young people would then breath in the political ideology of the American system in Western universities, which clearly didn’t work since both Trump and Biden have implemented policy denying Chinese students new visas while FBI agents badger those who are already here. US foreign policy authors also projected that local billionaires could be bought off and compromised through Jewish financial influence, thus creating a political challenge for the Chinese state that would allow for liberalization.
This project has been a bust. The Chinese state remains the authority in the country, and serious domestic opposition vanished after the mass execution of CIA assets burned by double agents and intelligence community incompetence. Young Chinese students in America focus on taking STEM classes and then use it to make their own country better, while contract workers at American companies often engage in espionage and patent theft. The Chinese Communist Party has shown resolve in cracking down on billionaire interests that conflict with national well-being, even if it financially hurts in the short-term — something so unthinkable in liberal plutocracies that even the best minds in Washington couldn’t foresee it.
One highlight in this see-saw dynamic between the Chinese state and capital has been the government’s fight with Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who in 2019 signed on to a joint venture with Wall Street hedge fund firm Vanguard to create the digital bank Ant Financial. Ma was being groomed by Western media as a potential candidate for Pavel’s concept of “personalized power” as a Steve Jobs type figure that for some reason should be deferred to on political and ethical matters because he’s a good businessman. But Ma’s drift into the clutches of foreign money as well as his outspoken support for liberalizing finance provoked backlash from the Chinese state. In the years following his statements, Alibaba was subjected to record shattering trust-busting fines and a takeover of key parts of Ant Financial by state owned enterprises. Now in 2023, Ma has been stripped of his influence and jettisoned from public life. Vanguard announced last March that it was planning to abandon the Chinese market and the CCP does not care.
Vanguard is not alone. The Jewish Open Society’s battering ram of US private equity has decreased investments in China by 76% year-over-year, suggesting frustrations that go beyond “zero-COVID.” Some bad actors, such as Blackrock and Michael Bloomberg wish to keep a foot in the door, but they are being heavily scrutinized for it by Jewish Wall Street compatriots like George Soros, who is a key figure behind the Biden administration’s escalation of Trump-era anti-China saber-rattling.
Other social engineering projects have also hit brick walls. US 5th Generation warfare operatives often zero in on recruiting and manipulating homosexuals and young women in relatively developed nations, but in China, feminists lauded in the New York Times as trailblazers for seeking to create sexual harassment moral panics or import Western “battle of the sexes” politics are not imprisoned, as this would only make them martyrs, but socially shamed and mocked. The Chinese government looks the other way as young men troll them off the internet or tech companies deplatform them. Unlike many other countries that tolerate society-wrecking Jewish funded NGOs in exchange for US and European investment, Chinese authorities do not shy from cracking down on foreign NGOs using their version of the espionage act, something the US government would also do if it were ever faced with substantial outside meddling.
In the US, conservatives make a lot of noise about combating “woke” Disney, but Jewish CEO Bob Iger is much more afraid of China. Hollywood relies on the country’s massive market to stay profitable, even as they express muted anguish over the state’s policy of unrelentingly censoring the sick garbage and propaganda they put in children’s films. Bipartisan congressional hearings have even summoned movie studio heads over the issue, complaining that fear of offending Chinese sensibilities may be causing Jews in control of our creative sector to hold back from going even further in repulsing normal people.
US hard power in Taiwan is a desperate last-ditch effort to stymie the inevitable after decades of soft power have failed to undermine China’s proud Hans. The lunatics in the Pentagon prefer to engage in gangsterism and childish mischief against a nuclear power with the largest army in the world over learning to mind their own business and competing in good faith.
The drive behind every American foreign policy decision is not up for debate, it is not merely about money. Peace and diplomacy is much more profitable than war. Emanant scholar Michael Hudson, who spent years working in prominent think tanks, summarized the American national security establishment best, “I’ve met the national security types when I was at the Hudson Institute for many years. They are crazy. They are filled with hatred of the stories about their families suffering in the Holocaust. They look at the rest of the world as potential enemies who want to put them in the gas chambers. These are twisted people.”
In truth, America is as much of a police state as China, except in the latter they have the benefit of violent crime being unheard of. Here in the land of human rights and democracy we have FBI agents spying on people in our churches and sketchy indictments of political opponents for disagreeing with maybe 10% of the Washington consensus. But every system functions this way, what distinguishes the Chinese one is that it defends the interests of its majority race while the US system — private and public — operates for the exclusive benefit of a small minority that openly says it hates the majority.
We must have a state that respects and preserves our European state-building majority, makes business and finance accountable, and punishes those who deserve it. We must immediately cease our policy of starting wars, spreading anarchy, and imposing toxic values that are killing us as well as others. Our goal should be to have strong borders and a formidable defense force while engaging with the world in a constructive and peaceful fashion.
But first we must take back our nation back!
No war for Taiwan!
Best Electric Guitar Blues Of All Time – Beautiful Relaxing Blues Music
For the end of the day chill.
https://youtu.be/bjs7vLRXVl4
Take care everyone.
The “news” might be shit, but if you remain positive, you will not be dragged down into the black hole with it.
Morgan Weistling is an American painter who paints the everyday life and characters of the Wild West. An accomplished painter, Weistling is skilled in both paint and printmaking, creating truly inspiring paintings of beauty and danger. Weistling’s paintings have won multiple awards and been purchased for permanent display by major museums.
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One of the things that I enjoy is a nice soft and juicy brownie, hot out of the oven, covered with pudding and ice cream. Goes great with black coffee.
It’s perfect on a rainy Spring day.
It’s one of those wonderful combos, like a grilled cheese sandwich with a elbow-noodle tomato soup. Or an icy-glass of milk with some Oreo cookies.
What special events are you going to enjoy today?
Any plans?
California bill would create missing persons alert ONLY for black women, children
The Amber Alert system is not race-segregated like the Ebony Alert would be.
A new bill proposed in California would create an “Ebony Alert” system to specifically notifiy the public when black women and children go missing. While the state already has a missing persons alert system, this one would only be for black women and children.
The state currently has an Amber Alert for missing children, a Silver Alert for missing elderly persons, and a Feather Alert for missing indigenous persons. The Amber Alert system is not race-segregated like the Ebony Alert would be.
In a release on the race-based crime bill, state senator Steven Bradford said that the bill would “address the often ignored or lack of attention given to Black children and young Black women that are missing in California.”
His reasoning is that black children, which comprised 38 percent of those reported missing in the US, are often classified as runaways, meaning that their disappearance does not trigger the Amber Alert system.
The bill does not change the requirements for determining if a missing person is a runaway, but will encourage law enforcement to use the Ebony Alert “if that agency determines that it would be an effective tool in the investigation of a missing Black youth or young Black women between the ages of 12 – 25 years.”
It would also encourage media outlets to cover these disappearances.
Amber Alert’s are specifically for those who are known to have been abducted. It does not have a racial component, but Bradford’s take is that it is discriminatory and contains within it some kind of implicit bias.
“In order for an AMBER Alert to be activated, the following criteria must be met,” California’s Amber Alert system states, “Confirmation that an abduction has occurred or a child was taken by anyone, including, but not limited to, a custodial parent or guardian.
“The victim is 17 years of age or younger, or an individual with a proven mental or physical disability. The victim is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death. There is information available that, if disseminated to the public, could assist in the safe recovery of the victim.”
“The Ebony Alert would ensure that resources and attention are given so we can bring home missing Black women and Black children in the same way we would search for any missing child and missing person,” said Bradford.
“When someone who is missing is incorrectly listed as a runaway, they basically vanish a second time. They vanish from the police detectives’ workload. They vanish from the headlines. In many ways, no one even knows they are missing. How can we find someone and bring them home safely when no one is really looking for them,” he said.
Found Computers & Gear in Abandoned Power Plant
Rufus
Back to work today, forgot my pass so locked bike outside Cannon Street station. Left work at 6pm to find just the cut lock and no bike, resigned to never seeing my trusty stead again asked the station if they have cameras. A guy appeared waving at me, asked me to put the code into my cut lock. He replied ‘I have your bike’ with a smile I will never forget!! His name is Abdul Muneeb and he works for South Eastern Railways, he was on a break and saw a guy bolt cut the lock and challenged him to give it back, he then took it inside and waited 4 hours after his shift finished to personally make sure I got my bike back. The world needs more Abdul’s, he is a legend of a man and a credit to his employer.
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
The potatoes are not peeled in this version of the old classic. The skins give an attractive color and flavor to the dish, but feel free to peel them if you wish.
2023 04 15 07 11
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
3/4 cup water
4 pounds red potatoes, quartered
1/2 to 3/4 cup milk, warmed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/4 cup butter, melted
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
Place trivet in bottom of a 4 quart or larger Duromatic pressure cooker. Add water, garlic and potatoes. Close lid and bring pressure to second red ring over high heat. Adjust heat to stabilize at the second red ring. Cook for 6 to 10 minutes, depending on the size and age of the potatoes.
Remove from heat and use Natural Release Method (remove from heat and allow pressure to subside naturally).
Drain potatoes and garlic and let stand a minute to drain excess moisture. Put potatoes and garlic through a potato ricer or mash with a potato masher and transfer to a warmed serving dish.
Add milk, 1/4 cup at a time while beating, until the potatoes are creamy. Beat until blended.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Jack Teixeira Is An Innocent Scapecoat
List of CIA Operatives in Ukraine and in Russia, Published on Internet
In another blow to the Intel Community the names of CIA Operatives in Ukraine and Russia have been unmasked on a well known Internet message board.
Russian FSB Agents are effectuating arrests as you read this.
This is an unmitigated disaster for the Intelligence Community.
What does the U.S. do better than China?
Different countries / nations have different laws and codes of behavior depending on their societies. To compare two different societies is rather meaningless, as you are comparing apples with chestnuts.
But let’s give it a go, shall we.
Force Projection
No one causes war, arms wars, promotes wars, and destroying homes and people during wars better than America. America is the best at war. If not overly, covert wars are an American expertise. It’s like a gourmet chef who is an expert in stews. The United States has it’s hands and fingers everywhere, ready to twitch and pinch to get other nations to obey it’s dictates or else.
The United States is the big bully that is always looking for a fight…
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Meanwhile, China is this puny little nerd, sitting on his porch minding his own business. He studies. He trains. But he doesn’t really want to fight. he just wants to live life.
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Spend Money
No one can spend money better than the United States Congress. Money for this. Money for that. Not enough money? Make more! And throw it away. Money. Money. Money. Money is a religion. It is a God. It is something to be worshiped and discarded as needed.
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China doesn’t think like that. Money is transactional. You use it when needed, and set it aside when not.
LGBQ+
The United States is the leader in “alternative lifestyles”. Sex with dogs, cats, hamsters, clay figurines, and railroad locomotives isn’t a problem. Not only is it legal, but in some regions, it’s expected. Want to be a transsexual unicorn that specializes in poetry about fairy dust basket weaving? Go for it. The United States will probably fund your “uniqueness”.
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China is a traditional nation, and their tolerance line is soft, but cannot be crossed.
Clown Show
No other nation leads the United States in incompetence, silliness, and stupidity of leadership. Sure, there are some upstarts like Zelenskyy, and some good comic relief with some of the jokers in Canada and France, but the United States is the leader in moronic idiocracity.
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China is boring and bland in comparison. Just merit driven leadership that have a real sincere desire to help their people.
Ah, you wanted more. Sorry. Posting this about my home nation really saddens me. Because it never used to be like this.
There was a time, not too long ago, when the United States looked like this…
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Intelligence show that the US has been considering of conducting a democratic coup to overthrow the US so-called Brazil president dictator Lula to reinstate the US style of democracy in Brazil. Why?
Been considering? No. US already conducted a regime change coup 3 months ago and it is still ongoing today. A common playbook. This is the storming of the Brazil’s Congress :
Why? All because of BRICS and SCO expansionist moves getting closer to the USA aka NATO expansionist move towards Russia. The number of states that are planning to join BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) increased significantly last year, about 20 countries want to join. The countries wishing to become part of BRICS and the SCO have an important role to play in their regions. Among them are Turkey, Mexico, Indonesia, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and a number of other African countries.
Argentina and Mexico are next. Mexico is already threatened – US Congress already contemplating of an US military invasion using the drug warlords in Mexico as their primary reason and we know it is more to it.
China and Brazil have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary,
Ouch! That’s painful… and it is not new. Everyone in BRICS with the new incoming members are heading towards this path to ditch the dollar on bilateral trades. The USD is now under tremendous pressure as Gold prices have gone up substantially above $2000 indicating countries are buying them up to hedge against the impending weakness of the USD. Most of these countries have accumulated plenty of USD assets and treasury bonds due to trade surpluses with the USA – they need to hedge with Gold and gradually get out safely of these USD holdings.
USA has plenty of their own natural resources. They just don’t want to mine them. They rather deplete others using freely printed fiat USD currency which has not been backed by Gold since 1971. They over consumed each year resulting in mounting bilateral trade deficits while others toiled to provide to their greedy needs and wants. They hire the best overseas talents to study and work in USA with attractive scholarships and compensation, capture industrial and technology markets with strong R&D, fund regime changes, wars and conflicts via their CIA (Intelligence), NED (Democracy), and MIC (Military Industrial Complex) clandestine operations.
With the decline and fall of USD, the destruction of this evil superpower USA has begun – it is long overdue as the USD intrinsically is worth ZERO today. When countries stop accepting USD and downgrade its valuation, a new world order will come about.
Australian TV ACCIDENTALLY Shows The U.S. War Menace
Secret Life of The American Teenagers in Urban Paintings by Mark Tennant
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Prepare to be amazed, the paintings of New York-based artist Mark Tennant are some of the most captivating works of contemporary art today. Each work almost feels like a photograph taken at just the right moment, as if someone is walking around with a camera snapping photos of the nightlife. However, these works of art are not photos they are paintings.
Somehow even with his simplistic style and use of wide brush strokes and obscure figures. Tennant is still able to create such a realistic appearance to his works. Mark’s paintings also echo a heavy influence from the 1950s-1970s from its style of fashion and interior design. Considering he was born in 1950 this works could possibly be from photos of life in his young adulthood or even distance memories. Guess that is a question we would have to ask the artist himself someday.
«Discomfort is the only state in which to remain unpredictable and fresh.»
The Western media quickly took the stage and laid out the official narrative for the outbreak of the new coronavirus which appeared to have begun in China, claiming it to have originated with animals at a wet market in Wuhan.
In fact the origin was for a long time unknown but it appears likely now, according to Chinese and Japanese reports, that the virus originated elsewhere, from multiple locations, but began to spread widely only after being introduced to the market.
More to the point, it appears that the virus did not originate in China and, according to reports in Japanese and other media, may have originated in the US.
Chinese Researchers Conclude the Virus Originated Outside of China
After collecting samples of the genome in China, medical researchers first conclusively demonstrated that the virus did not originate at the seafood market but had multiple unidentified sources, after which it was exposed to the seafood market from where it spread everywhere. (1) (2) (3)
According to the Global Times:
A new study by Chinese researchers indicates the novel coronavirus may have begun human-to-human transmission in late November from a place other than the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan.
The study published on ChinaXiv, a Chinese open repository for scientific researchers, reveals the new coronavirus was introduced to the seafood market from another location(s), and then spread rapidly from the market due to the large number of close contacts. The findings were the result of analyses of the genome data, sources of infection, and the route of spread of variations of the novel coronavirus collected throughout China.
The study believes that patient(s) zero transmitted the virus to workers or sellers at the Huanan seafood market, the crowded market easily facilitating further transmission of the virus to buyers, which caused a wider spread in early December 2019. (Global Times, February 22, 2020, emphasis added (2)
Chinese medical authorities – and “intelligence agencies” – then conducted a rapid and wide-ranging search for the origin of the virus, collecting nearly 100 samples of the genome from 12 different countries on 4 continents, identifying all the varieties and mutations. During this research, they determined the virus outbreak had begun much earlier, probably in November, shortly after the Wuhan Military Games.
They then came to the same independent conclusions as the Japanese researchers – that the virus did not begin in China but was introduced there from the outside.
China’s top respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan said on January 27
“Though the COVID-19 was first discovered in China, it does not mean that it originated from China”
“But that is Chinese for “it originated someplace else, in another country”. (4)
This of course raises questions as to the actual location of origin. If the authorities pursued their analysis through 100 genome samples from 12 countries, they must have had a compelling reason to be searching for the original source outside China. This would explain why there was such difficulty in locating and identifying a ‘patient zero’.
Japan’s Media: The Coronavirus May Have Originated in the US
In February of 2020, the Japanese Asahi news report (print and TV) claimed the coronavirus originated in the US, not in China, and that some (or many) of the 14,000 American deaths attributed to influenza may have in fact have resulted from the coronavirus. (5)
A report from a Japanese TV station disclosing a suspicion that some of those Americans may have unknowningly contracted the coronavirus has gone viral on Chinese social media, stoking fears and speculations in China that the novel coronavirus may have originated in the US.
The report, by TV Asahi Corporation of Japan, suggested that the US government may have failed to grasp how rampant the virus has gone on US soil.
However, it is unknown whether Americans who have already died of the influenza had contracted the coronavirus, as reported by TV Asahi. (People’s Daily, English, February 23, 2020, emphasis added)
On February 14, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they will begin to test individuals with influenza-like-illness for the novel coronavirus at public health labs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and New York City.
The TV Asahi network presented scientific documentation for their claims, raising the issue that no one would know the cause of death because the US either neglected to test or failed to release the results. Japan avoided the questions of natural vs. man-made and accidental vs. deliberate, simply stating that the virus outbreak may first have occurred in the US. The Western Internet appears to have been scrubbed of this information, but the Chinese media still reference it.
These claims stirred up a hornet’s nest not only in Japan but in China, immediately going viral on Chinese social media, especially since the Military World Games were held in Wuhan in October, and it had already been widely discussed that the virus could have been transmitted at that time – from a foreign source.
“Perhaps the US delegates brought the coronavirus to Wuhan, and some mutation occurred to the virus, making it more deadly and contagious, and causing a widespread outbreak this year.” (People’s Daily, February 23, 2020) (1)
Shen Yi, an international relations professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, stated that global virologists “including the intelligence agencies” were tracking the origin of the virus. Also of interest, the Chinese government did not shut the door on this. The news report stated:
“Netizens are encouraged to actively partake in discussions, but preferably in a rational fashion.”
In China, that is meaningful. If the reports were rubbish, the government would clearly state that, and tell people to not spread false rumors.
Taiwan Virologist Suggests the Coronavirus Originated in the US
Below is a rough translation, summary and analysis of selected content of that newscast. (see map below)
The man in the video is a top virologist and pharmacologist who performed a long and detailed search for the source of the virus. He spends the first part of the video explaining the various haplotypes (varieties, if you will), and explains how they are related to each other, how one must have come before another, and how one type derived from another. He explains this is merely elementary science and nothing to do with geopolitical issues, describing how, just as with numbers in order, 3 must always follow 2.
One of his main points is that the type infecting Taiwan exists only in Australia and the US and, since Taiwan was not infected by Australians, the infection in Taiwan could have come only from the US.
The basic logic is that the geographical location with the greatest diversity of virus strains must be the original source because a single strain cannot emerge from nothing. He demonstrated that only the US has all the five known strains of the virus (while Wuhan and most of China have only one, as do Taiwan and South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, Singapore, and England, Belgium and Germany), constituting a thesis that the haplotypes in other nations may have originated in the US.
Korea and Taiwan have a different haplotype of the virus than China, perhaps more infective but much less deadly, which would account for a death rate only 1/3 that of China.
Neither Iran nor Italy were included in the above tests, but both countries have now deciphered the locally prevalent genome and have declared them of different varieties from those in China, which means they did not originate in China but were of necessity introduced from another source. It is worth noting that the variety in Italy has approximately the same fatality rate as that of China, three times as great as other nations, while the haplotype in Iran appears to be the deadliest with a fatality rate of between 10% and 25%. (7) (8) (9)
Due to the enormous amount of Western media coverage focused on China, much of the world believes the coronavirus spread to all other nations from China, but this now appears to have been proven wrong. With about 50 nations scattered throughout the world having identified at least one case at the time of writing, it would be very interesting to examine virus samples from each of those nations to determine their location of origin and the worldwide sources and patterns of spread.
The Virologist further stated that the US has recently had more than 200 “pulmonary fibrosis” cases that resulted in death due to patients’ inability to breathe, but whose conditions and symptoms could not be explained by pulmonary fibrosis. He said he wrote articles informing the US health authorities to consider seriously those deaths as resulting from the coronavirus, but they responded by blaming the deaths on e-cigarettes, then silenced further discussion. …
The Taiwanese doctor then stated the virus outbreak began earlier than assumed, saying, “We must look to September of 2019”.
He stated the case in September of 2019 where some Japanese traveled to Hawaii and returned home infected, people who had never been to China. This was two months prior to the infections in China and just after the CDC suddenly and totally shut down the Fort Detrick bio-weapons lab claiming the facilities were insufficient to prevent loss of pathogens. (10) (11)
He said he personally investigated those cases very carefully (as did the Japanese virologists who came to the same conclusion).. This might indicate the coronavirus had already spread in the US but where the symptoms were being officially attributed to other diseases, and thus possibly masked.
The prominent Chinese news website Huanqiu related one case in the US where a woman’s relative was told by physicians he died of the flu, but where the death certificate listed the coronavirus as the cause of death. On February 26, ABC News affiliate KJCT8 News Network reported that a woman recently told the media that her sister died on from coronavirus infection. Montrose, Colorado resident Almeta Stone said, “They (the medical staff) kept us informed that it was the flu, and when I got the death certificate, there was a coronavirus in the cause of death.” (12)
We cannot ascertain the number of such cases in the US but since the CDC apparently has no reliable test kits and is conducting little or no testing for the virus, there may be others.
***
Just for information
In the past two years (during the trade war) China has suffered several pandemics:
February 15, 2018: H7N4 bird flu. Sickened at least 1,600 people in China and killed more than 600. Many chickens killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products.
June, 2018: H7N9 bird flu. Many chickens killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products.
August, 2018: outbreak of African swine flu. Same strain as Russia, from Georgia. Millions of pigs killed. China needs to purchase US pork products.
May 24, 2019: massive infestation of armyworms in 14 province-level regions in China, which destroy most food crops. Quickly spread to more than 8,500 hectares of China’s grain production. They produce astonishing numbers of eggs. China needs to purchase US agricultural products – corn, soybeans.
December, 2019: Coronavirus appearance puts China’s economy on hold.
January, 2020: China is hit by a “highly pathogenic” strain of bird flu in Hunan province. Many chickens died, many others killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products.
The standard adage is that bad luck happens in threes, not sixes.
***
Be the Rufus
“Y’all. This gentleman right here is Barry. He paid for my groceries when I realized I left my wallet in Emmy’s diaper bag. The cashier had finished ringing everything up and gave me my total.
After I couldn’t find my wallet, the cashier and bagger graciously offered to suspend my order and put all my perishable items in a cooler so I could run home to get my wallet.
I explained I live 20+ minutes away and by the time my kids and I would make it back an hour will have passed. It was already 7:00 and we still needed to eat dinner.
I succumbed to the fact I would have to put an order in online and pick it up the following day.
Trust me, I realize there are people with actual problems in this world, but at that moment, I felt completely defeated. My husband had just left for Texas and would be gone for two weeks and there was still so much to do at home.
My son, who just got done helping me put everything on the conveyor belt kept asking what was wrong. In my frustration and anger (toward myself) I said through clenched teeth ‘I don’t have my wallet; we have to leave’.
Now comes the good part. In steps Barry asking, ‘How much is it?’ I profusely refuse, but Barry’s persistent so I tell him my total. He hands his card to the cashier and looks at me and says ‘I’ve been there before.
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He said…
I understand. My wife recently died and if she were here, she'd want me to help you. So, I'm doing it for her, too.’ It might have been weird asking to take a picture, but he was my saving grace this evening. He's a reminder that there's plenty of good out there.”
How much did China’s economy really grow last year?
Our media insist it ‘slowed dramatically,’ to 3%, but that percentage hides the truth rather than revealing it, because 3% is a ratio, not an amount.
If I told you my 15-year-old son grew 3% last year, you’d rightly think me odd, even evasive, wouldn’t you?
But unless you can remember the previous year’s GDP and calculate the percentage mentally, you don’t know how much it grew – and you’re not intended to.
Journalists use percentages to mislead us..
Let us count the ways..
In 2007, media reported breathlessly that China’s GDP grew 14.7%, ‘the fastest economic growth ever recorded’. If we subtract 2006 GDP from 2007 GDP we learn that the economy was $900 billion bigger in 2007 than in 2006. Almost $1 trillion.
China’s GDP only ‘grew’ 3% in 2022, ‘the slowest growth in decades,’ we were told, but this is nonsense.
3% of China’s 2021 ($30 trillion) economy is almost $900 billion – the same as 2007, and – since the population is unchanged – enough to double wages and pensions in that interval.
The economy is not slowing down. It’s accelerating.
China could have its first $2 trillion growth year in 2023. You heard it here first.
Pot Roast
Classic Pot Roast 3
Yield: 10 servings
Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
4 pounds boneless beef roast
2 tablespoons oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup red wine
2 1/2 cups beef stock
6 tablespoons flour
Instructions
Brown the beef and onion in oil in the open pressure cooker.
Add salt and pepper, 1/2 cup wine, seal cooker and cook at 10 pounds pressure for 15 minutes per pound.
Reduce pressure, open cooker and remove meat.
To make gravy, remove all but 2 tablespoons fat from the cooker, add the flour and stir for 1 minute, then slowly add the wine and stock and simmer for a few minutes until thickened.
Season gravy with salt and pepper to taste.
EU chief von der Leyen to came along to visit China in April 2023. She was ignorant but arrogant. She was “lectured” by Xi Jinping. What has she said?
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Ursula came as Macrons Guard Dog to watch over Macron and see that he didn’t waver in his message
It didn’t work
Ursula made four points
She first said she asked Xi Jingping not to try to unilaterally change the Taiwan Straits equation
Xi Jingping was incredulous. I mean this is somebody who holds no recognized Global leadership, a woman who lectures everyone about democracy but didn’t get elected to her post and who threatens anyone who doesn’t follow her agenda (US Agenda)
Nonetheless a Consumate Professional, Xi replied
China can do whatever it wants in the Straits Equation. Taiwan IS CHINA. After all you have just said you support the One China Policy. What do you think it means?
Ursula was bested
Round one to XJP
Next she began on Ukraine. She asked XJP to not involve in the Ukraine conflict and called Russia an Aggressor in so many words
Once again Xi was puzzled at her rudeness. He sighed and once again decided to respond
US is the one who is fuelling the continuous war in Ukraine, NOT CHINA. China is always for Peace and Global Peace.
Meanwhile Macron was deeply uncomfortable and tried to reduce Ursulas stupidity by talking about how “De Coupling” with China was an impossibility
Immediately the Paid Lapdog Von Der Leyen jumped in using the word “De Risking” saying how EU could potentially reduce their risk exposure with China
The fact is Xi Jingping was incredibly polite.
Yet he was finally weary of all this talk of Ukraine, Democracy and Freedom
Macron once free of Ursula, repaired things and made some statements that pleased Xi but infuriated the European Neocons including the million dollar statement that
EU cannot be always under the Shadow of the United States
Europe must resist pressure to become ‘America’s followers,’ says Macron
The ‘great risk’ Europe faces is getting ‘caught up in crises that are not ours,’ French president says in interview.
That single statement wiped out all of Ursulas bad behavior and pleased Xi Jingping immensely
Thismade Macrons trip a big success
Meanwhile Ursula
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The Chinese ensured that she stood in LINE with ordinary passengers and forced her to show her Covid results
When she said she didn’t have them with her and showed her phone, they said they wanted documentary evidence and she waited until the Embassy Staff in Beijing got her the documents as she sat fuming with the Ordinary Passengers who were grinning and enjoying themselves at her discomfort
They demanded her passport
She said she was a diplomat and the Chinese said “No you’re not. We didn’t invite you to China, so you are now not a Diplomat but an ordinary visitor. PASSPORT PLEASE”
So for the first time in many years, she handed over her Passport and got a stamp and walked to her plane UTTERLY HUMILIATED AND FURIOUS
The Subtle yet Brutal Chinese Treatment
Not reported in Western “news”.
Throw Junk Fees in the Trash
States are following the Biden administration’s lead in going after unfair and deceptive fees.
If you’ve tried to buy a concert ticket anytime within recent memory, you’re almost certainly familiar with the slew of fees that get tacked onto the price at the end. There are so many fees on live music tickets that this internet joke about Ticketmaster charging a “fee fee” and a “fee fi fo fum fee” is actually barely a joke at all.
Those charges lumped on at the end, which don’t actually pay for any additional services, are a result of Ticketmaster’s market power. It cornered the market on live events ticketing, and charges fees because it can. If you want to buy tickets to most shows, you have to go through Ticketmaster. The only other option is to pound sand.
But these so-called “junk fees” — again, which describe fees hidden from the customers that don’t correspond to any additional service — are everywhere. Rental cars, rental homes, hotels, banking, airlines, you name it: If corporations have power, it’s a safe bet they’re using it to extract junk fees. Junk fees cost Americans, by some estimates, billions or even tens of billions of dollars every year.
In his State of the Union address this year, President Joe Biden announced a push against junk fees. “Junk fees may not matter to the very wealthy, but they matter to most other folks in homes like the one I grew up in, like many of you did. They add up to hundreds of dollars a month,” he said. Federal agencies have also gotten in on the act where they have jurisdiction, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Transportation, and the Federal Communications Commission.
Interestingly, while there is some movement toward a mish-mosh of federal bills dealing with these fees, the White House is also pushing state legislatures to tackles them. It held a webinar of sorts with state legislators from New York, California, and Vermont who each carry junk fee-related bills, and recently sent out guidance for state legislators who want to work on the issue.
Which brings us to Pennsylvania! There will be a hearing there in the House Consumer Affairs Committee on Thursday to examine HB 636, the “Pay the Price You See” bill, sponsored by Rep. Nick Pisciottano, one of the great anti-monopoly champions working at the state level. The bill would require full price disclosure on all purchases, at the front end, making any sort of junk fee illegal under Pennsylvania’s state Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.
“Hidden or ‘junk’ fees are inherently deceptive and should not exist in a free and fair market,” Pisciottano said. “For too long, companies like Ticketmaster have taken advantage of American consumers through these arbitrary fees. I applaud the steps being taken at the federal level to address junk fees and look forward to supplementing consumer protections here in Pennsylvania by mandating fee transparency in advertised prices.”
As my colleague Katie Van Dyck will explain to the Pennsylvania committee, there are two main tactics that corporations use to impose these fees, which are known as “drip pricing” and “partitioned pricing.” The first is what Ticketmaster does, adding more fees as the buyer moves through the process, inflating the final cost beyond what was advertised as the beginning. The second involves advertising a price like “$35+fees,” so disclosing that there is some extra cost, but making it unclear how much or what that extra cost actually buys — because usually the answer is nothing.
These costs aren’t just bad for consumers, though they are certainly that. They also make it more difficult for competitors to the large corporations to well, compete, because they make it hard for consumers to deduce which prices in the market are actually lower. By the time a buyer gets to the end of the transaction and sees all the junk fees lumped on, they tend to not give up and go shop somewhere else due to the sunk time cost of having already gone through the process once.
Junk fees also, as Van Dyck explains, can lead to tacit collusion, with corporations essentially giving a wink and a nod to each other to make certain fees a permanent part of the market, inflating prices across the board.
I like Pisciottano’s bill because it is clear, simple, and eliminates junk fees across industries. A similar effort exists in California, SB 748, sponsored by Senators Bill Dodd and Nancy Skinner, with the backing of State Attorney General Rob Bonta. It would add a junk fee prohibition to the Golden State’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law.
Contrary to those two bills, there’s been a tendency on this issue to divvy it up, industry by industry, tackling one fee at a time. For example, there have been a bunch of bills across the country during this year’s legislative sessions on ticket fees, specifically, due to the political salience of that issue. California also has a slew of bills touching on various fees. You will probably not be shocked to read that eliminating junk fees polls very, very well, so everyone wants to grab their own bill and get a piece of the action.
But cleaning them all out at once like Pisciottano proposes is cleaner, fairer, and gets right at the competition concerns I outlined above. If junk fees are unfair to consumers and other businesses in one sector, they’re unfair in all of them. It’s the tactic that needs to be eliminated, not picking and choosing which fees politicians are fine with versus those they are not.
Of course, as always, eliminating junk fees is the beginning, not the end. A lot of the power corporations have to impose fees stems from their wider market power and lack of competition to keep the fees in check. So eliminating junk fees gets at one symptom, not the disease of corporate concentration. Getting rid of Ticketmaster’s power to levy fees is one thing, but it’s no substitute for breaking it up and reinvigorating competition in the live events space. Ditto across the board, in all the sectors where junk fees plague purchasers.
But throwing those fees in the trash is certainly a good start.
“We Can’t Win A War With China” Says Military Expert
China is ‘ghosting’ the US because normal diplomacy has proven useless
Beijing clearly does not want to spend time and resources on talking to people that undermine and vilify it at every turn
A recent Politico article, citing unnamed US officials, claims that China is “ghosting” the US, ignoring American attempts to re-establish diplomatic communications after they broke down in February.
If you aren’t familiar with the term, ‘to ghost’ someone is social media-era slang that means to leave a conversation hanging by suddenly ceasing to reply.
This, according to officials cited by Politico, is what’s going on between the US and China, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken attempting to reschedule his Beijing visit, which he canceled after the recent ‘spy balloon’ incident, and the Chinese giving him the diplomatic cold shoulder.
The way the article frames it, Washington is making attempts to “stabilize an increasingly volatile relationship,” but “thin-skinned” Beijing is avoiding engagement because it, among other things, resents US arms sales to Taiwan and US officials’ contacts with Taiwan’s pro-independence politicians.
Thin-skinned’ is a baffling description for China’s approach to dealing with the US if one takes a sober look at how things have been developing. Beijing has likely arrived at the conclusion that it is a waste of time to pursue dialogue with Washington, which has failed to demonstrate any good faith whatsoever.
Instead, the administration of President Joe Biden has shown itself to be easily susceptible to outbreaks of anti-China hysteria on the domestic political arena, which makes normal diplomacy impossible.
Despite the fact that US officials such as Blinken continually talk of the need for so-called ‘guardrails’ in the relationship with Beijing, it is quite clear that the US has little interest in cooperating maturely with China, and there is nothing to be gained from such contact from Beijing’s perspective.
China has demonstrated immense diplomatic patience towards the US over the past few years, even as Washington has been venting relentless hostility towards Beijing, including, but not limited to:
accusations of genocide;
blacklisting numerous technology companies;
attempting to crush China’s technological development;
backtracking on its commitment to the One-China policy;
spreading conspiracy theories over the Covid-19 pandemic’s origins;
building new military alliances such as AUKUS, with the intention of containing China;
coercing third-party countries into blocking and rejecting key Chinese investments;
forcing other countries to take sides in an attempt to create a Cold-War-like climate;
whipping up anti-Chinese paranoia and vilification of China in US domestic politics.
The list is not exhaustive, yet once upon a time, China genuinely believed that these hostile policies were a ‘glitch’ of the Trump administration, and sought to engage Biden positively to try and establish a course correction.
It was wrong, it was very wrong.
The Biden administration has not only embraced the foreign policy consensus which former President Donald Trump created, but has doubled down on it uncritically and made things even worse.
This has empowered hawks in Beijing, including President Xi Jinping himself, who has now directly called out the US, to arrive at the conclusion that the relationship with the US is beyond saving.
The domestic political climate within the US is so toxic that is questionable the Biden administration even controls its foreign policy at all.
When a major anti-China ‘idea’ gains political traction within the US, irrespective of the consequences it may have pertaining to US national interests, or on its relationship with China, the Biden administration’s attitude is to ‘bandwagon’ on it, as opposed to resisting it or setting a sensible course.
This has allowed the hawks to drive the agenda.
Take, for example, the issue of TikTok, which the Biden administration sought to ignore for a long time, but once a Republican-led push to ban it gained traction, the White House embraced it.
Biden also did not originally want to shoot down the alleged spy balloon, but did so as the paranoia around it grew.
Similarly, the administration has learned that using China as a political scapegoat allows it to ‘shunt away’, to an extent, the right wing’s attacks, as has been most evident with how it re-embraced the Covid-19 laboratory leak conspiracy theory.
These divisive and polarized political circumstances inside the US ultimately make diplomacy impossible, and it is very much noted that even when China has conducted diplomacy with US officials, they have shown a condescending tactic of announcing new sanctions either before or after such meetings, in order to appear ‘tough’.
In conclusion, why bother at all? The US is clearly not a reliable actor or partner. China will continue to ghost the US until it deems that it can attain some acceptable concessions, and thus dictate the flow of dialogue in order to maintain an equal say in the relationship.
Until that time, diplomatic efforts and resources are clearly better spent elsewhere.
Why put so much commitment into talking with someone who irrationally hates you, brands you as their biggest enemy and threat, and clearly has nothing but hostile intentions towards you?
One Pot Spaghetti
One Pot Spaghetti crop 1281×1536 1
Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, mashed
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
2 cups dry red wine
1 cup water
1 pound spaghetti, uncooked
1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Heat pressure cooker and add oil.
Lightly brown ground beef, onion and garlic, stirring occasionally to separate meat.
Add all remaining ingredients except cheese.
Toss uncooked pasta in liquid so it separates (if spaghetti is to long break strands in half before adding). Close cover securely.
Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 7 minutes for well-done spaghetti, 6 minutes for al dente.
Cool cooker immediately.
Stir cheese into mixture before serving.
Why are Americans so emotionally invested in Taiwan?
Emotionally Invested?
They wouldn’t care if Taiwan burnt to the ground
They care about nobody, not even their own Citizens.
All they care about is their Hegemony at all costs.
US developed this sudden “love” for Taiwan only after China became stronger and stronger and more stronger
The US Economy is propped up mainly by Capital Markets today and is hugely bloated and Artificial.
Military Industries, Big Banks and Big Tech and Big Pharma and Financial Services form 91% of these Capital Markets
The Average American this invested 18% of his wealth into the Military Industry
The Average US Politician has likely invested at least 70% of his wealth in these industries
The Average Senator Or Congressman thus has likely invested and holds millions in the Military Industries and Big Tech like Meta or Google
SO THEY NEED WAR ALL THE TIME
SO THEY NEED TO THROTTLE ALL TECH THAT ISN’T AMERICAN
Otherwise Americans lose money and Senators too
It’s why they target Huawei, Tiktok which are capable of denting Meta and other Big Tech entities massively
It’s why they always want war and poke their nose everywhere and supply weapons to one side for unilateral share value rise
A Military Entity like Raytheon can supply $ 150 Million of Weapons free to someone because such an order can rise it’s share price and enhance its value by $ 1–3 Billion
It’s full of Corruption and Evil – The United States of America is
The Middle East was single handedly destroyed by the Americans from 1979 to 2015 who supplied weapons to separatists, invaded nations, funded color revolutionaries amd supplied more weapons
Now with a peace likely, they will have to cause trouble because otherwise their weapons will not have a demand anymore
So it’s not any emotional investment
It’s just a fear of losing hegemony and a desire to keep propping up an Industry that is dying due to economic forces
The U.S. is the only country that can print “unlimited” money and exchange it for real goods from other nations. This is due to the US Dollar’s reserve status.
But do you know the U.S. can also extend this exorbitant privilege to an ally? Here’s how the scam works…
If you want to understand how the U.S. defrauds the world, you need to know how reserve currency works and how the US Dollar (USD) gained that status.
The tool that allows the U.S. to extend its exorbitant monetary privileges to an ally is called ‘swap lines.’ ‘Swap lines’ are agreements that enable one country to exchange its currency with the currency of another. This is done through their respective central banks.
Let’s use the example of ‘swap lines’ between the U.S. & UK to illustrate how the scam works:
Countries are free to print their own currencies.
But only the U.S. can print “unlimited” amount of dollars without suffering hyperinflation due to the USD’s reserve status.
That means the U.S. can generate “unlimited” amount of dollars out of thin air & exchange them for:
– tangible goods from China
– resources from Africa
– oil from the Middle East
That’s “magic.”
No other country can do that… unless the U.S. grants them a ‘swap line.’
What if the UK wants a share of that “magic money”? The U.S. Fed can help. Here’s how:
The Bank of England prints 1 trillion GBP. It then swaps that with the Fed for 1.25 trillion USD (the current exchange rate).
The UK has just indirectly printed 1.25 trillion USD!
Did you see the “magic” that just happened?
Unlike America, the UK cannot print GBP with impunity and allow all that excess “money” to enter the market. That would devalue the GBP & cause hyperinflation.
So it prints the GBP & swaps them for USD with the Fed instead.
In short, the U.S. defrauds the world with its USD, then uses ‘swap lines’ to share the spoils with its staunchest allies.
The U.S. can grant ‘swap lines’ to any country it wants.
Now do you understand why some countries are diehard supporters of the U.S. Empire?
Being a staunch US ally means they get to create money out of thin air thanks to the U.S.A.
Not a bad idea, as this was a defining era that I (MM) am part of. And after all, the movie “Dazed and confused” was a 100% accurate portrayal of what my Graduation year 1977 was like!
Dazed and Confused Intro “Sweet Emotion” HD 1080p
There’s my GTO. Identical. Oh, I miss those days!
I showed this movie to a friend who had never heard of the movie before. He saw the first 2 minutes and fell in love with it. He said he wished he grew up in the 70's.
To watch this “time machine” of a movie is important for all of us to remember from whence we came from. It will help us define where we are right now.
Dazed and Confused | Party at the Moonlight Tower
It’s true that so many things has changed since those days. But the experiences help define who MM is.
We all are defined by our decisions our choices, and our relationships. But all those things are secondary to our experiences. And that is what “bakes our cake” and makes us either tasty and delicious, our soggy and foul.
The 1970’s were awesome!
Dazed And Confused – Beer Purchase
They got the 70s looks and feel on point man.
If the assumption is correct that airplanes are more efficient than high-speed trains over long distance, why is China building so many railways as opposed to airports relatively speaking?
I. Expertise
China is a Master at Macro Engineering and evolving such technology
When it comes to Railways – China is the undisputed Boss
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It has even beaten Japan to second place if you include the Saturation of Japan against the Evolutionary space of China and the Hyperloop and Maglev Developments.
China is the one of the rare countries to be able to evolve a railway line in a Cost Effective Manner
The Entire Industry and Manufacturing of Railway Lines is Indigenous – ie:- Based within China
Now when it comes to Airplanes – China is at least 10 years behind manufacturing Commercial Airplanes especially where Microengineering is involved.
They would have to depend heavily on Imported Airplanes from Boeing or Airbus or would have to depend heavily on Foreign Components and Foreign Technology and be at the mercy of Nations like Europe or Japan or USA
II. Population
China has too huge a population to depend on Airplanes as a main avenue for long distance.
2023 04 15 20 56
Orlando Florida for instance during its peak holiday time boasts a maximum of 102,400 Passengers per day arrving from various parts of USA to Orlando.
A Similar Figure for China would be a whopping 907,000 Passengers!!!!! during lets say Spring Festival and close to 1,300,000 Passengers during the Lunar New Year
How many Aircrafts would you need? Assuming you have the Standard US Domestic Delta with its 200 Commercial Seats – thats a whopping 4535 Flights a Day!!!!
Its just impossible. There are too many passengers to make Aviation a Routine mode of Transportation.
Thats why Aviation exists mainly when Time is a serious Object like Businessmen or Holidaymakers who have a short time to spend on holidays etc.
III Fuel
Fuel is the biggest reason why No Country is able to run a profitable airline outside North America or Middle East (And Maybe Singapore).
Aviation Fuel or AVTUR is almost entirely Imported or fueling is done in foreign countries like Central Asian Countries or Middle Eastern Countries which means dependency.
Thus for a Country with 1.4 Billion Population – the Most Efficient Modes of Long Distance Travel include
Railways
Highways
Waterways and Ferries
Thats exactly what China is doing
Dazed and Confused (8/12) Movie CLIP – The Emporium (1993) HD
If Beijing fulfils its threat, Europe and the US will need to diversify their supply
China is threatening an export ban on rare earth metals in response to Washington’s recent decision to impose restrictions on exports of high-end semiconductors to Beijing. This is not the first time that China has mooted such a ban, with rumours circulating since at least 2019 as well as formal threats in 2021.
If such a ban came into effect it could, in theory at least, be quite damaging. Rare earth metals are needed to produce the magnets that are used in everything from wind turbines to hard disk drives to electric vehicles. Everything from a smartphone to a Tesla has a substantial need for these elements, while US military technology is also dependent on them, with the F35 fighter jet requiring 417kg of rare earth metals.
China is by far the largest producer of usable rare earth metals, accounting for 60% of rare earth mining, 85% of rare earth processing and 90% of high-strength rare earth permanent magnet manufacturing. Yet there are questions that arise about whether the sanctions would work. We have seen since sanctions were imposed on Russia last year how difficult it is to regulate commercially available technology. There is every chance that even if China banned exports of rare earth metals to the US, America could simply buy it through a third party — just as Europe is buying Russian oil via intermediaries in India.
The threats, however, are likely to push Western countries to find new sources of supply. Japan has already paved the way in this regard after the imposition, in 2010, of a two-month ban on rare earth exports from China. This followed a territorial dispute which broke out when Japan arrested a Chinese fishing boat captain near the contested East China Sea islands. The Japanese were then spurred to diversify the source of their rare earth metals and, as of today, they only import around 60% of their supply from China. Recently, Japan has been exploring the possibility of tapping into deep undersea reserves.
Diversifying the sources of rare earth metal purchases may prompt a renewed debate about the environmental consequences of rare earth metal processing, which creates toxic waste and has a high risk of causing damage to both the environment and to human health. These realities are embarrassing to those who advocate the use of technology like wind turbines and electric vehicles to save the environment. If China is no longer willing to do our dirty work, we may find ourselves with a national debate on the dangers and downsides of rare earth processing.
Ultimately, if China makes good on its threats, we should expect the price of rare earth metals to rise. Even if the sanctions do not work to prevent the US from gaining access to rare earth metals, they will likely lead to supply chain issues and rising costs. The same is true if we start to process these metals domestically. This means higher prices for Western consumers — and that includes everything from smartphones to green energy. Should Beijing’s threat be fulfilled, ramifications will be felt well beyond the corridors of Washington.
Dazed and Confused | School’s Out!
How long will it take Huawei, probably with generous state aid, to catch up with and perhaps exceed the technology the US is attempting to ban them from using?
I am not a technical person and i am writing the tech stuff verbatim from a report stated Why Huaweis 5G lead is significant by a Netherlands company.
There are 3 spectrum bands for 5G.
The Low Band is less than 1 Gigahertz. This overlaps with the 4G and even 3G spectrum bands. This has the widest coverage but the lowest speeds. Its ok for mobile conversations, downloads etc. However the latency is very high (85 -120 milli seconds)
The Mid Band – This is 1–20 Giga Hertz. This overlaps upto 2.5 Giga Hertz with Wi Fi but has a lesser coverage but faster speeds. Here the latency is lower (25–40 milli seconds)
The High Band – This is 20–95 Giga Hertz. No overlaps. This is pure 5G territory. Fastest speeds. Latency is 1–2 milli seconds and ideal for self driven cars or robots or auto bullet trains (Latency has something to do with some form of communication speed time i guess)
US is going for the Bottom to Top approach.
Many have already began to offer 5G services but only in the LOW BAND where Huawei 4G infrastructure is already in place. So though they offer the newer technology like flexing, splitting – its still a glorified version of 4G. Just faster. They propose to develop US infrastructure to be built and developed and the go to the MID BAND and HIGH BAND.
Germany is going for the MIDDLE BAND so as to clearly offer an advantage of 5G and not intermingle 5G and 4G. This requires infrastructure update but not replacement. This way HUAWEI stays in charge but US is not too annoyed (UptoTrumps defeat)
China is going for the HIGH BAND. They have already 95% infrastructure in place and the technology in place. Huawei owns certified technology called Blockchain Integrated Data Movement (BIDM), Splitting Data Packet Emission (SDPE), Flexed Stream Data Communication (FSDC)
Huawei is the clear leader here of the High Band Communications Technology and their new infrastructure is revolutionary.
Now.China has the worlds finest technology for 5G
BUT
There are claims that:-
These technologies that Huawei has certified ownership of were already developed with a far more limited ability by the US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE IN 2015–2016.
In short US already had the Ford Model T designs ready but before they could start building on it, China started to go faster and now have the design for the Ford Focus.
Now US has to take a different route or they will get a technology clash notice from Huawei (Basically Huawei will say You stole our certified tech ).
This is the first time in History that a Asian Company has a Technology Lead over a US one. Earlier US always had the Tech edge but the edge was too expensive for civilian use and was restricted to defense.
Obviously Trump got pissed and said “You have stolen our Tech, modified it, upgraded it, certified it as your own and will control all communications”
So he forced everyone to Ban Huawei.
Huawei said “Sorry. Tech is ours. We developed it. We have the certified licenses for it”
Trump said “If you use this technology, we will…….”
Huawei said “We will…its ours. You are just whining”
This is the Tech dispute. Its not as if US has special tech. Its that Huawei owns tech for 5G that is a highly refined version of Tech already existing in the DoD (But not certified).
Russia and 59 countries have already signed with Huawei and agreed to pay license fees for the technology to the tune of $126 Billion a year and buy Huawei Equipment.
Europe is fence sitting. Hoping Nokia can manufacture the equipment to handle the technology of huawei at par cost to make everyone happy. Pay Huawei for the Tech license and Ensure European equipment to.please Trump (No idea what the Genial Old Man will say)
US is fuming. They will not pay license fees to an Asian country!!!!!! Its beneath them. So they claim theft and espionage and security threats!!! They are hoping to certify their own technology for BIDM, SDPE, FSDC etc but are not able to do so because the big players are saying “Not worth it. We wont spend billions. Cheaper to pay China for the license fees for the tech and buy Nokia or Ericcson if u really want to be Anti China”
So Trump pressurized Huawei with semi conductor ban etc but Huawei simply said “Jo ukhaadna hai ukhaad le “ (Do what you can).
Trumps gone, the Courts will favor the law which goes for Huawei.
So right now Huawei is at the top. US is behind for the first time
(Possible that China “Took” the Tech from US defense by other means but no proof)
Huaweis problem is if nobody buys their equipment, then their tech could get stolen and modified by the western countries like US.
And where does India stand in all this?
We have agreed to pay license fees to Huawei but are on the wall for the equipment. Jio is playing with Nokia but Airtel is exploring going with Huawei in return for HIGH BAND domination if GOI agree.
Meanwhile Jio is hoping to.make its own equipment to.handle the technology of huawei.
Classic Foods Of The 1970s!
https://youtu.be/Sgduka_LYnM
Do most 65-year-olds sit at home all day just eat, sleep, and watch TV?
Let me put it this way. I can only talk for myself for I don’t know “most “ 65 year olds, I retired at 40, or so I thought.
I had a hobby, ( lapidary) collecting, cutting and polishing stones and gems, but then a mate got me interested in bees as well, and that got me started in beekeeping.
I ended up with 470 hives, which was all I could handle on my own, and they kept me flat out for years, thing is though they could also look after themselves for a while so I could keep my hobby with gems going.
Ispent a lot of time at the Queensland sapphire fields, and ended up with many beautiful sapphires, bought a faceting machine so I could cut my own gems , point Is I was busier after I retired than when I was working for a living.
I never had time to sit at home and watch TV, even after I sold the bees as a business I kept enough as a hobby, that still kept me busy untill I went into hospital ( at 78 ) for a tripple bypass during which I had a massive stroke and my left side ended up paralysed.
Fortunately, through persistent pushing by the physios at the hospital they got me walking ( hobbling ) again, thing is though my left side ie still useless, and yes these days I spend all days on the lounge mucking around with my iPad as I’m doing right now writing this. Lol.
By the way here are some gems I found and cut just to show what can be done, in the hope that other might get interested in the same thing,
Thai Chile Beef
830762 1 eng GB chilli beef
Ingredients
1 round steak (or stew meat)
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup oil
1 tablespoon hot pepper
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup mushrooms
1/2 cup young baby corn
1 onion
1/2 cup water or beef broth
1 tablespoon fish sauce or soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
Instructions
Slice the steak into paper thin slices (if it is frozen partly or very cold this is easier.) Cut into slices 2 x 1-inch thick.
Marinate for 1 hour in the ginger, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic powder and flour.
Stir-fry in the oil for 2 minutes the hot pepper, bell pepper, mushrooms, corn and onion.
Add the water and cover and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the sauces.
Toss lightly and serve over rice.
Makes 2 servings.
Backyard Bomb Shelter Abandoned for Over 50 Years
What invasive plants are currently causing problems in the United States?
Bamboo.
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This is the side yard of my house. My neighbor, to the right in the picture, decided to plant what she thought was “ornamental bamboo” as a barrier to her house and mine, long before I bought the place. Then she died and her son inherited the house. He has let it grow out of control.
This stuff has a growing season in the spring. It’s a rhizome, meaning that the roots grow underground and it shoots up stalks along the root at an amazing pace. I was naive about it – had no idea what what I was getting myself into when I bought this house. I spent two years digging it up for it to destroy this part of my yard and for it to come back three times as fast as I was digging. I finally had it when it started growing under my air conditioning unit and eroded the soil underneath it.
Some states have banned it, but I live in Maryland where there is no legislation to keep it under control. Their thought is if they ban bamboo, they don’t know how they will force homeowners to eradicate it.
It does not die. The only thing that kills it is agent orange. You can chop it down, dig it up, poison it, cover it to block the sunlight, or any other “solution” that YouTube has, and it just keeps coming back.
I spent a lot of money to have this retaining wall built. It goes four feet down into the earth to block the roots from coming onto my property. It’s thick plastic with the block on top – my landscaper told me that if they used metal or block the bamboo would eat right through it.
My neighbor has visible bamboo growing out of his foundation.
Remembering The 1970s!
https://youtu.be/31_Iudf_kPI
More Than 4,000 Photographs From The D-Day Invasion Of Normandy Are Now Available Online
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The Flickr account PhotosNormandie has just posted more than 4300 photos of the Normandy Landings of June 6, 1944, this decisive date of the WWII.
This impressive collection is the result of a collaborative project that began in 2007, bringing together thousands of photos from the Archives Normandie 1939-1945, the Municipal Library of the City of Cherbourg-Octeville and the American archives. It invites users to complete, comment, locate and identify photographs, making it possible to better document the Normandy Landings archives.
If the US invaded China and installs a new government like Afghanistan and Iraq, what will the invasion look like? How will China surrender?
Mark Shainblum. China would “surrender” with a giant mushroom cloud over New York, Washington and LA. I mean nukes, right? A huge Chinese military? In what Dreamland do you think the USA could just walk in and conquer China?
1980s Things Found In Every Home
https://youtu.be/xf8d00tZ9uA
Is China becoming a less desirable place to live for foreigners?
As a foreigner living in China, I can confidently say, “not at all”.
However, there has been one change that has occurred over the past few years.
China HAS become a less desirable place for less qualified foreigners / foreigners who have little to offer to the country (this includes English teachers and westerners who came here to become either models or pretend company representatives “for hire for face value”
On the other hand, it has become a desirable place for foreigners who are of high quality and who have something to offer to the country. The compensation packages here are exceptionally high (at par or higher than what the same person would earn say in USA or UK).
For my own placement in China. obtaining the “Foreigner expert certificate” issued by the local administration was far more stringent than what it was five years ago. I had the experience and qualifications, hence it was less tedious for me. I know of friends who have little experience / qualifications who have not been able to get it, and hence cannot work in China.
Do remember that unlike other nations, foreigners experience far lesser / negligible racism here (my personal experience has been that living in China was a nice respite after having lived in London!), the food is better, housing is better, and your Yuan / dollar goes far longer here than in other countries.
The number of Chinese people who do not speak English has been the same (negligible!) – that has not changed in the recent past. And unlike most western nations where jobs are receding and foreigners are given the impression that they are being done a favor by being given (low paid) work, there are no such misconceptions her in China.
There is far more activity currently occurring here as was in the US and UK pre 2007 at the crest of the developmental sine curve!
Smells Of The 1970s!
https://youtu.be/P3vtbn92pZE
Is Vietnam a good place to travel?
In the summer of 2019, I spent three months in Vietnam and absolutely loved it. My buddy and I got motorbikes in Hanoi, traveled north to the Chinese border, back down through the central mountains and south along the coast. He left after one month, and I kept going for another two.
We were in Thailand and Laos before this (a month in each country) and I felt rushed. When I found out you could get a three-month visa for Vietnam, I was stoked. I applied, got approved, and was set for 90 unrushed days in Vietnam.
The people were kind and welcoming, sometimes too friendly. The food and the Pho was incredible. It was a bit rainy at times, but I enjoy the rain and you could work around it for the most part. The rice wine is great and the cost of living was low. I was spending $300–600/month and still living comfortably enough.
I ended up selling the motorbike in Da Nang and continuing via bus to Da Lat and Saigon, where I capped off my trip with three weeks in the bity southern city.
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I would definitely return and spend more time in Vietnam. The only trouble is that there are other places I want to visit and flights to Southeast Asia are damn expensive!
Surely, this isn’t about to happen in the U.S.A.
Does the Chinese government give money to poor people in China?
Not a Brass Farthing
No Free Lunches in China for anybody
No Benefit Transfers, No Charity handouts, No Free Rations, No PDS, No Free Tickets
Sure China offers more welfare and subsidies than any Nation in Asia but they are all aimed entirely at incentivizing citizens to work and be economically active
Sure China has a Pension and Old Age Insurance Scheme but that’s entirely as a reward for 35–50 years of hard work
Every Yuan spent by China is expected to bring Two Yuan back to the Economy in 5–7 years
For instance say a Factory is set up outside a small group of Villages
main qimg a02487c5f2fe9986c67e0b1e3ab7a524
Then the Provincial Government will give large subsidies to the factory in 20 year tax cuts in exchange for which the factory shall
Train the workers
Put up Workers Health Insurance
Use a fixed percent of revenue to pay the Local Corporation to build Roads, Small Bridges, Renovate Worker Houses, Build and Lease Houses for Workers
Put up Workers 10 year Payment (Gratuity) or Life Pension whichever is chosen
Use a portion of revenue to establish Schools where the Provincial Government will send 2–4 teachers to teach Mandarin, Mathematics, Science and History (Only Four Subjects)
So for a 150,000 Yuan a year tax subsidy and a 100,000 Yuan a year Profits – the Factory will have to spend around 180,000 Yuan for all the above
main qimg 7ffc0ec20e0f56758b829a01f600d7d2
So 30–40 such factories can spend around 7.5 Million Yuan a year and in 10 years THE ENTIRE LANDSCAPE WILL CHANGE
The Villages become self sufficient and then start paying taxes themselves
main qimg 6ecc9a54d0bb1a770baae1763c8eb75e
Literacy will rise from 32% to 96% over say 20–25 years
That’s how Chinas model works
That’s how Chinese live
main qimg 4766308167120cad700b828e909d4a92
They aren’t parasitic guttersnipes.
Even an 80 year old sells noodles or fish balls or dumplings to make money and his pension is merely an addition to his income
The Chinese especially the Communists who loved Mao were very hard workers
The Soft Chinese, Imperialists, the Lord’s, the so called Elite all fled to Taiwan
Thus today’s Chinese and Vietnamese are very hard workers who don’t expect anything but a recognition of their hard work
Proud people who hate handouts and would rather work till they drop dead
It’s why Chinas Model is a Winner
It’s a real life story of Chinese Policies of Great Leaders from Deng to Jiang to Xi Jingping
Thai Lemon Beef
3ec2e154c99dd07ce437a089aeccfc48
Ingredients
1 (1-inch thick) boneless beef top round steak
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water
2 to 3 teaspoons dried crushed red pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Hot cooked ramen noodles or rice
Garnishes: lemon rind strips, fresh basil sprigs
Instructions
Cut steak across grain into 1/8-inch thick strips, and place in a medium bowl.
Combine soy sauce and next 4 ingredients. Reserve half of mixture.
Pour remaining half of mixture over steak. Cover and chill 30 minutes.
Drain steak, discarding marinade.
Stir-fry half of steak in 1/2 tablespoon hot oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok over medium high heat for 1 minute or until outside of beef is no longer pink.
Remove from skillet, and repeat procedure with remaining oil and steak. Remove from skillet.
Add scallions and carrot to skillet, and stir-fry 3 minutes or until crisp-tender.
Whisk cornstarch into reserved soy sauce mixture; stir into vegetables, and stir-fry until thickened.
Add steak, and stir-fry until thoroughly heated.
Serve over noodles or rice. Garnish, if desired.
Yield: 4 servings
ABANDONED | Albanian military relics from the Communist regime | Submarine bunker & Air base
25 Reasons We’re Glad We Grew Up in the ’70s
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
They say that hindsight is 20/20, but hindsight can also be clouded by nostalgia. And that is especially true if you grew up in the 1970s. Sure, it was a decade that will mostly be remembered for Vietnam and Watergate. But, for those of us who grew up in the ’70s, it was the sweetest time to be alive, an innocent era where disco reigned supreme and we all had haircuts that made us look like Chia Pets. From the glorious simplicity of pet rocks to the musical lessons of Schoolhouse Rock, here are 25 reasons the 1970s were the absolute best years to be a kid. And for more on last century’s greatest decade, check out 20 Things Every “Cool Kid” Growing Up in the 1970s Owned.
1
Music came in vinyl, cassette, and 8-track.
They weren’t the most user-friendly audio formats, but we sure did love them. At the time, it felt like we had the best of all possible worlds. Vinyl was for home listening, cassettes were for music on the go, and 8-tracks… Well, we’re still not sure what 8-tracks were for. But there’s just something about being able to hold on to an album sleeve or flip over a cassette to get to your favorite song that made the whole music-listening experience feel more personal and special.
2
School lunches had a flexible definition of “healthy.”
Just look at this lunch menu from a Texas school in 1974. Their idea of healthy, brain-boosting food back then included chili burgers, hamburgers, oven fried chicken, buttered corn, and fruit gelatin. It’s a miracle we all weren’t napping through every class. But good gosh, were our taste buds happy. And for more blasts from the past, don’t miss these 20 Amazing Photos Every ’70s Kid Can Relate To.
3
The world felt more safe and secure because of Fred Rogers.
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood wasn’t just one of our favorite shows because we had so few other options. Singing along with “Won’t You be My Neighbor?” actually made us feel comforted, even if we didn’t realize we needed comforting. Mr. Rogers’ soothing voice and gentle disposition was like a balm for the soul, giving us the confidence to face the world even when we would have rather hidden under our bed covers.
4
We’d head to the video arcade with a pocket full of quarters.
Kids today would likely scoff at how we played video games in the ’70s. We actually had to pay a quarter for each game—and we don’t regret a penny of it. For one thing, it made the experience feel more precious. We didn’t just flip on a console in our home and play Pac-Man endlessly; we had to save our money, and wait for the weekend when our parents would let us walk to the arcade.
5
Learning “The Bump” was the only dance move necessary.
“The Bump” was so simple, yet something about it felt rebellious and naughty. You essentially just bumped hips against your partner over and over and over. Crank up KC & the Sunshine Band’s “Shake Shake Shake,” and us ’70s kids could do “The Bump” all night long. (Literally, it wouldn’t be a problem: The dance really wasn’t that complicated.)
6
We experienced Star Wars for the first time with zero expectations.
If you weren’t there, it’s impossible to explain what it was like to walk into a theater having no idea how Star Wars was going to change your life. We had no preconceived notions about Han Solo or Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader, no older brothers or parents or even grandparents telling us, “This is the greatest film trilogy ever made,” or, “Oh my gosh, we’re about to get to the lightsaber battle. Wait ’til you see this!” It truly felt like ours, which is something no other generation will ever feel again. And for more great films of the past, here are 30 Movie Quotes Every ’70s Kid Knows by Heart.
7
A private phone call depended on the length of your rotary phone cord.
There was no such thing as a mobile phone in the ’70s. If you wanted to have a conversation without your mom or dad or siblings overhearing, you had to get creative. Wherever the home phone was located—for many of us, it was in the kitchen—the challenge was to see how far that cord would stretch and if there was any way of pulling it into another room with a door. If you couldn’t make it that far, you just had to be careful not to say anything you wouldn’t want your entire family to hear.
8
It was possible to open junk mail without worrying about viruses.
The only danger in opening mail from a mysterious sender in the 1970s was the possibility of getting a chain letter. But unless you were especially superstitious, you could usually ignore those. Still, in the ’70s, we would never open a letter and find out later, “Oh no! My house is infected with a virus now!” Ah, the glory days. And for more on letters to look out for, here are 11 “Spam” Letters You Should Never Throw Away.
9
Everyone worshipped that Farrah Fawcett poster.
What Farrah Fawcett poster, you ask? Okay, imagine a meme that’s so popular, everybody in the world decides that it’s the only meme that matters, and everybody wants their own copy of the meme so they can hang it on their bedroom wall, and simply displaying the meme means that you’re somehow in the know with popular culture, that your tastes are more sophisticated than other kids’ and that you understand something about the world that only adults really appreciate. That was the Farrah Fawcett poster.
https://youtu.be/RjvWZV9WTxQ
10
Nothing was more joyously terrifying than Jaws.
Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic had almost no special effects, and we only saw the shark for a few minutes at the very end. But it had a psychological effect that made an entire generation terrified of getting into the water—we mean any body of water (including pools, freshwater lakes, and maybe even the bath). We were certain we would see a shark fin gliding towards us, and we were moments away from being devoured alive.
11
Shag carpeting made the best bed in history.
There’s no experience quite like letting your body sink into some shag carpeting. For a true ’70s kid, nothing makes us smile like memories of doing snow angels on a shag carpet.
12
We were allowed outside without parental supervision.
Whether you were a city kid or a country child, leaving the house without being constantly patrolled by a parent wasn’t a big deal in the ’70s. By today’s standards, it was an unprecedented amount of freedom, and we relished every second of it.
13
And riding your bike didn’t require extra equipment.
It wasn’t just rare to see a kid in a bike helmet during the ’70s, it was unheard of. Even if you considered yourself something of a neighborhood Evel Knievel, wearing a helmet was like admitting to the other kids that you expected to crash. We probably had a few more concussions than necessary, but we didn’t know at the time just how dangerous it was to have our craniums so exposed.
https://youtu.be/RFPpETHiltY
14
Saturday mornings were reserved for cartoons.
If you wanted to catch your favorite cartoons, there was only one time to do it: Saturday morning. We didn’t have the luxuries of kids today, with their digital streaming services that make it possible for them to watch their favorite shows at any time, 24 hours a day. And we’re happy we didn’t.
Saturday morning cartoons taught us to be patient, and to be grateful for every last second of Bugs Bunny. You couldn’t have a short attention span when there were only 30 minutes of Looney Tunes every week. If you weren’t paying attention, you’d miss it all!
15
Tiger Beat was the only news we needed.
Sure, 99.9 percent of what Tiger Beat printed about teen idols was probably written by publicists. But we didn’t care. If anything, we reveled in the myth-making, eager to think that such flawless teenage titans as Shaun and David Cassidy existed in the world. We didn’t want to be told otherwise, and we sure weren’t interested in what was going on in the adult news world.
16
Rocks counted as pets.
And they were stoned all the time. -MM
It’s not just that we adopted rocks and pretended they were actual pets, akin to a dog or cat except incapable of showing real affection. We actually paid somebody to sell us those rocks, despite the fact that rocks are pretty much available for free everywhere you go. Yes, it was ridiculous, but it was a fun and harmless diversion.
17
We learned everything we needed to know from Schoolhouse Rock.
The brilliance of Schoolhouse Rock is that it taught us timeless lessons about grammar, math, politics, and science without any of us realizing that we were learning. The cartoons were funny and the songs were catchy—we can still sing the whole “Conjunction Junction, What’s Your Function” song without missing a beat—and, when it was all over, our heads were filled with facts and useful information that we probably would have ignored if it came from an actual school teacher.
18
We’d stay up late just to watch Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night Live is now an institution (and one that you don’t actually have to stay up late on Saturday to watch anymore). But, in the late ’70s, it was still mostly mysterious, at least to kids who only heard whispered rumors about the show from our older brothers and sisters. Getting to see even five minutes of SNL felt like we had gotten away with something.
19
Long road trips happened in the back of your family’s station wagon.
Yes, we know that people still take road trips. But they’re nothing like the road trips of the ’70s. We had no GPS, and no digital distractions of any kind, for that matter. We lived in a world without smartphones or iPods or tablets or portable DVD players. We had to make up our own car games to keep the malaise from setting in, or stare out at the scenery whizzing past until we reached a road trip trance state. Nobody does meditation like a bored kid on an eight-hour road trip.
20
If somebody wanted to bully you, they had to do it in person.
Kids have always been mean to each other, but at least in the ’70s, if you wanted to be a jerk, you had to make an effort. You couldn’t do it anonymously, on a computer screen, without any consequences. You had to walk up to someone and be cruel right to their face. Their words could still hurt, but at least you were never bullied on a global forum in front of millions of strangers.
21
Mood rings explained (or dictated) our feelings.
You could make an argument that mood rings didn’t actually work as promised, and were about as effective in diagnosing your mood as a horoscope is in predicting your day. But in the 1970s, it felt like mood rings were some sort of black magic that could see into our souls and announce to the world, “Not today, people. Not today.”
22
We had both Sesame StreetandThe Muppet Show.
Imagine living in a world where Sesame Street was still in its prime—Muppets like Grover and Ernie and Bert were doing arguably their best work ever—and, on top of that, The Muppet Show was making new episodes every week. Kermit wasn’t just a nostalgic throwback to yesterday—he was a bona fide celebrity, a Burt Reynolds for the under-15 set. In the ’70s, we tuned in to every episode of both shows with hive-mind-like anticipation.
23
Nobody was cooler than the Fonz.
Seriously, nobody. Can you imagine a character as innocent as the Fonz being idolized in a cynical modern world? He was a middle-aged single man in a leather jacket who constantly gave a thumbs up and said, “Aaaaaaaay.” He would have been laughed off the planet. But in the ’70s, we worshipped him, and we regret none of it. And for some fun lingo from the best decade ever, here are 20 Slang Terms From the 1970s No One Uses Anymore.
24
Bowl cuts were considered fashionable.
In the ’70s, every kid seemingly looked at Adam Rich on the TV show Eight Is Enough and then told their parents, “I want to look like that!” Wealthy or poor, it didn’t matter—we all got haircuts that made it look like our mom had put a salad bowl over our head and cut around the bottom with scissors.
25
The clothes were insane.
We can’t look at those old photos of ourselves in the 1970s without wincing, but we secretly love those crazy clothes. At least we all looked collectively silly in our wide-collar shirts and bellbottoms! And for more snazzy styles from the era, here are 25 Things Cool People Wore in the 1970s.
"The evidence that Covid is a biological weapon created in the US is overwhelming."
Just starting.
It’s only the beginning…
Today, I had the Godliest cheeseburger that I have ever eaten. It was at Burger King (In China, of course). And it was a special double cheeseburger. But instead of using the small 1/6 pound meat patties, it used two 1/3 meat patties. It was tasty, and delicious and good. But man oh man, was it a shit-load of hamburger.
Cheesy and tasty. Totally and completely delicious.
I had no idea that it was so HUGE. And towards the end, oh, Lordy, was it a struggle.
I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.
Double Cheeseburger wide FS and foodporn 55
Why are Asian countries so against American political correctness being applied to their countries while it’s widely promoted in America?
Because they see the ridiculous banana republic of chaos that America has become and they want no part of it. They know geography and their pronouns. They know truth from propaganda. They like going out in public without being afraid of becoming a target for a shooter. Their police aren’t arresting six year olds or gunning down people. Their governments, fallible as they may be, haven’t tried burning down their capital buildings.
Asian countries like peace, stability, infrastructure, safety, wealth, progress, truth and other positive things. They really do not want to be what we’ve become. And I don’t blame them.
Jeffery Sachs | BILLIONAIRES are DESTROYING our WORLD
https://youtu.be/3fOQn8uWdxI
This Artist Draws Pictures to Show That Everything Has a Flip Side
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Not many people look at events and phenomenons from different angles. This is exactly what the artist, Anton Gudim, talks about on his Instagram account.
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What is the China competitiveness bill passed in the US Senate?
Youngsters would call it a Badass piece of Legislation meant to Compete with China
It involves investing a huge sum of money – almost $ 200 Billion into various avenues meant to disrupt Chinas dominance as a Worlds Supply Chain Depot over the next 5 years
It aims to spend $ 50 Billion to start Semi Conductor manufacture in other countries like India or Vietnam to replace the 45 – 100 nm Chips that China is churning out by the milllions.
It also gives unilateral powers to the President to Impose on any Entity or Person without the State Department or Commerce Departments or any Departments collaboration. This means Biden can sanction China directly (The Country, not the Officials)
Believe me – If Implemented well- It could be a big big win for India and could create as many as 20,000 Skilled Jobs initially and if we really were to take advantage of the US Investments – we could replace China in making 45 – 100 nm Chips by say 2026–2027 which would be a surge to our GDP.
It would also mean a lot of Stones and Balls for the Genial Old Man who has faced massive setbacks with his ambitious infrastructure spending plans becoming the equivalent of Trumps Wall.
Yet it is very ambitious because China is always 4–5 steps ahead.
Also China makes the Worlds Best 45 – 100 Nm Chips and to trust India or Vietnam to be able to harness and develop the same tech in even 6 years is super ambitious especially knowing that there is almost very little profit except in Bulk Quantity.
And there is also an added problem – China is a huge market for 60% of the Cars which use these Chips so if China says Sorry well only buy Chinese – then the chances of any big scale manufacturing would be shot to hell.
So at this stage its – Match on – Xi vs Biden
Biden has put things on Paper – We have to see if he has some way to Implement the same thing.
Chicken Rice Soup
2023 04 14 19 07
Yield: 6 servings
Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
1/4 cup or less olive oil
4 to 5 small leeks, washed thoroughly and sliced
1/2 cup rice, uncooked*
6 cups fat free chicken broth (one large can College Inn)
1 (3 pound) whole chicken, cut up with skin removed
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
Chopped parsley for garnish
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
Instructions
In a pressure cooker, heat oil and add leeks and sauté for about 2 minutes.
Add rice and cook, stirring often, for about 1 minute.
Add broth, chicken, lemon juice, celery, parsley, salt and pepper, bay leaf and tarragon. Secure lid. Over high heat, develop steam to high pressure. Reduce heat to maintain pressure and cook for 10 minutes.
Release pressure according to manufacturer’s instructions. Remove lid.
Remove chicken from soup. Remove chicken from bones, cut into 1 inch cubes, add to soup. Remove bay leaf. Discard bones.
Add carrots and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes until carrots are tender.
Refrigerate and skim off any fat that develops.
Serve hot with chopped parsley as a garnish.
Notes
* May substitute 2 cups of noodles, broken into pieces, for the rice.
China-Russia trade up 38.7% in Q1, energy cooperation continues to be a major stabilizer for bilateral ties
By GT staff reporters Published: Apr 13, 2023 08:21 PM
2023 04 14 17 40
A cargo truck moves on the Heihe-Blagoveshchensk highway bridge from Heihe, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, to Russia’s Blagoveshchensk port on December 15, 2022. The cross-border highway bridge, which opened to traffic in June, has become a major boost for trade between China and Russia. Photo: VCG
China’s overall trade with Russia maintained its strong growth momentum in the first quarter with an increase of 38.7 percent from a year earlier, far outpacing the growth of China’s total trade.
With energy cooperation taking up more than 40 percent of bilateral commodity trade and playing a pivotal role, and the promotion of local currency settlement accelerating, it is expected that bilateral trade will cross the $200 billion threshold this year, experts said.
First-quarter bilateral trade totaled $53.85 billion. China’s shipments to Russia rose 47.1 percent year-on-year to $24.07 billion, while shipments from Russia were up 32.6 percent to $29.77 billion, data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed on Thursday.
In March alone, total bilateral trade reached $20.07 billion, up 77 percent on a yearly basis, accelerating from 36.4 percent in the first two months, Chinese customs data showed.
“The strong growth momentum is within market expectations as the top leaders of the two countries have clarified bilateral cooperation direction. Pragmatic economic cooperation has become an unstoppable trend,” Song Kui, president of the Contemporary China-Russia Regional Economy Research Institute, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Song estimated that bilateral trade will cross the $200 billion threshold this year given the robust growth.
Last year, bilateral trade hit a record of $190.27 billion. China’s exports of mechanical and electrical products, automobiles and auto parts to Russia all grew substantially.
China has been Russia’s largest trading partner for 13 consecutive years, and the two countries have continued deepening their energy cooperation and made solid progress in strategic projects.
Russia is now one of China’s leading energy suppliers. The two countries have expanded their ties in the energy sector from pure commodity trading of oil and natural gas to industrial cooperation in oil and gas exploration and refining, said Liu Qian, an executive deputy director of the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies at the China University of Petroleum (Beijing).
China purchased more than 6.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas and 86.25 million tons of crude oil from Russia in 2022, official data showed.
“The huge capacity and trade flexibility of the Chinese market could absorb a large part of Russia’s energy and ensure the steady progress of large-scale energy cooperation projects,” said Liu.
Enterprises of the two sides are maintaining exchanges and active consultations on the new Russian-Chinese natural gas pipeline project transiting through Mongolia, and China will continue to support enterprises in carrying out research and consultations in accordance with commercial principles, an official from China’s National Energy Administration said during a press conference on Wednesday.
The construction of the Amur natural gas processing plant with the participation of Chinese-funded enterprises started in 2015. As of 2022, 87.52 percent of the construction work of the plant was completed, Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom, said in December last year.
The plant will send 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to China every year as designed, and the full capacity of 42 bcm will be reached in 2025.
“There is still great potential for China-Russian energy cooperation,” said Liu.
On the one hand, Russia’s natural gas supply to China will continue to grow. Besides, with the global energy transformation and China’s “dual carbon” goals in place, there is also much room for cooperation in renewable, hydrogen, nuclear energy and in the clean and efficient use of energy, he explained.
As bilateral trade grows, the Chinese yuan is gaining popularity in Russia, and local currency settlement by discarding the US dollar is going from strength to strength.
According to a report from the Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank, the share of the yuan/rouble pair trading on the Russian exchange market reached a new high of 39 percent in March. During the same period, the share of the US dollar/rouble pair fell to 34 percent, the lowest in recent years.
In February, the yuan surpassed the dollar in trading volume on the Russian exchange.
Ozon Holding, one of Russia’s largest online retailers, is doubling down on the Chinese currency to fend off increasing external uncertainties.
Simon Huang, managing director of Ozon China, told the Global Times that “this year, we are actively promoting settlements in yuan for Chinese cross-border sellers on our platform. From commodity pricing to payment, the process is centered on the yuan to reduce the risk of foreign exchange fluctuations.”
Found Unused Nuclear Bunker Filled with Equipment
Beautiful and Frightening: Mako Vice’s Bizarre Drawn Girls
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Mako Vice is an artist, mangaka, and member of the creative association Gainen15. On her social networks Mako posts pictures with graceful but very specific ladies suffering from various mystical afflictions. One has worm-like fingers growing through her skin, the other one rips her face off and stuff like that. It’s grim, but classy.
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650×813 1219428917 513317489919699 402125469376620728 n 650×813 1210750836 1000624830475351 4908887100186421553 n 650×650 1206456327 162651922585978 6041898055375738313 n 650×502 1205421889 499376494666800 7375954412570460325 n 650×813 1200649822 545811216419587 2856280159388475095 n 650×813 1198854677 468357597591299 1228467763916246039 n 650×650 1195997416 565378981290503 7970516431658708793 n 650×813 1194619886 229952668576960 8256882419349819655 n 650×813 1193276109 350702346438906 894412427038672028 n 650×813 1192141484 158377382921230 3806412553631333251 n 650×650 1187660676 4045487545543655 4177611048814916133 n 650×803 1185802625 378602156800715 3210970958957936318 n 650×813 1183693838 905131593379328 1371497026827721586 n 650×615 1178992872 272149367938628 766470924895634969 n 650×813 1169643176 492662752114348 4570129566422736219 n 650×650 1164476364 269732281267367 7875642173373388116 n 650×813 1164002058 197577492141249 7007672604251230632 n 650×813 1158914325 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Why should everyone visit China at least once?
I’ve been living in China for almost 9 years now. The one thing that keeps amaze me is how little people know about China, as it is today. Almost every traveler I guided in China was amazed about how their perceptions of the country and its people were wrong, or very biased and partial. Many are truly amazed how little they actually know about China, it’s history and culture.
It is understood, of course, that any of us learns mostly about their relative history and culture; knows more about ‘their side of the world” than of other’s; and so, by traveling to China (and other Asian countries, for that matter) you are being exposed to new things, probably more than if you travel to a destination that is more “culturally-close” to yours.
So, for me, the main reason everyone should travel to China at least once, is to open up their eyes and minds to different perspectives and cultures in the world. I hope this will make all travelers start asking more questions about what they think and read of other places too.
What was the purpose of the CIA director’s visit to Saudi Arabia?
The United States always follow a SIX POINT STRATEGY to keep their Hegemony intact
First they send an official and deliver “Cooked up Intelligence reports”. For instance like saying Iran is planning to invade you or China plans to invade Arunachal Pradesh etc – playing to your fears
Today most nations openly refuse to believe any of these reports unilaterally
Once this fails,
Second they send a higher official like a Senate Delegation or a Secretary of State to openly warn you that a certain nation is committing atrocities and damaging the Global security.
They demand you make sacrifices like not buying Oil or Gas from that nation for “Democracy” And “Freedom”
Today once more, most Nations don’t get impressed by these words. They flatly refuse to change their way of life
Once this fails,
Third they use their MSM to begin saturation coverage of lies against your country related to human rights and fund NGOs in your country to start targeting the Government and use that propaganda to undermine you Globally
Uyghurs for China, Kashmir & Muslims for India, Kashoggi for Saudi Arabia, Nuclear Weapons for Iran, Atrocities for Putin, Corruption for Thailand Leaders etc
Luckily today MSM isn’t that credible as they were say 10-15 years ago
Once this fails
Fourth, they get their NGOs to organize protests and color revolutions in your country starting with small issues through massive underground funding
Simultaneously they mobilize opposition leaders and bankroll them targeting a regime change
This works with many many nations
Once this fails
Fifth, they SANCTION and COERCE your country by denying you your own dollars or western technology and bully the collective western lackeys to do the same thing
Finally
Sixth, they may directly fund a proxy civil war or support military aggression against your country
THIS Approach is followed for all countries that aren’t US Lackeys
India is at Stage III
China is heading to Stage V
Russia is at Stage V
Thailand is at Stage IV
So Saudi Arabia, a US Lackey until recently, is heading to Stage II
The CIA Director visit was Stage I and it failed
Now next, a Senator Delegation or VP or Blinken will warn Saudi of how Iran is destroying the world with Terrorism and how they stand opposed to a free world
Luckily this Six Point Strategy is becoming lesser and lesser effective.
Let’s hope Saudi can get through this.
My Comment on Quora
Q: What would happen if the United States tries to blockade China?
A: The United States would suffer.
…
You see, we already have seen what a blockade would do. Do you remember this?
on Tuesday, March 23, 2021, halting marine traffic for almost a week.
For one entire week, all maritime traffic came to a complete stop. And American shelves were bare for months. Months!
shelves e1584569855959 750×422 1
And, the lessons that came from it absolutely sent shivers in the supply-chain management circles.
All Western-bound freight came to a complete stop.
European and African freight was rerouted via BRI land bridge.
United States freight was delayed by up to 6 months with bare shelves being the norm.
And who was blamed for this?
China?
Nope. Not China. Though the American news media tried their best to blame China.
The shipping company? Nope.
President Biden… You betya. He got the blame.
I wonder why?
2021 bare shelves biden funny meme joe biden shirt tshirt
Meanwhile, this is what happened inside of China…
Production continued normally.
The BRI was given a great influx of train-bound orders.
Rerouting through the BRI is now the norm, and signals a massive decrease in the use of sea freight.
China’s warehouses grew plump as batch shipments were reordered.
Now, somehow, the brain-dead idiots that call themselves “neocons” have this grand fantasy. They believe that…
“Ok, ok, we cannot bomb the shit out of China. But we can blockade shipping. And then China would completely collapse! What brilliance we possess!!”
I am here to tell you that we know what will happen. If you blockade China it won’t make any difference. China trades using the BRI and things can be rerouted easily.
China will NOT starve. As it attained self-sufficiency around 2012–2013.
China’s factories will not close down. Their orders, owing to the previous events, will increase.
But…
The United States will end up without the things that it needs. There will be an absence of all sorts of raw materials and manufacturing products.
The few products that will be made locally in the United States will be very, very expensive.
And that is why a United States blockade on China will fail.
CIA director concedes US power is waning
Bill Burns says Washington’s position as the “big kid on the geopolitical block” isn’t guaranteed
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The dominant global role of the US can no longer be guaranteed as the country is witnessing a time of change “that comes along a couple of times a century,” CIA Director Bill Burns has claimed.
Speaking at the Baker Institute earlier this week, Burns said that although Washington “still has a better hand to play than any of our rivals,” it is “no longer the only big kid on the geopolitical block and our position at the head of the table isn’t guaranteed.”
The CIA chief pointed to growing ties between China and Russia, which he argued will present a “formidable challenge” for his agency for years to come. According to Burns, Beijing is “not content to only have a seat at the table; it wants to run the table,” while Russia is seeking to “upend the table altogether.”
Burns, who served as the US ambassador to Moscow under George W. Bush, condemned Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, calling it an act of “brutish aggression.”
He claimed the CIA has provided “good intelligence” that has “helped the Ukrainians defend themselves” and cemented “a strong coalition in support of Ukraine.”
Burns added that Kiev’s long-anticipated spring offensive would feature “strong material and intelligence support from the US and our allies.”
The spy chief claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not serious about negotiations” on a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and suggested that only Ukrainian progress on the battlefield was “likely to shape prospects for diplomacy.”
Russia has repeatedly stated that it is open to peace talks and has blamed Kiev and its Western allies for blocking negotiations. Ukraine has placed a legal ban on any talks with Russia as it seeks to defeat its opponent on the battlefield.
Regarding China, Burns insisted that Beijing remains the CIA’s “biggest long-term priority.” He noted that in the last few years, the intelligence agency has doubled the resources it focuses on China, including hiring and training Mandarin speakers and stepping up efforts to compete with Beijing on the world stage.
“Managing a crucial and increasingly adversarial relationship with China will be the most significant test for American policy makers for decades to come,” the US official said, arguing that the risk of a conflict over Taiwan will continue to grow.
The Duran is the best channel for Geopolitics. There is no channel even close.
This neoliberal/neocon project can’t fall away fast enough. It’s been a disaster for the people of the US and the world. It reduces all but a handful of elites to enormous struggle and endless war/death. It’s been a great evil and if a new economic system is what ends it, fine. Excellent work, as always, Alex and Alexander!
Chicken with Dumplings
2023 04 14 19 09
Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
1 fryer chicken
2-3 cups water
2 carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2 to 2 cups Bisquick
Parsley flakes
Instructions
Cut up a fryer and brown it in a frying pan. Put the chicken in the pressure cooker with water, carrots and celery.
Deglaze the frying pan with some of the water and put that liquid into the pressure cooker. Add about a tablespoon of chicken bouillon, cover and cook it for 20 minutes at 15 psi.
After cooling and removing the lid, the chicken is now falling off the bones. Remove chicken, and season the liquid with salt and pepper.
Make the dumplings. Mix Bisquick and enough water to make a sticky dough. Form into 2-inch balls. Put some parsley flakes on the outside of each dumpling and place 8 dumplings into the pressure cooker with the chicken and liquid. Put on the lid and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes.
Prehistoric Hunters Roasted and Ate Giant Snails 170,000 Years Ago
giant snails
In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have unearthed the remains of enormous snail shells at a 225,000-year-old archaeological site in southern Africa. What makes this find truly remarkable is that it appears these giant snails were not just natural inhabitants of the area, but also a significant source of sustenance for the humans who lived there.
Why and when terrestrial mollusks entered our ancestor’s diet were unanswered questions until the recent discovery of the giant land snail, known as Achatinidae, at a rock-shelter in southern Africa. A new study has demonstrated how small groups of hunter-gatherers captured, roasted and ate giant snails as early as 170,000 years ago.
Giant Snails as Big as Your Hand
When people hunted, fished and gathered to obtain food, clothing and other resources necessary for their survival, hunting techniques varied greatly across the world. In Africa, it is known that groups of ancient survivalists fashioned spears and clubs to kill large game animals such as antelopes and elephants.
2023 04 15 15 58
Until now, the oldest evidence of Homo sapiens capturing and eating giant land snails dated to roughly 35,000 years ago in Europe, and around 50,000 years ago in Africa. However, a new study published in the Quaternary Science Reviews shows how people at a southern African rock-shelter called Border Cave roasted a species of giant snail that was, according to the researchers, “as big as an adult’s hand.”
Archaeologists
Archaeologists in the 1970s excavating at the mouth of Border Cave in South Africa. ( Public domain )
Giant Snails Roasting on an Open Fire
The oldest archaeological layers at Border Cave date to at least 227,000 years ago. Evidence shows how ancient people living in this cave cooked starchy plant stems, ate an array of fruits and hunted small and large animals. A 2020 study published in Science even found that the ancient people living in Border’s cave made grass bedding around 200,000 years ago.
The new study was led by Marine Wojcieszak of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels. An analysis of shell fragments excavated at Border Cave demonstrates how hunter-gatherers at the site roasted large African land snails on embers, “and then presumably ate them,” according to Wojcieszak. Described as “a delicacy,” eating these snails spiked in popularity between about 160,000 and 70,000 years ago.
According to the team of scientists, these new discoveries at Border Cave “challenge an influential idea that human groups did not make land snails and other small game a big part of their diet until the last Ice Age waned around 15,000 to 10,000 years ago.”
2023 04 15 15 59
Giant Snails Allude to Early Cooperation
The team of researchers working on the study suggested that when hunter-gatherer groups in southern Africa roamed the countryside hunting large animals, some of them, perhaps with limited mobility due to age or injury, might have stayed behind “snail-gathering.” Wojcieszak added that food sharing at Border Cave demonstrates how “ cooperative social behavior was in place from the dawn of our species.” Furthermore, because snail meat is relatively easy to eat, the fatty protein of snails would have been an important source of nutrition for the elderly and smaller children.
Science News reported that previous archaeological excavations at a cave on the southern tip of South Africa revealed that humans ate mussels, limpets and other marine mollusks as early as around 164,000 years ago. However, according to archaeologist Antonieta Jerardino of the University of South Africa in Pretoria, the new evidence of giant snail consumption at Africa’s Border Cave pushes back the human consumption of mollusks by several thousand years to 170,000 years ago.
2023 04 15 16 00
Testing Ancient Snail Cooking Methodology
The research team studied 27 snail shell fragments from various sedimentary layers at Border Cave , which were compared with shell fragments of modern large African snails. The snails were heated in a metal furnace at temperatures ranging from 200° to 550° Celsius, with heating times lasting from five minutes to 36 hours.
Most of the shell fragments discovered at the site displayed signs of extended heat exposure, which the researchers say is consistent with “having once been attached to snails that were cooked on hot embers.” It was concluded that the lower parts of large land snail shells rested against the hot embers during cooking, which accounts for the burned and unburned shell fragments discovered by the scientists.
Measuring Up the Pros and Cons of Giant Snail Consumption
A study published in the Journal of Food Science and Technology analyzed the approximate composition, minerals and vitamins of the edible part of the giant African land snail ( Archachatina marginata ). The results showed that the snail meat contains high levels of protein, iron and magnesium.
They also concluded that these giant snails contain vitamins such as vitamin A, which is essential for vision, immune system function and skin health. Furthermore, the creatures are packed with vitamin B12, which is important for the production of red blood cells and the proper functioning of the nervous system.
On the down side, large land snails carry parasites and bacteria that can cause illness in humans if not properly prepared and cooked. Nevertheless, it looks like the ancient hunters who ate these snails some 170,000 years ago knew about these drawbacks, and they therefore roasted them to kill off these toxic properties. Teresa Steele, an archaeologist at the University of California, concluded that “it’s not surprising that ancient H. sapiens recognized the nutritional value of land snails and occasionally cooked and ate them by 170,000 years ago.”
Top image: Giant snail as big as a human hand. Source: majivecka / Adobe Stock
China’s national security authority reveals ‘new methods’ of criminal activities by overseas anti-China hostile forces
By GT staff reporters Published: Apr 14, 2023 12:43 PM
Setting up illegal maritime surveillance to steal China’s military information, luring Chinese scientists in the aerospace field with payment, concocting “forced labor” lies about Xinjiang … The Global Times learned from the Chinese national security authority about a series of typical national security risks on the eve of the 8th National Security Education Day, which will fall on April 15. The authority has also warned Chinese companies and individuals to raise awareness of national security.
Compared to the cases disclosed around the National Security Education Day in previous years, the scope of the cases disclosed this year is wider and the methods used by overseas anti-China forces to lure and instigate those involved are more hidden and targeted. Li Wei, an expert on national security at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that the criminal goals of foreign espionage agencies and anti-China hostile forces are highly consistent and complementary with the political goals of relevant countries toward China.
NGO concocts ‘forced labor’ lies
A man surnamed Li worked for a consulting company in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, where he provided supply chain risk audit services for overseas companies. A few years ago, Li’s company worked with an overseas NGO and gradually Li found that the attitude of this organization changed.
Their audit standards for Chinese companies became more detailed, especially concerning the new requirements for the content related to the so-called “Xinjiang labor.” Li noticed that the overseas NGO was actively collecting information about the so-called human rights issues in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in order to concoct “forced labor” lies and provide “endorsement” for Western anti-China forces to manipulate Xinjiang-related issues and enforce related sanctions.
However, in order to pursue economic interests, Li’s company still undertook and implemented relevant investigation projects, bringing risks and hidden dangers to China’s national security and interests.
The national security agency of Guangdong punished Li in accordance with the country’s anti-espionage law, implementation rules of the law and regulations on anti-espionage precautions, and ordered his company to implement rectification.
In recent years, some overseas NGOs with complicated backgrounds have grown stronger and gradually seized international access standards for some industries, the Global Times has learned from relevant authorities. They took advantages of their special status in those industries and exerted influence on relevant Chinese companies, causing harm to the country’s political and economic security, especially to crucial areas such as industrial and supply chains.
Meanwhile, those NGO staff approach Chinese nationals with “friendly attitude” and carry out acts endangering national security with disguises, posing a serious threat in both traditional and non-traditional security areas, experts said.
The criminal targets of foreign spy intelligence agencies and anti-China hostile forces are highly consistent with the political objectives of relevant countries toward China, said Li Wei, the expert. With the rise of China’s comprehensive strength, Western countries such as the US attempt to fully encircle, suppress and smear China, fabricating groundless stories on issues related to Xinjiang, Xizang, Hong Kong, Taiwan and others. As a result, not only have the criminal targets become more clear, but the scope of criminal activities has also expanded further, Li said.
The actions of foreign spy intelligence agencies and anti-China hostile forces that threaten the national security of our country are no longer confined to traditional security areas, he added. Those moves in non-traditional security areas also brings risks and hidden dangers to the stable development of our economic and social security.
Some organizations and individuals, under the guise of foreign NGOs, consulting companies, high-tech companies, and others, attempt to “make a fuss” in the areas of human rights, industrial and supply chains, undermining our national security, Li Wei said.
Illegal monitoring Chinese military activities
In August 2019, a sea cucumber farmer surnamed Zhang in Dalian of Liaoning Province reported to the national security authority that there were some uninvited guests showing up at his farm. A person surnamed Huang led several foreign personals to install marine hydrological monitoring equipment as well as sea and air monitoring and recording equipment in the name of “free installation of seawater quality monitoring equipment.”
Since then, Zhang gradually noticed data was being continuously transmitted overseas, and a lot of that data had nothing to do with sea cucumber farming.
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Foreign staff illegally install monitoring equipment in a sea cucumber farm
Zhang dialed 12339 to report the situation to the national security authority. After verification, the equipment was found that it was illegally monitoring China’s air military operation zone, sensitive and important data such as tides and currents in the non-open sea areas, which posed a serious threat to China’s maritime rights and military security.
The local national security authority took compulsory measures against Huang and the foreigners according to the law and confiscated the monitoring equipment. Huang and the foreigners confessed to their illegal and criminal activities of stealing China’s marine hydrological data and naval and air military images.
As traditional and non-traditional security threats are at present intertwined, it puts forward higher requirements for national security work, Li noted. People need to enhance their national security awareness and be vigilant at all times as some illegal and criminal acts that endanger national security become more hidden, and companies and individuals would be taken advantage of if they do not pay attention, the expert said.
Instigate rebellion
As China has become more connected with the world, it has become more convenient for Chinese nationals to study, work and travel abroad. Some overseas spy agencies target those people who relax their vigilance after going abroad and set up traps to bring hidden risks to China’s national security, as another typical case showed.
Zhao Xuejun is a scientific researcher in the field of aerospace. When he was a visiting scholar at a foreign university, he was gradually recruited by overseas spy staff to sell the progress of scientific research, which seriously endangered China’s national security.
At first, the spy staff member invited Zhao to have dinner and to travel together and sent him gifts to build a closer relationship. As their relationship drew closer, the spy staff member asked Zhao some sensitive questions and paid him hefty “consulting fees.”
Before Zhao was about to return to China, the spy staff member revealed the true identity and recruited the Chinese researcher. Subsequently, the spy agency equipped Zhao with a special USB flash drive and a website for issuing mission instructions and enabling him to send back intelligence.
After Zhao returned to China, he met relevant spy staff from this country in multiple places in China, providing them with a large amount of classified information through in-person conversation or through relevant website. He also received spy funds in the form of cash. His activities attracted the attention of the national security authority.
In June 2019, the Beijing Municipal State Security Agency took compulsory measures against Zhao in accordance with the law. In August 2022, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for espionage, and was deprived of political rights for three years. The court also ordered to confiscate 200,000 yuan ($29,091) of his personal property.
Zhao became a target of a foreign spy agency because of his identity as an expert in the aerospace field. However, in recent years, the national security authority noticed that some overseas organizations have taken advantage of certain Chinese nationals’ longing for foreign life to lure them to go abroad and force them to engage in activities that seriously damage the image of the country, endangering national security and personal safety.
Zheng Fuxing and Wang Peiyue were key employees of a so-called “overseas immigration service company” in China. Under the guise of “immigration through normal ways,” the company recruited customers and claimed that only 100,000 yuan was needed as a “certification fee” for immigration procedures.
The group sent “clients” abroad by applying for tourist visas and other methods. But it was not until those “clients” successfully arrived abroad that this group revealed its true intention. Through coercion and inducement, they asked the “clients” to fabricate various “documents” such as household registration, arrest certificates, or forced abortion certificates and to publicly declare that they were “persecuted in the country,” and used fabricated criminal evidence to slander and smear China.
Afterward, the group continued to ask for money from those “clients” under various names such as “political asylum agency fees.” Many of those “clients” were eventually abandoned by the group because they could not afford those fees and struggled to return to China with the help of their families.
In October 2021, the national security authority of North China’s Hebei Province took compulsory measures against Zheng and Wang in accordance with the law. In May 2022, the court sentenced them to three years and nine months, and three years and six months in prison, respectively.
Whether it is gradually falling into the trap because of small profits, or using the “immigrant dream” to lure and take advantage of individuals, these acts of harming national interests and endangering national security for personal interests eventually cost them a heavy price, said Li, the expert.
The overseas countries and regions are not lawless places, and safeguarding the national security is the duty and responsibility of every Chinese national wherever they are, he said.
Using ‘internet identity’ for criminal activities
Among the typical cases, the use of social networks to disguise identity and collect intelligence and information has also caught up in the attention. The national security revealed that Han Xiao, a civil servant in Xinjiang, met a netizen through a mobile dating app and became a tool for overseas spy agency.
In December 2016, Han met the netizen through a dating app during a travel and after returned home, Han often shared his life with this netizen on internet, complaining that he had a very low salary. The netizen introduced his “cousin” Chen Yi to Han, claiming Chen could provide some extra job for Han to earn money. Chen then asked Han to provide some sensitive local information and promised to pay Han some money.
After Han agreed, Chen further instructed Han to collect classified documents from local Party and government institutions. The spy agency highly valued those documents and trained Han as a spy, teaching him the specific methods of communication and information transmission, and sent special agents to provide Han with funds, mobile phones, SIM cards and other communication tools.
Despite that Han knew those people were overseas spy staff, Han continued to collect and provide classified documents for high rewards. The local people’s court later found out that Han provided 19 documents and materials to the overseas spy agency. In return, he was given more than 120,000 yuan.
In March, 2019, Han was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison for espionage, deprived of political rights for four years, and the government confiscated 50,000 yuan of his personal asset.
Internet not an ‘enclave’
With the wide use of the internet, there have been more internet celebrities, however, some gained attention by fabricating and spreading lies, smearing the country and government, which also broke through the legal bottom line, according to another typical case.
Since June 2020, a person surnamed Zhang, who impersonated eight Myanmar nationals, opened several accounts on overseas social media platform to introduce foreign daily life and customs, posting over 20,000 posts and attracting tens of thousands of fans, according to the national security authority in East China’s Jiangsu Province.
In order to maintain such fake identity online, Zhang maliciously fabricated a large number of sensational false information and rumors, causing panic among netizens and created a negative impact. After attracting a large amount of fans, Zhang frequently used rumors and slandered the image of China, attacking the Party and the government and even instigated others to engage in coup d’etat. In February 2022, the national security authority took compulsory measures against Zhang.
“No matter how much they try to disguise themselves, they can’t cover up the nature of illegal and criminal acts that endanger national security,” Li said, noting that the internet is not an “enclave” for escaping legal responsibility.
Anyone that uses the internet to steal state secrets, create and spread rumors, or endanger national security will be severely punished by law. A clean cyberspace needs to be governed by law, and more importantly, requires the joint efforts of each of us, the expert said.
WARNING: We Will See “50 YEARS OF CHANGE in The Next 6 MONTHS”
Now that Jack Ma has reappeared, is there any explanation for his long absence?
Jack Ma committed a mistake – He began acting like a US Billionaire or an Indian Billionaire or a UK Billionaire.
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His IPO was demolished because bankers who are valued heavily in China – simply felt his valuation was inflated and believed that for such numbers as he showed – he had to plan on being a monopoly in various businesses.
In China, unlike India, the bankers don’t issue loans but instead have the billionaire borrow directly from the Public and underwrite the sebt (Meaning, debt which has been unsold will be purchased by the banks). This way, China can seize upto 51% of Ma’s assets in 10 minutes instead of 10 years after 1000 Court cases.
Ma was literally given a highly conservative valuation for his IPO and was given terms and conditions he did not like. The bankers said “You want your Valuation to be adhered to? Fine. Put up collateral for the same”. It’s unusual in most countries for new IPOs to put up collateral. But in China, this is the law.
Jack Ma did not like this.
So, he began his criticism of China’s Banking Regulations. He called them pawn-brokers rather than bankers for their demand of collateral or for their conservatism and for their aversion to loans the way the Capitalists did.
Had it been Hu Jiantao, he would have ignored Ma. They had a strong strong system so Ma’s ranting would not help in any way. China did not have a Republic TV or Arnab Goswami to raise the tempers. However Xi Jingping was a different leader and felt the affront personally.
So he ordered to look into Jack Ma
Suddenly, you had a thousand requests for various routine things for Ma’s companies. Revaluing things. Examining currency related things. Even deciding to introduce a Shenzi law to acquire 51% of non compliant Chinese entities (Basically drafted and created just for Ma).
Now upto this point is actual fact. Information for this comes from the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Economist and a variety of reputable non Globaltimes articles.
However, beyond this is Speculation and Theory
My personal Belief – is that Jack Ma got rattled. He did not expect such a backlash. Somehow Ma had started to believe he was living in New York and not Shanghai. Suddenly when so much scrutiny was being done, Ma knew he could lose his company (Every single company has regulatory issues. This is taken for granted)
So he must have appealed to the bosses and they must have told him Lie Low and shut the hell up.
His disappearance and his sombre reappearance to talk to teachers indicates that he has been broken. The rest of the Billionaires will see what happened to Ma and will understand that the System will remain in force and cannot be criticized.
The message is – Nobody is above the System (Except Xi Jinping maybe). Even Billionaires must follow the System and prosper within it.
Crock Pot Brown Sugar Pineapple Ham
Crock Pot Brown Sugar Pineapple Ham
This slow cooker method not only saves your oven space, but it also results in the most fall-apart tender and flavorful ham EVER.
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Once you try it this way, you will never want it any other way!
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Teaching Story
An old man meets a young man who asks:
“Do you remember me?”
And the old man says no. Then the young man tells him he was his student, And the teacher asks:
“What do you do, what do you do in life?”
The young man answers:
“Well, I became a teacher.”
“ah, how good, like me?” Asks the old man.
“Well, yes. In fact, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.”
The old man, curious, asks the young man at what time he decided to become a teacher. And the young man tells him the following story:
“One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new watch, and I decided I wanted it.
I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.
Shortly after, my friend noticed the his watch was missing and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you.
Then you addressed the class saying, ‘This student’s watch was stolen during classes today. Whoever stole it, please return it.’
I didn’t give it back because I didn’t want to.
You closed the door and told us all to stand up and form a circle.
You were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found.
However, you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.
We did as instructed.
You went from pocket to pocket, and when you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it. You kept searching everyone’s pockets, and when you were done you said ‘open your eyes. We have the watch.’
You didn’t tell on me and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch either. That day you saved my dignity forever. It was the most shameful day of my life.
But this is also the day I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor did you even scold me or take me aside to give me a moral lesson.
I received your message clearly.
Thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do.
Do you remember this episode, professor?
The old professor answered, ‘Yes, I remember the situation with the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone’s pocket. I didn’t remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.’
This is the essence of teaching:
If to correct you must humiliate; you don’t know how to teach “
Today, we are going to enjoy contemporaneous Vietnamese pop music. Very, very popular in China and throughout SE Asia.
Man, oh man! Talk about color, and style.
Certainly SE Asia is not some third world banana republic any longer. Wow!
This is the same throughout the (rest of) the world. While the Untied States has been enjoying the fruits of looting, and unlimited spending, and fees, and excessive fees and taxes, the rest of the world has been quietly strengthening itself.
To understand what the new world is, you need to observe what is going on in the rest of the world. That means Asia and Africa.
If you are NOT AWARE how the rest of the world (outside of the West) has changed, you will never NEVER fully grasp how precarious the West is right now.
Do you hear me?
The world has REALLY changed.
Really.
It looks nothing like that old stale 1940’s , black and white, card-board cut-out imagery that the American / Western “news” portrays.
And that is a theme that all of us expats are trying to warn those whom remain inside the burning United States. It’s OVER. It has been over, and you all have no clue as to how far the United States has fallen.
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To hitch your nation to the dying zombie nation of the United States is absolute insanity. The world has moved on…
I strongly suggest you all watch every one of the Vietnamese videos here.
French Warship Transits Taiwan Strait With China’s Approval
Reporter/Provider – Alex Chen/Bryn Thomas/Charlie Storrar
Publish Date – 04/12/2023
This is after France agree not to be militarily hostile to China:
Ma Ying-jeou’s mainland visit shows cross-Strait China-Taiwan kinship
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A spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office noted that the visit of Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, to the Chinese mainland, showed that compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese and of one family.
Ma’s visit drew wide attention from both sides of the Strait and received positive comments from the public, spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said Wednesday (April 12) at a press conference.
It has positive significance for promoting the exchanges between compatriots on both sides of the Strait and the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, Zhu said.
The visit also showed the common hope of compatriots on both sides for cross-Strait peace, development, communication and cooperation, and manifested that the 1992 Consensus is the fundamental anchor for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, the spokesperson said.
Zhu expressed the hope that the compatriots on the two sides of the Strait join hands on the common political foundation of upholding the 1992 Consensus and securing the long-term welfare of the Chinese nation.
Làm gì phải Hốt – JustaTee x Hoàng Thùy Linh x Đen | Official Music Video
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron Tuesday outlined his vision for European economic and industrial sovereignty during a visit to the Netherlands, following criticism over recent remarks about China and the United States.
Speaking at a Dutch research organization in The Hague, Macron said it was essential the European Union carve out an independent stance on five key areas, including trade, competitiveness and European industry. Embedded across all, he said, should be European values and goals in areas such as climate change. (What is European values? Colonialism? Imperialism? Bullying? Looting? Double standard? Fake news? Colour revolution funding? So Typical ash hole supremacist language)
“We want to be open,” said the president. “We want allies, we want good friends, we want partners. But we always want to be in a situation to choose them. Not to be 100 percent dependent on them.” (besides the crusader DNA countries keep doing that, who else?)
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, looks at demonstrators unfolding a banner that says “President of Violence and Hypocrisy” while he explains his vision of Europe during a lecture in The Hague, Netherlands, April 11, 2023.
Macron said Tuesday the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine helped drive the need for an independent European strategy — not reliant, for example, on either Chinese or U.S. technology. (It is US that forced Europe choice, not Chinese. A balancing language to avoid upsetting the US too much?)
“Defending sovereignty doesn’t mean to shy away from allies,” he said. “It means we must be able to choose our partners and shape our own destiny, rather than being, I would say, a mere witness of the dramatic evolution of this world.”
Macron made his remarks during a state visit to the Netherlands — the first by a French president in more than two decades. The comments follow a controversial interview with French and U.S. media, when he reportedly warned against Europe becoming entangled in unrelated crises — apparently referring to Taiwan — and becoming too dependent on the United States for defense… read more…
Coq au Vin
(Cock with Red Wine and Mushrooms)
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Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) chicken, cut up (or parts of choice)
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 slices bacon
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 cup red wine
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons parsley, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dry basil
1 small bay leaf
1 (16 ounce) can white onions, drained
1/4 cup brandy
Instructions
Coat chicken, onion and carrot in mixture of flour, salt and pepper; set aside.
Fry bacon in a 4 or 6 quart pressure cooker until crisp; remove, crumble and set aside.
Sauté mushrooms in bacon drippings; remove and set aside.
Brown chicken a few pieces at a time; set aside.
Brown onions and carrots, then return all chicken to the pot.
Combine wine, garlic, parsley, basil and bay leaf; pour over chicken. Close pressure cooker securely. Place regulator on vent; cook for 8 minutes at 15 pounds pressure, with the regulator rocking slowly. Cool pressure cooker at once.
Remove chicken and veggies to a warm serving dish.
Add reserved mushrooms and the canned white onions to the liquid and simmer until heated through. Thicken if necessary (cornstarch slurry works fine). Add bacon and brandy; heat. Pour sauce over chicken and vegetables.
Hoàng Thùy Linh – Bánh Trôi Nước (Woman)
A personal favorite.
Classic Pin-Up Girls Before And After Editing: The Real Women Behind Those Gil Elvgren’s Incredible Paintings
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Ever wonder about the process that went on behind the scenes of those classic pin-up images that adorned the noses of bombers and the walls of soldiers barracks in the 1940s and ’50s? Anyone who’s familiar with pin up paintings will know the caricature-esque works of Gil Elvgren. His fantastical cheesecake pictures feature curvy 1950s women revealing their stockings – and sometimes a bit more – in a series of eyebrow-raising situations.
It seems in the age before digital photo editing, it was paint which made women seem to posess an impossible beauty, as these erotic illustrations reveal. These great before and after images of 1950s pin-up girls will give you a sneak peak of the photograph that came before the artists rendering.
It is said that after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks left a huge wooden horse outside the gates of the city and seemed to have sailed away. The occupants of Troy brought the horse into the city, only to find that night that it was full of Greek soldiers who opened the city gates so that the Greeks could take the city. Just as the occupants of Troy brought a poisoned gift into their city, the EU welcomed in Poland (2003), Romania (2007) and the Baltic states (2004). What they did not understand is that they were welcoming in states with elites (especially their diasporas) that have a searing visceral hatred of anything Russian and are happy US vassals. Any thought of a new Ostpolitik of the 1970s or the European friendship that Gorbachev wished for was off the table. In addition, the concurrent accession of these states into NATO broke the repeated promises of the West not to move NATO closer to Russia, negating the possibility of a zone of neutral peace.
The history of Poland (the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569-1795) and Russia is one of repeated wars. At its peak in the seventeenth century, the Commonwealth included most of what is now the Baltic States and Belarus and western Ukraine. In 1795 it was put to rest as what was left of it was dismembered between Austria, Prussia and Russia. Poland came back into being as part of the WW1 settlement, which also created the states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (as well as Finland). Poland invaded Russian territories during the Russian Civil War (Polish-Soviet War 1918-1921) in an attempt to rebuild the Commonwealth. This included the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918-1919 against Ukrainian nationalists, with the latter forced into alliance with Poland. After being pushed back to Warsaw and nearly defeated, the Poles won the Battle of Warsaw (1920), and the Peace of Riga (1921) was signed that gave large areas of what is now western Belarus and Ukraine to Poland; areas that were predominantly Slavic not Polish. In 1939, the Soviet Union took back these territories, as well as the Baltic States, as part of its agreement with Germany. The territories taken back by the Soviet Union played a critical role in its survival of the 1941 German invasion, by moving the start line for that invasion (Barbarossa) hundreds of kilometres west. The Soviet Union had also forced the Finns to modify their border with the Soviet Union, to move it away from the Leningrad area. Poland, the Baltic States and Finland were all seen as putative allies of Germany in any invasion of the Soviet Union. At the time Poland was a majority peasant society, ruled by an authoritarian military regime (“regime of the colonels”) that was supported by the aristocracy and the landowning gentry. As Korbonski notes:
There is little doubt that interwar Poland presents a textbook case of what Huntington calls “oligarchical praetorianism.” In such societies, the dominant political forces tend to be the landowners, the clergy, and the military, with the last-mentioned exercising dominance.
Romania had gained Bessarabia after the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1918, but was forced to give it, as well as Northern Bukovina (the combination of which became the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic), to the Soviet Union in 1940. After the collapse of the Soviet Union these areas became the new nation-state of Moldova. This territorial change also pushed back the start line for Barbarossa, which Romania took an active part in as an ally of Germany. Pre-WW2 Romania was a majority peasant country, ruled over by a fascist dictatorship. Lithuania was a fascist one-party (Lithuanian Nationalist Union) authoritarian state, Latvia an authoritarian nationalist dictatorship, and Estonia a right-wing one-party (Patriotic League) authoritarian state.
I include the historical background above to combat much of the recent historical rewriting that serves to paint these nations, and their pre-WW2 leadership in as positive a light as possible. At the end of WW1, the new Soviet Union was “punished” by the other Allied nations through the taking of Russian lands to create Finland, the Baltic States and Poland; in addition to Western invasions of the Soviet Union in an attempt to crush the communist government. Poland and Romania also seized through wars of aggression other pieces of Russia. None of these states were democracies at the start of WW2, they were all highly antisemitic, and enemies of the Soviet Union. In 1940, the Soviet Union took back the lands taken by Poland and Romania, extinguished the Baltic States created from its territory at the end of WW1, and pushed back the Finnish border away from the critical Leningrad area. Without these moves, the Barbarossa offensive may have taken both Moscow and Leningrad in 1941 and Hitler may have gained his lebensraum. What would Eastern Europe and Russia look like today if that had happened? Those that wish to demonize the Soviet Union, and its progeny Russia, ignore and suppress these historical realities.
After WW2, the Soviet Union occupied Eastern Europe as a buffer against Western aggression, a position fully supported by the many European and Western attempts to subjugate Russia and then the Soviet Union. The historical enemies of Poland and Romania would be kept well under control, but not extinguished. Finland also had to accept some additional border changes but was not occupied by the Soviet Union. The Soviet-backed government of Poland was not the disaster many now claim, as it carried out land reform, eradicated illiteracy, provided universal healthcare and education, and established rapid industrialization and urbanization. The population of Poland doubled between 1947 and 1989 and many lower-class Poles had opportunities that they would never have had under previous administrations. The Polish crisis of the 1980s was the result of massive borrowing from the West in the 1970s that lead to severe economic conditions, even rationing, as Western interest rates rose as part of the Volcker Shock. This was the exacerbated by the economic disintegration of the Soviet Union toward the end of that decade. The Romanian experience of communism was much more brutal, but the extremes of the Ceausescu regime were due to the mass austerity imposed to pay off loans from the West; impoverishing the population.
In recent times, Romania has become a deeply corrupt state run by a kleptocracy, which is governed by a US and Western comprador elite and acts as a NATO forward base against Russia and pushes for integration with Moldova (recently with a “strategic partnership”) to reclaim the “lost” Bessarabia. A friend of mine recently visited Bucharest during a diplomatic summit and noted the difference between the modern rich center that the world tends to see and the sea of poverty that it sits within. An example of the deep corruption in Romania, not much has changed in the past few years since:
Hoàng Thùy Linh – Lắm Mối Tối Ngồi Không (Run After Two Hares, Catch Nones) | Official Lyrics Video
Brisket and Beans
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Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) brisket
2 cups water
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans
6 potatoes, peeled, quartered
1/4 teaspoon marjoram, crumbled
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Instructions
Remove any excess fat from brisket.
In a pressure cooker, bring brisket, water and seasonings to 15 pounds pressure and cook for 30 to 40 minutes.
Reduce pressure under cold water.
Open cooker, and add vegetables. Cover, then bring to 15 pounds pressure and cook 5 minutes; reduce pressure again.
Remove meat, and slice thinly on the diagonal.
Serve with green beans and potatoes drenched with cooking liquid. Do not thicken the natural gravy.
Hoàng Thuỳ Linh, Thanh Lam, Tùng Dương – Đánh Đố | Official Music Video
11 Illustrations That Show Just How Much The Internet Has Changed Our Lives
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None of us should ever succumb to panic — real life is definitely still out there despite the huge role that the Internet plays in modern life. Gadgets and technology play a part in our lives, but it really is just a part. Nevertheless, it’s funny to think about the hundreds of little ways these things have changed our behavior.
today we’re shifting gears to bring you the latest trends and searches on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok.
China plans to build its first west-to-east hydrogen pipeline to transfer clean fuel more effectively, which will provide Beijing with a direct supply of green hydrogen.
In other news, the long-awaited return of Ya Ya the panda to China is finally about to happen. While some may consider this a minor event, the Chinese government’s response demonstrates their serious commitment to the well-being of their “national treasures” and their desire to prevent further escalation of tensions with the US, at least on this issue.
Tuesday’s top 10 trending searches on Douyin (the Chinese equivalent of TikTok) as of 5:00 p.m. (0900 GMT)：
#1 Celebrities in slo-mo
六公主高速慢镜头群星大片
2022-2023 M-Chart of China Movie Channel & the Ceremony of Chinese Movie Data (2022-2023年度电影频道M榜暨中国电影大数据盛典), held in Jingzhou, central China’s Hubei Province, on Sunday presents a star-studded collection of slo-mo full shots in which Chinese celebrities (mostly actresses) spined and posed for the HD camera.
#2 Livestreamer jobs closed to the less-educated
张兰称不会再招低学历主播
Zhang Lan, the renowned entrepreneur and founder of the popular restaurant chain “Qiao Jiang Nan” (俏江南), recently shared a video in which she announced that she will no longer be hiring less-educated livestreamers, whom she referred to as “little wild children” and “bad apples”. Zhang started from scraps, had her ups and downs, and now livestreams every day promoting “Ma Liu Ji” instant foods, her newest venture. She explained in the video that the less educated tend to get full of themselves, a remark agreed by most of the comments.
#3 China to build first west-to east green hydrogen pipeline
首条西氢东送管道纳入国家规划
China plans to build its first west-to-east hydrogen pipeline to transfer clean fuel more effectively and the project has been included in the country’s oil and gas network construction plan, according to Xinhua on Monday. The pipeline will extend for over 400km, transmitting hydrogen from Ulanqab, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to the capital Beijing, helping alleviate the mismatch between the supply and demand of green hydrogen in resources-rich west and energy-consuming east.
#4 Private donation of 200,000 yuan to shared kitchen for cancer patients
好心人向抗癌厨房捐款20万
An anonymous donor offered 200,000 yuan (about 29,000 U.S. dollars) in cash to a charity kitchen in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan Province. The kitchen, which opened nine years ago near Zhengzhou Cancer Hospital, has been a haven of hope for disease-stricken families. Family members of cancer patients can pay 5 yuan to get unlimited access to the cooking facilities and condiments. The anonymous donation is only part of the timely help as the kitchen struggles financially.
#5 Father embarks on a quest for trafficked son
杜小华重走儿子被拐之路
The boy nicknamed “little Mickey” was six years old when he was abducted. In 2014, Dearest (亲爱的), a movie about lost children which took inspiration from his story drew increasing attention to Du Xiaohua, his father. Having searched for his son for more than ten years, Du has gone on a new journey to north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to follow up a new lead. He called for the human trafficker and the buyer of his son to come forward and reach a compromise. The successful retrieval of another trafficked boy, Sun Zhuo, in 2021, serves as a motivation for the father.
#6 A young Chinese coast guard dies in preventing and counter-smuggling
海警执法员缉私战斗中牺牲
Wang Xiaolong, a 27-year-old Chinese police officer from Guangdong (south Chinese province) Coast Guard, sacrificed his life in an investigation of smuggling cases in the early morning of March 24, according to China Coast Guard. When fighting against the outlaw, Wang braved danger and charged forward, but unfortunately fell into the sea. Many Chinese citizens commented on the sad news to pay tribute to the heroic sacrifice.
#7 Intelligence leak: US has been spying on Zelensky
泄密门显示美国一直监视乌总统
The incident of leaking alleged classified US military documents has sparked heated discussion worldwide. According to CNN on Monday, one of the leaked documents reveals that the US has been spying on Zelensky, and the leak deeply frustrated Ukrainian officials, and it is reported that Ukraine has already altered some of its military plans due to the leak.
#8 Rare aquatic wild animal first seen in south China
广西首次发现罕见物种淡水蛏
Novaculina chinensis, a national second-class protected aquatic wild animal which usually appeared in east China’s Jiangsu and Zhejiang province, has recently been found on a riverbed in Henzhou City, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to CCTVnews. Novaculina chinensis is one of the three species of freshwater razor clam genus Novaculina, which represents an example of a marine-derived, secondary freshwater group that lives in the mud under fresh water, and occurs at the lower Yangtze River in China, according to a scientific report. Some netizens from Guangxi remarked that the appearance of Novaculina chinensis proves the good environment in Guangxi because the species has high requirements for water quality.
#9 Liu Yan wants to play Mother of Jackson Yee
柳岩想演易烊千玺的妈妈
Liu Yan, a Chinese actress, hostess and singer, in an entertainment interview, expressed her admiration for many senior Hong Kong celebrities both in their appearance and performance, such as Tony Leung, one of Asia’s most successful and internationally recognized actors, and Chingmy Yau, a retired actress popular in the late 1980s. When asked about the promising younger generation actor in her eyes, Liu proposed Jackson Yee, a 22-year-old popular Chinese singer, dancer and actor, and she hopes to play his mother or elderly sister if there is a chance for cooperation in film and television works.
#10 China ready for the return of Ya Ya the panda
中方已经做好迎接丫丫回国各项准备sea
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in the daily briefing on Tuesday that the return of Ya Ya, the giant panda on a 20-year loan to Memphis Zoo in the U.S., is well-prepared and will proceed as soon as possible. Ya Ya is in stable health, said the spokesperson, with bald spots as a result of her skin disease. The health condition of Ya Ya has recently come under intensive scrutiny of Chinese netizens, and many suspect Memphis Zoo of maltreatment.
#3 China to build first west-to east green hydrogen pipeline
China plans to build its first west-to-east hydrogen pipeline to transfer clean fuel more effectively and the project has been included in the country’s oil and gas network construction plan, according to Xinhua on Monday, informed by Sinopec, China’s largest oil and gas giant, which is also the operator of the pipeline.
The pipeline will extend for over 400 km, transmitting hydrogen from Ulanqab, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to the capital Beijing, with an initial capacity of handling 100,000 tons per year and the potential to increase 500,000 tons in the long run, according to Sinopec chairman Ma Yongsheng.
2023 04 13 18 23
The project will help alleviate the mismatch between the supply and demand of green hydrogen in resources-rich west and energy-consuming east, playing a pioneering role in trans-regional transmission and promoting the national energy upgrade, such as replacing the current hydrogen production from fossil fuels in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Ma added.
The country’s oil and gas network construction plan was released by the National Energy Administration in March and reaffirmed at the national oil and gas pipeline planning construction and protection work conference on April 6, aiming at detailing the implementation of medium and long-term oil and five-year gas pipeline network planning and pipeline construction tasks.
Dragon TV: Recently, the Memphis Zoo in the US held a farewell party for the giant panda Ya Ya, whose health conditions have been on the mind of many internet users in China. Do you have any updates on the giant panda’s return to China?
Wang Wenbin: … At present, an expert from the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens and two technicians from the Beijing Zoo are now working with the Memphis Zoo on the caring of the giant panda and they have got a general understanding of the daily care of Ya Ya. The overall condition of the giant panda is relatively stable except for the fur condition caused by skin disease. The Chinese side has already made preparations to welcome Ya Ya home in terms of quarantine sites, living quarters, feeding plans, medical care and feed supplies.
Ya Ya had her farewell party on Saturday in Memphis, Tennessee, while a memorial for Le Le went on display at the zoo. The two pandas have been at the center of a whirlwind of disputes as to whether they have been underfed, neglected, or even abused.
Ya Ya, born on 3 August 2000 in Beijing, may look different from what comes to mind when people think of giant pandas. She has a chronic skin condition, a fact acknowledged by Memphis Zoo, that results in shedding and patchiness. Le Le, who was sent to Memphis Zoo with Ya Ya in 2003, also had significant teeth issues resulting in broken molars.
2023 04 13 18 e23
Giant panda Ya Ya and her farewell cake at Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., Apr. 8, 2023.
Stories of Ya Ya’s suffering have been spreading for some years, but things really took off after Le Le died shortly before his due return to China on Feb. 1, when he was 24 years old. The life expectancy of a giant panda in the wild is about 15 years, but in captivity they have lived to be as old as 38. Exponential attention was paid after Le Le’s death on the surviving Ya Ya, who was reported to be given insufficient bamboos and barely any treats or supplements. Some claimed that Ya Ya was often begging for food, after watching the live animal cams of the Memphis Zoo.
The Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens(CAZG) released a statement on March 10, 2022, acknowledging both pandas were underweight and suggested Memphis Zoo improve their diets by increasing food variety and protein sources to improve nutrition and help them gain weight. However, their blood test and imageological scans showed no diseases whatsoever, and although the CAZG has come up with no explanation of Ya Ya’s skin condition, it confirmed that it was hereditary and subject to seasons and hormone fluctuations.
The CAZG statement has only exacerbated the fury and patriotism of Chinese netizens. On Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, #overhaulCAZG has received over 36,000 reads, and many accuse the association of corruption and neglect. On Mar. 18, Chinese experts came to Memphis Zoo to oversee Ya Ya’s living conditions and negotiate the procedures of her return. On Apr. 11, it is finally announced that the preparations are complete.
There are some people, however, who support the CAZG and claim there is nothing inappropriate with Ya Ya’s treatment. Their argument boils down to two points: 1) Ya Ya’s condition is genetic. 2) Stories about the mistreatment of Ya Ya and Le Le are false information.
For a start, Ya Ya is genetically flawed, with her mother and grandmother both artificially inseminated. It is even possible that her mother was father-to-daughter inbred. To date, Ya Ya is the only surviving offspring of a total of twelve of her mother’s children. As to the second question, they argue that the video clips showing Ya Ya’s sufferings are maliciously edited and that the Memphis Zoo has a good record of caring for giant pandas.
But it seems that the discussions have already moved on from the zoological realm. “No more neglect. No more loans. No more experiments. The dignity of the state is not to be trampled upon”, reads one comment on Weibo which garners more than 3,800 likes. “I am grateful to my strong motherland for Ya Ya’s safe passage home,” says one comment on Douyin. “I hope all the pandas who are suffering in the U.S. Can return to China,” says another.
Hoàng Thùy Linh – Tứ Phủ (feat. Hồ Hoài Anh & TripleD) | Official Music Video
Greek Meatballs and Spaghetti Sauce
53044c7cc5c83dfd630f49a933228b9a greek meatballs spaghetti and meatballs
Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
Meatballs
1 pound beef, veal and pork ground together (or ground turkey)
1/4 cup sherry
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 medium size onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 slices bread, finely crumbled (store bought bread crumbs if you want)
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup olive oil or less
1/2 teaspoon dried mint
Sauce
1 large onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 slices bacon, diced (optional)
2 carrots, coarsely diced
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup beef broth or stock
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel
1/2 teaspoon mint
2 bay leaves
Cooked pasta or rice to serve
Instructions
Prepare meatballs. Set aside.
Meatballs
Combine meat, sherry and the egg in a bowl. Add onion, garlic, bread crumbs and seasonings. Knead until completely mixed. Shape into walnut-size meatballs. Do not over-handle or they will be tough.
Sauce
In a pressure cooker, sauté onion, garlic, tomato paste, bacon, carrots, and parsley over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Add tomato sauce or puree, broth, sherry, brown sugar, salt, pepper flakes, oregano, fennel, mint and bay leaves. Stir to combine, and add meatballs. Secure lid. Over medium-high heat develop steam to high pressure. Reduce heat to maintain pressure and cook 10 minutes.
Release pressure according to manufacturer’s directions. Remove lid. Gently stir meatballs in sauce. Discard bay leaves. Let stand 5 minutes.
Skim fat from surface.
In a pressure cooker, sauté meatballs in hot oil over high heat until lightly browned. Cook about 10 meatballs at a time, turning with tongs.
Hoàng Thùy Linh – Duyên Âm (Love of Ghost) | Official Music Video
What type of women should you never date?
Not by MM. Full Disclaimer.
-MM
Five Warning Signs:-
Sign One:-
She expects you to pay for everything from the very first date or within the first 10 dates.
Going Dutch is the norm for any girl except for treats (50–50 or paying alternatively)
Sign Two:-
She expects you to improve your behaviour or parts of your personality from the first date or within the first ten dates
The usual norm is after 10 dates she says “Look I really like you but you eat too fast or you swear too much or you slouch toi much, will you please correct it”
Sign Three:-
She is dismissive to things you hold very dear from the very first date or within the first 10 dates
The norm is to nod her head when you praise Modi or Kohli or some random German writer she has never heard of
Then after enough familiarity, she will say “Please shut up. It bores me”
That’s perfectly normal
Sign Four:-
She talks too much of her boyfriend even if its angry stuff
It means you could be a rebound or she isn’t over him
The norm is she won’t want to talk about him initially and later doesn’t care about him enough to talk about him
Sign Five:-
She is dismissive about Parents or your mother or excessive caring by parents
300,000 Chinese people have an IQ above 160¹, which means they can do highly innovative work in quantum physics and mathematics and invent sciences and win Nobels, and all of them work for the Government of China as officials, academics or researchers.
For fifty generations, China’s geniuses have always become government officials because, well, because China only allows geniuses run the country. No-one else need apply.
Young geniuses with political ambitions live in the poorest villages until they raise incomes 50%. Then, if their KPIs remain high for a quarter century, they might ascend to Beijing, official Valhalla.
Two geniuses – one ran the space program, and his buddy who designed its rockets – were made Provincial Governors², each responsible for 5% economic growth in his province, for environmental improvement, for a dozen KPIs, and for delivering their share of the Five Year Plan.
In preparation for their career change, they went back to school. They spent a semester at the most exclusive university on earth, the lakeside campus of the Central Party School in Beijing. There they hung out with world thinkers who earn small fortunes for giving seminars to promising officials and yakking about the future. A Hungarian economist friend, who had heard about the School’s generosity, waited until he was seated on the ‘plane to open his honorarium envelope, “My hands shook. I actually wept. The next week, I paid off the mortgage, bought my wife a car, and left the rest in the bank”.
Xi Jinping began his cursus honorum² at the same age as Cicero, by being elected Village Party Secretary at nineteen. His KPIs were excellent for 25 years, and he picked up a Master’s in Marxist economics and a PhD in rural marketization. An Oxford PhD and African developmental economist attending a conference in Beijing was astonished to find herself sipping tea with Xi and his translator in his office, gabbing about Chinese aid hits and misses. Xi, incidentally, is held responsible for the same KPIs and the same Five Year goals. All of them.
Despair
President Trump despaired, “People say I don’t like China? No, I love them! But their leaders are much smarter than ours. And we can’t maintain ourselves against that. It’s like playing the New England Patriots and Tom Brady against your high school football team.” His elaboration on Xi’s personal qualities is interesting:
Us
30,000 (note4) Westerners have an IQ above 160, but none of them will ever govern a state, let alone a country. Honesty is fatal in our politics, and smart people are honest.
In addition to their lack of intelligence, education and morality, our officials are unaccountable and have no goals. Most have never accomplished anything beyond winning an election, as their disastrous policies make clear.
Let’s not beat a dead horse. There’s no way on God’s earth the West can compete with China, as Lee Kwan Yew (note 5) warned decades ago, “The size of China’s displacement of the world balance is such that the world must find a new balance. It is not possible to pretend that this is just another big player. This is the biggest player in the history of the world”.
If you’re interested in how China actually works, read Why China Leads the World: Talent at the Top, Data in the Middle, Democracy from the Bottom. To learn how Chinese officialdom works, read Dean of Shandong, whose author, Daniel Bell, was a Chinese Government official in this lifetime.
IQ is distributed logarithmically and since China’s national IQ is 105, its 1.4 billion citizens harbor 300,000 of them. 95% of us have IQ’s under 130, so theoretical physics is probably beyond us.
There are typically 3 levels of civil service between a provincial governor and the President of China. At the provincial level, the governor is considered a level-1 official. Above the governor are level-2 officials who are responsible for larger regions or multiple provinces, such as the vice-ministers in various ministries of the central government. Level-3 officials are the highest-ranking officials in the country and are responsible for national policies and decision-making. The President of China is a level-3 official.
Lee graduated at the top of his year at Cambridge – he was a genius who ran his country well. He. His Prime Minister son outshone him – in mathematics. Singapore will succeed if it keeps Prime Ministerial IQ above 130? China’s has probably not been below 130 since 505 AD.
USA’s hegemony has angered the entire world & thus backfired to USA. After Brazil, France, Saudi & Iran, Africa & ASEAN, now Vietnam. What has Vietnam done?
On 2023/4/15, US Secretary A Blinken visited Vietnam & met Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. In the meeting room, there was a Vietnamese national flag. But absolutely no US flag.
This is unheard of in diplomacy.
Pham told Blinken:
We Vietnamese do not take sides. We can decide what is righteous & fair (to us).
Vietnam is communist. While USA propagates communist as evil, USA is befriending communist Vietnam. Haha.
2 points here:
[1], It is proof that communism is NOT the problem for USA. It is China. USA is paranoid about China surpassing it. That is all. Hence USA uses “communism” to scare Americans. Don’t forget. USA befriended communist China in 1972 to “fight” the strong USSR.
[2], USA uses Vietnam to encircle China.
USA is infamous in gossiping & breaking up friendship between countries. We witness the mess in Middle East caused by USA.
Blinken has 2 missions.
One, for the opening of a new US embassy in Vietnam.
Two, befriend Vietnam to encircle China.
USA delivered a 3rd naval cutter to support Vietnam coast guard in South China Sea. Security is US concern, Blinken said. (It is said that the cutter is pretty old.)
The Chinese embassy in Vietnam responded:
"all countries in the region of SCS work together to maintain peace in the region. Any outsider is malicious & to sow discord in the region."
Who is the outsider? USA because USA is many thousands of miles away from SCS.
There is a saying circulating around:
Vietnam was not afraid of USA some 40 years ago in Vietnam war. Neither is it afraid today.
Quite similar to what former Chinese Diplomat Yang Jiechi rebuked Blinken in the 2021 Alaska meeting:
"USA is not qualified to talk to China this way. Not today. Not 20 years ago. Not 40 years ago. China will not take it. "
MLEM MLEM | MIN X JUSTATEE X YUNO BIGBOI | OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
If Australia sleepwalks into a war with China, as many analysts fear is happening right now, then amid our strategic slumber we should at least ask one question: what would war with China mean for Australia?
Put bluntly, the repercussions of Australia joining the US in any war with China over the status of Taiwan — or any other issue — may have catastrophic consequences.
-ABC Australia
Sigh.
I really don’t want to talk too much about war. But “news” out of the United States is non-stop hate, war, death, and collapse.
Sheech!
OK. Let’s start with a prepper video.
A Major Warning to Everyone. This is About to be a SERIOUS Problem. Everything is About to Change.
Chicken Cacciatore
Chicken Cacciatore IMAGE 12
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) chicken, cut up
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil
1/4 cup diced salt pork
1 1/2 cups sliced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 (16 ounce) can Italian tomatoes, chopped
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup white wine
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
Instructions
Coat chicken in mixture of flour, salt, and pepper; set aside.
Put oil in a 4 or 6 quart Presto pressure cooker. Sauté pork until crisp. Add onions and sauté until light brown; remove and set aside.
Brown chicken a few pieces at a time; set aside.
Pour off excess drippings; stir garlic, parsley and oregano into remaining drippings.
Return chicken and onion to pressure cooker. Add carrots, celery, tomatoes, salt, pepper, and white wine. Close pressure cooker cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe.
Cook for 8 minutes, at 15 pounds pressure, with regulator rocking slowly.
Cool pressure cooker at once.
Place chicken on warm platter.
Stir tomato paste into sauce in pressure cooker. Simmer until thickened. Pour over chicken.
Court Filing: Twitter, Inc. “No Longer Exists” — Merged into X Corp.
29 dollar ham cheese sandwich Eli Zabars NYC 04 11 2023 large
Take a good, hard look. THIS is your future here in the USA: $29 for a Ham and Cheese Sandwich!
As countries all over the world switch AWAY from the U.S. Dollar for settling international trade, a Tsunami of “Dollars” previously held in foreign central banks, is coming back home to America. You see, by settling their international trade in their own currencies, countries no longer need to hold US Dollars.
As those dollars come back here to America, the value of the US Dollar relative to other currencies, is dropping. Our money is worth less while their money is worth more.
In the past, this was no big deal because here in America, we used to actually manufacture things. But some numbskulls in the corporate world thought it would be super-neato-keeno-swift to switch the US economy from manufacturing to a “service economy.” Manufacturing departed the USA for cheap foreign labor, and now we don’t make much of anything here anymore. We IMPORT almost everything.
Now, that bad decision to outsource manufacturing to foreign lands is coming home to bite all of us in the ass. How? Like this:
29 Dollar Ham Cheese Sandwich
Yes, you see that correctly; $29 for a ham and cheese sandwich!
Now, admittedly, this is from Eli Zabar’s on Madison Avenue in New York City. As you might have guessed, Madison Avenue is some of the most expensive Real Estate in the world, and prices in stores along that avenue match that reality.
While this is certainly the exception to the rule, very soon, it won’t be.
Very soon, these are the types of prices that YOU will be asked to pay when YOU want food or other items you need.
Just giving you a Heads-up. The Democrats you put in control down in Washington, DC, are directly to blame for this.
They imposed economic sanctions on so many countries, for so many years, that a whole slew of those countries are now fed-up with us. They’re getting together, collectively turning their back to the US Dollar, and settling their trade in their own currencies. Now, the US can’t Sanction them anymore because the US can’t control THEIR currencies!
As more and more countries dump the dollar, what you see above, will be common. Not just with food, but with E V E R Y T H I N G.
Democrats did this.
When you can’t afford to eat or feed your kids, remember who is to blame and go pay them a visit to . . . thank them.
The Dollar’s Decline Can’t Be Stopped | A Return To Gold Is IMPOSSIBLE
BBC Confirms NATO Special Forces Troops inside Ukraine – 6 days AFTER this web site reported it to Subscribers!
Better late than never seems to be the catch-phrase at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Today they (finally) reported what readers of this web site knew 6 full days ago: NATO Special Forces troops are operating inside Ukraine!
The BBC Story reports to their British readers that the UK has at least fifty (50) Special Operations Force members operating inside the war zone in Ukraine (STORY HERE). But subscribers to the Hal Turner Radio Show knew this a full six days ago as reported HERE.
Once again, for all the world to see, Hal Turner Radio Show subscribers get the REAL news hours, and even DAYS before the mass media reports it . . . if they even do!
Oh, and as an added bonus . . . world famous “DRUDGE REPORT” didn’t cover this either, until the BBC did. SO much for Drudge being fast or first.
Ecstasy – ATB – Tiff Lacey (Don Rayzer Remix)
Economist Harry Dent Expects Biggest Economic Crash in Our Lifetime to Hit Between Now and Mid-June
Harry Dent, economist and author of several best-selling books, has warned that the biggest crash in our lifetime is “going to hit between now and about mid-June.” He stressed: “People are going to know this is not a big correction — it is a major crash, one that you have not seen … in your lifetime.”
The founder of HS Dent Investment Management and author of several best-selling books, Harry Dent, warned in an interview with David Lin, published Friday, that the biggest crash in our lifetime will likely happen by mid-June. Dent stressed:
We won’t see this again. We will not see a bubble economy, our kids will probably not even see a bubble economy decades and decades from now … It happens once in a lifetime at most.
He explained that the biggest crash that he is predicting is what the 2008-2009 crash should have been, noting that the S&P 500 was down 57% at that time. “About a year and a half into that crash, central banks just stepped in and just started printing money at unprecedented rates … So that recession didn’t really do its job of flushing out the greatest debt bubble in history,” Dent described, adding:
I am predicting as much as 86% [decline] for the S&P 500 in this crash and 92% on the Nasdaq … Bitcoin will go down more like 95%, 96%.
Dent expects the crypto market to crash alongside stocks, with BTC falling 95%-96% from its November 2021 high. “Bitcoin will fall from $69,000 to about three to four thousand,” he said, adding that “It’s exactly what Amazon and the dot-coms did.”
The economist has repeatedly warned about the biggest crash in a lifetime. He pointed out that after his previous warning, the Nasdaq went down 38% in October last year. “That’s just the first wave down. There’s two more to follow … We have already started the next wave down which could take the Nasdaq down to $8,000 just in this next wave, not the end of it. That’s gonna be down a little over 50%,” he detailed.
“That’s when people are going to know this is not a big correction — It is a major crash, one that you have not seen … in your lifetime, and the one that even the millennials will not see a bigger crash than this,” Dent opined.
Addressing why the recent crash happened later than he previously predicted, the economist clarified that the reason was due to central banks declaring war on recession. “Never before … have central banks declared war, literal war, on recession, and said: ‘We will not let the economy fall.’” However, Dent noted that even with all the unprecedented money printing, “we keep falling back into the recession.” He stressed: “The economy underneath is really really weak and really needs to get rid of a lot of really bad debt and zombie companies and the central banks won’t let the economy do its thing … The central banks have declared war on the free market. That’s the problem.”
The economist cautioned, “We are about to hit this third wave,” emphasizing that he does not believe that the Federal Reserve will be able to stop it. “I think it’s going to creep up on them before they can reverse the tightening,” he predicted, adding:
We have not cleaned up the massive debts and overvaluations of the biggest financial assets bubble in everything. We have never had a financial asset bubble in everything like this. This bubble has not been allowed to burst and clear out its excesses which we need to do. And I think we are into that process now.
Noting that the Federal Reserve overstimulated the economy, and now they have to “tighten strong,” Dent stressed that the Fed has “pushed up interest rates and tightened” more recently than they ever did since the early 80s. “So this is serious tightening,” he exclaimed. “Now they’re tightening and they’re thinking well the economy underneath can handle it.” However, Dent argued: “No, the economy underneath has been weak since 2008 and does not get strong until a few years from now.”
Dent further explained that what looks like a correction will turn into “a crash more like 1929 to 1932, down 86% on the S&P 500,” emphasizing that it is his “best forecast at this time.” The economist clarified: “You get a first wave down, a second wave bounce which we’ve seen, we’re already into the third wave just starting.” He elaborated:
The third wave is usually the strongest and hardest wave and I think most of that’s going to happen between now and the end of the year. And the biggest part of that third wave of the third wave. It’s going to hit between now and mid-June.
“It’s not easy to time the market as most people know, but this is so important that I am timing the market,” Dent said.
Here’s What Washington, DC Looks Like These Days
BULLETIN: 40% of NATO Electronic Infrastructure OFFLINE – Ddos attack by Russian Hackers
As of 12:56 PM eastern US time today, 11 April 2023, 40% of NATO’s electronic infrastructure has been paralyzed by Russian KillNet hackers.
As a result of a powerful DDos attack, the resources of the Combat Development Command, the NATO Provision, Support, and Procurement Agency, and cyber training centers are “OFFLINE”.
The NCI agency was also hacked, and all the employees’ personal data was stolen.
Pictured is the front page of the NCI Agency, which provides, deploys and maintains communications systems for decision makers and NATO commanders.
Update:
Russian hackers from KillNet reported that as a result of hacking into NATO networks, they managed to obtain important information that may be of interest to Russia.
Waiting for the end of the world
We were waiting for the end of the world
Waiting for the end of the world, waiting for the end of the world
Dear Lord, I sincerely hope You're coming
'Cause You really started something
Elvis Costello, Waiting for the End of the World, 1977
NOTE: THIS IS THE ENGLISH ORIGINAL OF A COLUMN SPECIALLY COMMISSIONED BY LEADING RUSSIAN BUSINESS DAILY VEDOMOSTI:
We cannot even begin to fathom the non-stop ripple effects deriving from the 2023 geopolitical earthquake that shook the world: Putin and Xi, in Moscow, de facto signaling the beginning of the end of Pax Americana.
This has been the ultimate anathema for rarified Anglo-American hegemonic elites for over a century: a signed, sealed, comprehensive strategic partnership of two peer competitors, intertwining a massive manufacturing base and pre-eminence in supply of natural resources – with value-added Russian state of the art weaponry and diplomatic nous.
From the point of view of these elites, whose Plan A was always a debased version of the Roman Empire’s Divide and Rule, this was never supposed to happen. In fact, blinded by hubris, they never saw it coming. Historically, this does not even qualify as a remix of the Tournament of Shadows; it’s more like Tawdry Empire Left in the Shade, “foaming at the mouth” (copyright Maria Zakharova).
Xi and Putin, with one Sun Tzu move, immobilized Orientalism, Eurocentrism, Exceptionalism and, last but not least, Neo-Colonialism. No wonder the Global South was riveted by what developed in Moscow.
Adding insult to injury, we have China, the world’s largest economy by far when measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), as well as the largest exporter.
And we have Russia, an economy that by PPP is equivalent or even larger than Germany’s – with the added advantages of being the world’s largest energy exporter and not forced to de-industrialize.
Together, in synch, they are focused on creating the necessary conditions to bypass the US dollar.
Cue to one of President Putin’s crucial one-liners:
“We are in favor of using the Chinese yuan for settlements between Russia and the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America."
A key consequence of this geopolitical and geoeconomic alliance, carefully designed throughout the past few years, is already in play: the emergence of a possible triad in terms of global trade relations and, in many aspects, a Global Trade War.
Eurasia is being led – and largely organized – by the Russia-China partnership.
China will also play a key role across the Global South, but India may also become quite influential, agglutinating what would be a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on steroids. And then there is the former “indispensable nation” ruling over the EU vassals and the Anglosphere rounded up in the Five Eyes.
What the Chinese really want
The Hegemon, under its self-concocted “rules-based international order”, essentially never did diplomacy. Divide and Rule, by definition, precludes diplomacy. Now their version of “diplomacy” has degenerated even further into crude insults by an array of US, EU and UK’s intellectually challenged and frankly moronic functionaries.
It’s no wonder that a true gentleman, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, has been forced to admit, “Russia is no longer a partner of the EU… The European Union ‘lost’ Russia. But the Union itself is to blame. After all, EU member states… openly declare that Russia should be dealt a strategic defeat. That is why we consider the EU to be an enemy organization.”
And yet the new Russian foreign policy concept, announced by Putin on March 31st, makes it quite clear: Russia does not consider itself an “enemy of the West” and does not seek isolation.
The problem is there’s virtually no adult to talk to on the other side, rather a bunch of hyenas. That has led Lavrov to once again stress that “symmetrical and asymmetrical” measures may be used against those involved in “hostile” actions against Moscow.
When it comes to Exceptionalistan, that’s self-evident: the US is designated by Moscow as the prime anti-Russia instigator, and the collective West’s overall policy is described as “a new type of Hybrid War.”
Yet what really matters for Moscow are the positives further on down the road: non-stop Eurasia integration; closer ties with “friendly global centers” China and India; increased help to Africa; more strategic cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean, the lands of Islam – Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt – and ASEAN.
And that brings us to something essential that was – predictably – ignored en masse by Western media: the Boao Forum for Asia, which took place nearly simultaneously with the announcement of Russia’s new foreign policy concept.
The Boao Forum, started in early 2001, still in the pre-9/11 era, has been modeled on Davos, but it’s Top China through and through, with the secretariat based in Beijing. Boao is in Hainan province, one of the islands of the Gulf of Tonkin and today a tourist paradise.
One of the key sessions of this year’s forum was on development and security, chaired by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is currently Boao’s president.
There were quite a few references to Xi’s Global Development Initiative as well as the Global Security Initiative – which by the way was launched at Boao in 2022.
The problem is these two initiatives are directly linked to the UN’s concept of peace and security and the extremely dodgy Agenda 2030 on “sustainable development” – which is not exactly about development and much less “sustainable”: it’s a Davos uber-corporate concoction. The UN for its part is basically a hostage of Washington’s whims. Beijing, for the moment, plays along.
Premier Li Qiang was more specific. Stressing the trademark concept of “community of shared future for mankind” as the basis for peace and development, he linked peaceful coexistence with the “Spirit of Bandung” – in direct continuity with the emergence of NAM in 1955: that should be the “Asian Way” of mutual respect and building consensus – in opposition to “the indiscriminate use of unilateral sanctions and long-reaching jurisdiction”, and the refusal of “a new Cold War”.
And that led Li Qiang to the emphasis on the Chinese drive to deepen the RCEP East Asian trade deal, and also advance the negotiations on the free trade agreement between China and ASEAN. And all that integrated with the new expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in contrast to trade protectionism.
So for the Chinese what matters, intertwined with business, is cultural interactions; inclusivity; mutual trust; and a stern refusal of “clash of civilizations” and ideological confrontation.
As much as Moscow easily subscribes to all of the above – and in fact practices it via diplomatic finesse – Washington is terrified by how compelling is this Chinese narrative for the whole Global South. After all, Exceptionalistan’s only offer in the market of ideas is unilateral domination; Divide an Rule; and “you’re with us or against us”. And in the latter case you will be sanctioned, harassed, bombed and/or regime-changed.
Is it 1848 all over again?
Meanwhile, in vassal territories, a possibility arises of a revival of 1848, when a big revolutionary wave hit all over Europe.
In 1848 these were liberal revolutions; today we have essentially popular anti-liberal (and anti-war) revolutions – from farmers in the Netherlands and Belgium to unreconstructed populists in Italy and Left and Right populists combined in France.
It may be too early to consider this a European Spring. Yet what’s certain in several latitudes is that average European citizens feel increasingly inclined to shed the yoke of Neoliberal Technocracy and its dictatorship of Capital and Surveillance. Not to mention NATO warmongering.
As virtually all European media is technocrat-controlled people won’t see this discussion in the MSM. Yet there’s a feeling in the air this may be heralding a Chinese-style end of a dynasty.
In the Chinese calendar this is how it always goes: their historical-societal clock always runs with periods of between 200 and 400 years per dynasty.
There are indeed intimations that Europe may be witnessing a rebirth.
The period of upheaval will be long and arduous – due to the hordes of anarco-liberals who are such useful idiots for the Western oligarchy – or it could all come to a head in a single day. The target is quite clear: the death of Neoliberal Technocracy.
That’s how the Xi-Putin view could make inroads across the collective West: show that this ersatz “modernity” (which incorporates rabid cancel culture) is essentially void compared to traditional, deeply rooted cultural values – be it Confucianism, Taoism or Eastern Orthodoxy. The Chinese and Russian concepts of civilization-state are much more appealing than they appear.
Well, the (cultural) revolution won’t be televised; but it may work its charms via countless Telegram channels. France, infatuated with rebellion throughout its history, may well be jump to the vanguard – again.
Yet nothing will change if the global financial casino is not subverted. Russia taught the world a lesson: it was preparing itself, in silence, for a long-term Total War. So much so that its calibrated counterpunch turned the Financial War upside down – completely destabilizing the casino. China, meanwhile, is re-balancing, and is on the way to be also prepared for Total War, hybrid and otherwise.
The inestimable Michael Hudson, fresh from his latest book, The Collapse of Antiquity, where he deftly analyzes the role of debt in Greece And Rome, the roots of Western civilization, succinctly explains our current state of play:
"America has pulled a color revolution at the top, in Germany, Holland, England, and France, essentially, where the foreign policy of Europe is not representing their own economic interests (…)
America simply said, - We are committed to support a war of (what they call) democracy (by which they mean oligarchy, including the Nazism of Ukraine) against autocracy (…) Autocracy is any country strong enough to prevent the emergence of a creditor oligarchy, like China has prevented the creditor oligarchy."
So “creditor oligarchy”, in fact, can be explained as the toxic intersection between globalist wet dreams of total control and militarized Full Spectrum Dominance.
The difference now is that Russia and China are showing to the Global South that what American strategists had in store for them – you’re going to “freeze in the dark” if you deviate from what we say – is no longer applicable.
Most of the Global South is now in open geoeconomic revolt.
Globalist neoliberal totalitarianism of course won’t disappear under a sand storm. At least not yet.
There’s still a maelstrom of toxicity ahead: suspension of constitutional rights; Orwellian propaganda; goon squads; censorship; cancel culture; ideological conformity; irrational curbs of freedom of movement; hatred and even persecution of – Slav – Untermenschen; segregation; criminalization of dissent; book burnings, show trials; fake arrest mandates by the kangaroo ICC; ISIS-style terror.
But the most important vector is that both China and Russia, each exhibiting their own complex particularities – and both dismissed by the West as unassimilable Others – are heavily invested in building workable economic models that are not connected, in several degrees, to the Western financial casino and/or supply chain networks. And that’s what’s driving the Exceptionalists berserk – even more berserk than they already are.
Pepe Escobar is a Eurasia-wide independent geopolitical analyst and author. His latest book is Raging Twenties (Nimble Books, 2021). Follow him on Telegram at @rocknrollgeopolitics
Russia, China record highest trade surplus in 2022, says data
Moscow Edited By: C KrishnasaiUpdated: Mar 27, 2023
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Russia and China have topped the list of countries that registered the highest trade surplus in 2022, according to a report by the national statistical services of both countries, reports state-owned RT news.
China positioned itself as the top among the major economies as its surplus trade grew by 30 per cent last year to an all-time high of $877.6 billion.
It exported nearly $3.59 trillion worth of goods—a growth in export value of about 7 per cent compared to the last year. While imports surged only by 1.1 per cent to roughly $2.72 trillion.
Russia was placed second as its surplus increased by 1.7 times over the year to a record $333.4 billion. The country’s total exports reached $591.4 billion, up 19.9 per cent from 2021.
According to the data, energy sales constituted the bulk of Russia’s foreign exports, reaching $383.73 billion—a 42.8 per cent year-on-year increase. Imports, however, slid 11.7 per cent to $259.1 billion compared to the previous year.
The report notes the impact of Western sanctions on Russia, and President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to promote self-sufficiency and import substitution measures on dwindling imports.
Saudi Arabia positioned itself third after registering its highest trade surplus since 2012 at $221.3 billion, followed by Norway, Australia and Qatar.
According to the Sputnik news agency, 26 major economies recorded a trade surplus of $2.45 trillion in 2022, compared to 32 countries with $2.1 trillion a year earlier.
The only country that managed to move from a trade deficit to a surplus last year was Nigeria.
Whereas, Germany saw its figure drop 2.4 times to $85.34 billion, slipping to the seventh spot from the second place a year earlier.
The data was presented by the national statistical agencies of the world’s 60 largest economies. Sputnik and RT conducted a study based on this data.
(With inputs from agencies)
What is like to come to a supermarket in China?
The simple reason why the US wants ‘full spectrum dominance’ of the Earth
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The United States demands that the world bow down to its leadership. A failure to do so is met with the full force of the international military-industrial complex controlled by the US.
Imagine the uproar if China or Russia—or any other country for that matter—said it aimed to exercise military control over land, sea, air, and space to protect its interests and investments.
This amazingly has been the stated United States policy since 1997.
Full spectrum dominance, as the doctrine is known, is the reason the United States behaves the way that it does on the international stage.
The United States demands that the world bow down to its leadership. A failure to do so is met with the full force of the international military-industrial complex controlled by the US government.
Enforcement has included everything from the funding of opposition forces in sovereign nations, the removal or even assassination of political leaders who refuse to toe the line, economic sanctions, and military intervention.
Of course, there are choices to be made by the United States about which approach—or combination of approaches—it might take. There are also decisions to be made about the degree of action within each approach.
But fundamentally the point is that Washington believes it has a right to inflict on the rest of the world its interpretation of democracy—which seems to essentially amount to agreeing with whatever course of action the United States wants to take.
So what is full spectrum dominance really for?
There’s a famous scene in the Oscar-winning film Reds where the great revolutionary journalist and activist John Reed, played by Warren Beatty, was asked at a dinner what the war in Mexico he had just returned from was all about. Before sitting down he said just one word: profits.
The United States is interested in safeguarding the profits of monopoly capital, which carries politicians in Washington around in its pockets like loose change.
The United States also will not tolerate others, such as China, muscling in on potential new markets or swaying people away from its sphere of influence.
China is seen as the biggest threat to the profits of the companies that currently decide pretty much what we will eat and even when we can eat it.
Anyone who expects the Chinese to simply sit back and take the provocations dealt out by the two-faced United States is living in cloud cuckoo land.
China’s State Council Information Office recently issued a report that accused the United States of being the world’s biggest offender of human rights.
In “The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2022,” the Chinese government said the United States “has sanctions in place against more than 20 countries, including Cuba since 1962, Iran since 1979, Syria since 2011 and Afghanistan in recent years.”
Calling the United States out as the most prolific enforcer of unilateral sanctions in the world, the report said Washington pursues power politics in the international community, frequently uses force, provokes proxy wars, and is a saboteur of world peace.
The report added that under the guise of anti-terrorism activities, the US has killed some 929,000 civilians and displaced some 38 million others in 85 countries.
Between 2017 and 2020, the United States launched 23 “proxy wars” in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific region, the report stated.
The report said that violations of immigrant rights and the refusal of Washington to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp created “an ugly chapter of unrelenting human rights violations.”
The report slammed the United States for holding up to 780 people at Guantanamo, most of whom were held without trial for years, while subjecting them to cruel and inhumane treatment.
Essentially the United States will go to any lengths to enforce what it sees as its unipolar dominance of the world.
As far as it is concerned, “might is right,” and there are no consequences for its behaviour.
There is no legal redress as the United States is not part of the International Criminal Court—which it lauds for threatening to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin, even though Russia is also not a signatory.
It has a veto at the United Nations and much of the world relies on its military shield as well as the mighty dollar with which to trade.
Given the cards stacked against those of us who oppose US full spectrum dominance and the seemingly invincible power of the biggest bully on the planet, the question is: What can we do?
The answer to full spectrum dominance is full spectrum resistance and organising.
It is necessary to gear our efforts away from piecemeal change and toward revolutionary transformation.
This will mean bringing together unions, climate activism, equality organising, and a range of other social and economic movements in a serious change away from liberal posturing.
The guardians of capital are highly organised and put the resources where they need to go to protect and expand what they have. Activists generally just pretend that we are organised and fall out with each other at the first available opportunity.
I am not arrogant enough to believe I have all the answers. But what I do know is that we have to gaze beyond the Global North for what radical transformation might look like.
It really is time to shift the paradigm and bring movements together to work out how to pool our resources for real results—full spectrum resistance and organising.
Chili Elegante
slow cooker chili 25
Equipment
Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound ground beef
2 onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups celery, cut into 1 inch diagonals
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt
Dash cayenne pepper
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 cup red wine
1 (#300) can kidney beans
1 (4 ounce) can button mushrooms
Instructions
Heat pressure cooker. Add oil and brown meat. Add onion, garlic, celery and green pepper. Sauté lightly. Add tomatoes and liquid drained from beans and mushrooms,
Combine salt, pepper, chili powder and wine. Mix well. Close securely. When it comes to pressure, reduce heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes. Cool cooker at once.
Add beans and mushrooms and reheat to boiling. Keep at low simmer for flavor development for a few minutes, if time permits.
Serve with warm garlic or corn bread.
10 Lessons from 10 Years in China (This Will Shock You)
Nuke Leak in American Nuclear Aircraft carrier
The nuclear leak on the Reagan has been ongoing for at least TWO MONTHS, but the US still cannot handle it until it is exposed. Wait, isn’t that the best ship in America? Who should be held accountable for this matter? Are the child laborers in the shipyard suitable?
2023 04 12 19 33
Sophie B. Hawkins – Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover
A little trip to New York City…
The Autochrome: A Revolutionary but Brief Moment in Photography History
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The Autochrome was a groundbreaking photographic process that revolutionized the industry in the early 20th century. Developed by the Société Lumière in 1907, the Autochrome was the first industrial color photography process available to the public. American photographer Edward Steichen even described it as the “most beautiful process that photography has ever given us to translate nature.” This new process quickly gained popularity and created a craze for color photography.
However, the Autochrome was not without its drawbacks. The plates were expensive, fragile, and difficult to expose. They also could not be easily reproduced, making it challenging to create multiple copies of the same image. Despite these limitations, the pleasure of capturing images in color was so great that many photographers embraced the Autochrome and developed their own unique styles.
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The Autochrome’s popularity was relatively brief, lasting only about two decades. By the 1920s and 1930s, the process had fallen out of favor, as newer and more advanced technologies emerged. Nevertheless, the Autochrome remains an important milestone in photographic history, and the pictures created with this process are still admired for their beauty and unique aesthetic.
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Today, the Autochromes are featured in exhibitions such as the one at Jeu de Paume, where the AN collection, curated since 2006 by Soizic Audouard and Élizabeth Nora, is displayed alongside a fascinating collection of Autochromes from the First World War kept at the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie. While the Autochrome may no longer be in use, its impact on photography and its role in shaping the art form will not be forgotten.
Film Noir: Somewhere In The Night. A Masterpiece by Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Full Movie!
This truly is wonderful. Take the time to watch it.
The film tells the tale of a man called George Taylor, who returns home to the U.S. from fighting in World War II.
He is suffering from amnesia, having been badly injured by a grenade. He tries to find his old identity, following a trail left behind by the mysterious Mr. Larry Cravat. He ends up stumbling into a murder mystery involving Nazi loot.
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A recent film critic Dennis Schwartz praised the film, writing, "A dark moody noir tale about a marine who gets blown up by a grenade in the South Pacific during a skirmish in WW-II and survives, only to become an amnesia victim...
Mankiewicz does a nice job of creating the dark noir mood.
The film is spiced up with comedy, excellent performances, plenty of suspense, plus a tense voice-over by John Ireland, and it manages to keep the pot boiling with a quintessential amnesiac story."
It’s messed up. The State of Montana banned Tiktok, but allows Facebook, Google, and all the rest to exist. Why? Well, it’s obvious, Tiktok is the platform of choice of American citizenry, and it bypasses (by design) all the “back-doors” the NSA has installed in American social media.
I feel bad about this. But, you know, it’s not my problem.
Youse guys voted these clowns in office, and it’s your problem. Not mine. I ran away from the sinking ship as fast as my feet could carry me.
Took them forever…
2023 04 16 17 52
Top economist frets that US is getting ‘lonely’
Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has warned that America is losing global influence as other powers form trading blocs
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Globalization and the American-led financial order are giving way to a more fragmented world economy in which other powers are aligning in trading blocs that diminish Washington’s global influence, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has claimed.
“There’s a growing acceptance of fragmentation, and – maybe even more troubling – I think there’s a growing sense that ours may not be the best fragment to be associated with,” Summers said on Friday in a Bloomberg News interview. He made his comments following a week of World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in which finance chiefs reportedly discussed efforts to “reshape supply chains away from China and other strategic competitors.”
Summers, a former World Bank chief economist who was an adviser to President Barack Obama and served as treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, suggested that US tactics have alienated some governments. “Somebody from a developing country said to me, ‘What we get from China is an airport. What we get from the United States is a lecture. We like your values better than we like theirs, but we like airports more than we like lectures.’”
The emergence of competing economic blocs has accelerated amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the US-led sanctions campaign against Moscow. As financial officials of the US and its allies gathered in Washington, Brazilian President Lula da Silva was making a state visit to China and calling for developing nations to move away from the US dollar. China brokered last month’s normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, while Russia, the Saudis and OPEC announced a cut to their oil-production quotas, portending more inflation struggles in the West.
“We are on the right side of history – with our commitment to democracy, with our resistance to aggression in Russia,” Summers said. “But it’s looking a bit lonely on the right side of history, as those who seem much less on the right side of history are increasingly banding together in a whole range of structures.”
Policy makers face a bigger challenge than the normal World Bank-IMF issues like debt relief and promoting sustainable development, Summers said. What’s at stake, he added, is “what the broad structure of the system is going to be.”
The current system – born out of the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement that pegged other currencies to the US dollar, which was then linked to gold – is under threat, Summers said. “If the Bretton Woods system is not delivering strongly around the world, there are going to be serious challenges and proposed alternatives.”
Thai Kai Pad Prik Haeng
(Chicken with Chile and Nuts)
I recently had this at a Thai restaurant and just had to go out and find the recipe!
2023 04 16 17 13
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients
1 cup chicken meat, finely sliced
1/2 cup tua fak yao (long beans), cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup celery, sliced on a bias
1/4 cup prik haeng (dried red chiles), crumbled
1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup mam sup (stock)
1 tablespoon kratiem (garlic), thinly sliced
1 tablespoon nam pla (fish sauce)
1 tablespoon si iew khao (light soy sauce)
1 tablespoon si iew dhum (dark soy sauce)
1/4 teaspoon nam tan paep (palm sugar – can substitute plain sugar)
Instructions
Place a wok or skillet on medium heat and carefully toast the uncooked cashews until they begin to turn golden, and are just cooked through (test by biting one).
In a mortar and pestle or food processor briefly pound the cashews to produce a broken consistency.
Heat the wok or skillet over high heat, and add a little peanut oil, and when it is hot, sauté the garlic until it is golden brown and slightly crispy, then remove it and drain on a kitchen towel.
Sauté the chiles briefly, then add the chicken and continue stirring until it begins to change color.
Working quickly add the remaining ingredients in turn, stirring to mix, adding the soy sauces and fish sauce, then finally the stock after the dry ingredients, as this will cool the mixture to allow the cooking to finish.
Return the garlic to the pan, and cover, leaving for about a minute to complete cooking. Check that the meat is cooked, and taste for seasoning balance.
Serve with steamed/fried rice, and the usual table condiments.
Notes
One of the cookbooks I crosschecked this recipe with described it as “chile hot,” which seems a fair description, though their version was a little milder than this one. As always remember that you can reduce the chile if you wish. This dish offers an excellent example of texture contrast with the crunchy nuts and the softer meat.
CIA Larry Johnson: “What’s Coming IS WORSE THAN A WORLD WAR, THIS IS SERIOUS”
https://youtu.be/jEEUZcR7FNY
Putin meets Chinese defense minister on ties
Source: Xinhua
Editor: huaxia
2023-04-17 11:28:31
MOSCOW, April 16 (Xinhua) — Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu here on Sunday.
Asking Li to convey his sincere greetings and best wishes to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin recalled Xi’s recent fruitful Russia visit, during which they charted the course for the development of Russia-China relations in the new era, and agreed to further strengthen the strategic coordination between the two countries and deepen practical cooperation in such fields as economy, culture and education, among others.
Military cooperation plays an important role in Russia-China relations, he said, voicing hope that the two militaries will strengthen cooperation in joint training, professional exchanges and other fields, and that the strategic mutual trust between the two countries will continue to be deepened.
Conveying Xi’s cordial greetings and best wishes to Putin, Li said that the two heads of state steer the development of China-Russia relations and the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era has been continuously deepened. The military mutual trust between the two countries has been increasingly consolidated with substantial progress in cooperation.
China is willing to work with Russia to fully implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, further strengthen the strategic communication between the two militaries and bolster multilateral coordination and cooperation so as to make new contributions to safeguarding global and regional security and stability, said the Chinese defense minister.
This Sexy Piece Of Clothing Is Becoming Increasingly Popular In Japan
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This knitted sleeveless sweater with a large cut-back is all the rage in Japan right now, and it’s not hard to see why.
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When the barbarians openly acknowledge the Boomerang costs of their looting policy , that mean the situation is very bad.
Economic sanctions imposed on Russia and other countries by the United States put the dollar's dominance at risk as targeted nations seek out an alternative, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday (Apr 16).
"There is a risk when we use financial sanctions that are linked to the role of the dollar that over time it could undermine the hegemony of the dollar," Yellen said on CNN.
This is the tale of two pilgrims following the road that really matters in the young 21st century.
This is the tale of two pilgrims following the road that really matters in the young 21st century; one coming from NATOstan and another one from BRICS+.
Let’s start with Le Petit Roi, Emmanuel Macron. Picture him with a plastic grin in his face strolling alongside Xi Jinping in Guangzhou. Following the – long and gentle – sound of classic “High Mountain and Flowing Water”, they enter the Baiyun Hall to listen to it played by the 1000-year-old Guqin (a beautiful instrument). They taste the fragrance of 1000-year-old tea – and muse on the rise and fall of great powers in the new millennium.
And what does Xi tell Le Petit Roi?
He explains that when you hear this eternal music played by this eternal instrument, you expect to be in the company of a bosom friend; you are in synch as much as the high mountain and the flowing water. That’s the deeper meaning of the ancient tale of musicians Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi, 25 centuries ago in the Kingdom of Chu: bosom friendship.
Only bosom friends can understand the music.
And with that, as Chinese scholars explained, Xi brought up the concept of Zhiyin.
After Zhong Ziqi died, Yu Boya broke his Guqin: he thought that no one else could understand his music. Their story imprinted the term “Zhiyin”: someone who understands music, with the added meaning of close friends that can completely understand each other.
All bets are off on whether a narcissist puppet like Macron would ever be cultured enough to understand Xi’s subtle, sophisticated message: those that get it are true soul mates.
Moreover, Macron was not dispatched to Beijing and Guangzhou by his masters to do soul mating, but to try to bend Xi towards NATO on Russia/Ukraine.
His body language is a dead giveaway – complete with crossing his arms demonstrating boredom. He may at first have been impervious to the notion that true friendship requires mutual understanding and appreciation.
But then something extraordinary happened.
Xi’s message may have touched a key spot in the tortured inner depths of the narcissist Petit Roi. What if, in international relations, mutual understanding and appreciation is the key for nations to find common ground and work together towards common goals?
What a revolutionary notion; not exactly the Hegemon-imposed “rules-based international order”.
Are you a true Sovereign?
By inviting Le Petit Roi to China, and personally spending no less than 6 hours with his guest, Xi enacted millenniums-old diplomacy at its best. He reminded his guest of the turbulent history between France and the Anglo-Saxon powers; and he talked about sovereignty.
The key subtle sub-plot: “Europe” better think hard about being subservient to the Hegemon and minimize as best as possible the massive economic turbulence when Confrontation Day with the U.S. arrives.
Implied is Beijing’s priority of breaking up growing U.S. attempts to encircle China.
So Xi treated France as a potential true Sovereign even under the EU; or somewhat splitting from EU dogma.
Of course another key message was implied under this Confucian invitation to epistemological growth. For those not willing to be friendly to China because of complex geopolitical layers, it will never be too late for Beijing to show the less “friendly” side of the Chinese state – if the situation arises.
Translation: if the West goes for Total Machiavelli, China will apply Total Sun Tzu. Even if Beijing would rather go for international relations under the aegis of Beauty, Goodness and Truth rather than “you’re with us or against us”, war of terror and sanctions dementia.
So did Petit Roi have a “road to Damascus” moment?
The verdict is open. He literally freaked the Hegemon out with his outburst that Europe must resist pressure to become “America’s followers”. That’s pretty much in synch with the 51 points agreed upon by Beijing and Paris, with emphasis on “legitimate security concerns of all parties”.
The Americans got even more spooked when Macron asserted that Europe should become an independent “third superpower”. Le Petit Roi even advanced some baby steps in favor of de-dollarization (certainly under supervision of his financial masters) and not in favor of Forever Wars.
So the Americans, in panic, had to send German 5th column Annalena “360 Degrees” Bearbock in a hurry to Beijing to try to undo Le Petit Roi’s outbursts – and reaffirm the Washington Dictates Brussels official script.
No one, anywhere, paid the slightest attention.
That came on top of the most glaring subplot of the whole tale: how European Commission dominatrix Ursula von der Leyen was treated by Beijing as worse than irrelevant.
A Chinese scholar scathingly described her as “just the mouthpiece of a canine organization with no teeth. Even her bark sounds like whimpering from a terminally ill dog that is about to be euthanized.”
The “terminally ill dog” had to go through passport control and customs (“Anything to declare”?) No diplomatic status. No official invitation. No sovereignty. And no, you cannot take the special high-speed train alongside Macron to go to Guangzhou. So here’s another message – this one quite graphic: Don’t mess with the 3,000-old Middle Kingdom ethos.
Lula and “Zhiyin”
Top Chinese scholars were absolutely riveted by Xi applying diplomatic stratagems that had been so useful 25 centuries ago, now re-enacted on the road-to-multipolarity global stage.
Some are calling for a new “Strategies for the Warring States” rewritten for the 21st century. The massive round table set up by Chinese protocol with the “jungle” in the middle and Macron and von der Leyen positioned as if for a job interview was a monster hit on Weibo and We Chat. That led to endless discussions on how China is now finally able to “drive a wedge among the barbarians”.
Compared to all this hoopla, the tale of Brazilian President Lula coming to Shanghai and Beijing reads like a graphic illustration of Zhiyin.
In simple, direct language that anyone from Sahara to Siberia can understand, Lula said, “Every night I ask myself why should every country need to be tied to the dollar for trade? Why can’t we trade in our own currencies? And why don’t we have the commitment to innovate?”
Directly implied is the fact that the expanding BRICS+ should design and promote its own currency (the long, complex process has already started), on top of allowing trade in national currencies.
Lula’s powerful message was addressed to the whole Global South. A Brazilian example is China’s ICBC setting up a clearing house in Brazil allowing direct yuan-real exchange.
It’s no wonder that the CIA official rag, the Washington Post, foaming at the mouth, immediately issued the Deep State verdict: Lula is not obeying the “rules-based international order” diktat.
That means the Deep State will come after Lula and his government – all over again, and will go no holds barred to destabilize it. Because what Lula said is exactly what Saddam Hussein and Colonel Gadaffi said – and tried to implement – in the past.
So Lula will need all the help he can get. Enter, once again, “Zhiyin”.
This is how Xi officially welcomed Lula in Beijing. Very few people around the world, non-Chinese, understand that when someone of Xi’s stature tells you, right in front of you, that you are “an old friend of China”, this is it.
All doors are open. They trust you, embrace you, protect you, listen to you, help you in times of need and will always do their best to keep the friendship close to their hearts.
And that ends, for now, our tale of “bosom friends” taking the road to Beijing.
The BRICS friend certainly understood all there is to know. As for the NATOstan Little King dreaming of becoming a true sovereign leader, the moment of truth is knocking at his door.
Movies dance scene mashup 2022
What will happen to the dollar?
It’s already worth zero.
main qimg 8ba3583cf747e09cdc5844056d261e74
The only reason why it is still being used is that those nations that wanted to stop using it ended up being assaulted by the American Military.
Remember Gaddiffi?
Ah. The rest of the world “shut their traps” and continued to endure. No one wanted to be gifted with “American Democratic wars”, and Lord help the people if a few “freedom bombs” and “American Exceptionalism” color-revolutionized the surrounding cities. Those stealth democracy bombers, and elite democracy warriors often blow-up first, and ask questions later.
Maybe that’s why we never seem to get answers…
To quote Donald Trump. “Sad. So very sad”.
Then came Russia and China.
They said “no more”.
Russia didn’t have much choice in the matter. American “freedom” came a knocking in Ukraine, and when Russia demanded that the USA obey their treaties, they were carpet-bombed with “freedom” Sanctions. One after the other. Democracy stealing this, Freedom sanctioning that, and let’s not forget the delicious “I make the rules and you obey them orders” out of Washington DC.
The rest of the world… jumped up holding their butts. Yikes! they thought. I don’t want any of those democracy-battle carriers being rammed up my backyard. Oh no!
And this has created the massive tidal wave of Geo-political changes that we are all now watching. Everyone is running. Heck.. sprinting as fast as they can away, far, far away from the smunching monster called “Dollar exceptionalism”.
I mean, if Beelzebub ever was a banker, he would make the USD exactly like what the United States uses. It is that evil incarnate.
So now, most of the rest of the world joined with the Asian block. And they are all trading among themselves using a “basket of currencies”. You know; stuff you can touch and feel.
Gold
Silver
Lithium
Manufactured goods
Solar panels
You know, stuff that everyone can feel and use.
Not the “slight of hand” and “emperor wears no clothes” IOU-dollar.
main qimg 6bc0c9d31a69d2f5052c1a67ef765a28
This means that the US Congressional spending spree will generate MUCH LARGER inflation increases than what we have seen so far.
Yikes!
Oh, to be certain, the OIU-USD will still be used. Just not as much.
Like really, REALLY not so much.
Perhaps to buy a few freedom nuclear submarines. But pretty much useless if you wanted a Starbucks Latte.
What is different is the International cause-and-effect mechanism will no longer be mitigated by dilution.
…
This is going to seem to the end-user as organic change.
But it is not, really. It will not be sudden, but it will be constant, and terrible. Over time, over months, and years, less and less will become the norm for Americans.
Those that wanna-be-Americans, like Australians, and Germans, and South Koreans, and Japanese will also feel the back-door of American influence. Don’t you know. Yikes.
Like I said. Slowly, and gradually. But never ending…
And those nations that hold US Treasure Bills (Like China) are taking steps to mitigate a backlash with the American house of cards comes a crashing down…
Yi Says China Largely Ended Currency Intervention in Market Tilt
People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said that Beijing has largely ended regular foreign-exchange intervention, and pursues a policy aimed at enhancing the ease of use of the yuan for Chinese households.
So China is going to allow the “USA House of Cards” to come a crashing down.
No “brakes”. No “fail safes”.
Those bridges are BURNED.
…
How bad will it get?
As an American, well I just cannot picture it. But as a history buff, I can see some serious parallels with other nations that fucked up financially. Not as bad as the United States today, but they can serve as a “tell tail”.
It will get to be really bad. REALLY bad.
2023 04 16 17 50
Wrestle Your Mailman And Other Small Ways To Feel Happy
1 62
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These scientifically proven methods are designed to boost your mood and make you a happier person in mere seconds! Under the name Obvious Plant, Jeff Wysaski is widely recognized as one of the funniest people on the Internet. You’ve seen his work trending on Facebook, Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post. Now, his comedy is available in book form.
The points on Russia are certainly interesting. But they also remark on the tussle between China and ‘multilateral’ international lenders about debt forgiveness. This is a theme that played out in Washington DC last week during a high-level sovereign debt roundtable on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring meetings in Washington.
RADHIKA DESAI: Well I think that the whole issue of debt, world debt in particular, has become a really important issue at this point, and it’s become an important issue because precisely now China is such a large part of the scene.I remember going back to the earliest days of the pandemic when Third World debt had also figured as a major issue. Already at that point, the key reason why the debt issues were not going to be settled is because the West could not come to terms with the fact that it had to deal with China, and that it had to deal equitably with China.
Because what the West wants to do is precisely to get China to refinance the debt owed to it so that Third World debt repayments go to private lenders.
And China is basically questioning the terms of all of this, because for example China is saying, “Why should the IMF and the World Bank have priority? Why should its debt not be canceled?”
And the West is saying, “But this has always been so.”
And China is saying, “Well, if you don’t want to reform the IMF and the World Bank, then we are not going to accept their priority. If we have to take a haircut, they will also have to take a haircut.”
They simply do not accept that these institutions, the Bretton Woods institutions, have any sort of priority.
And this is part of the undermining, as you were saying. This is one of the biggest changes since the First World War. And part of these changes is that the world made at the end of the Second World War by the imperialist powers, who are still very powerful, is now increasingly disappearing.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China is expected to drop its demand for multilateral development banks to share losses alongside other creditors in sovereign debt restructurings for poor nations, removing a major roadblock to debt relief, a source familiar with the plans said.The development is expected at a high-level sovereign debt roundtable on Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring meetings in Washington.
Beijing would no longer insist multilateral lenders take “haircuts” on loans to poor countries, the source said on Tuesday, while the IMF and World Bank agreed to ensure their debt sustainability analyses of countries undergoing debt restructurings would be made available to Chinese authorities earlier in the process.
The rumor that China would change its principle position turned out to be wrong. Reuters being abused by anonymous sources to make politics is not unusual. But in this case the piece came with a picture of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen so its likely that she was the “source familiar with the plans” which pushed this false rumor.
As the New York Times reported yesterday in way too many misleading words the issue was not resolved:
WASHINGTON — China, under growing pressure from top international policymakers, appeared to indicate this week that it is ready to make concessions that would unlock a global effort to restructure hundreds of billions of dollars of debt owed by poor countries.China has lent more than $500 billion to developing countries through its lending program, making it one of the world’s largest creditors.
…
The United States, along with other Western nations, has been pressing China to allow some of those countries to restructure their debt and reduce the amount that they owe. But for more than two years, China has insisted that other creditors and multilateral lenders absorb financial losses as part of any restructuring, bogging down a critical loan relief process and threatening to push millions of people in developing countries deeper into poverty.
…
Ghana appealed to the Group of 20 nations this year for debt relief through a fledgling program known as the Common Framework after securing preliminary approval for a $3 billion loan from the I.M.F. That money is contingent on Ghana’s receiving assurances that it can restructure the approximately $30 billion that it owes to foreign lenders. Officials from Ghana have been meeting with their Chinese counterparts about restructuring the $2 billion that it owes China.
…
Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Friday that China had put forward a three-point proposal that included calling for the I.M.F. to more quickly share its debt sustainability assessments for countries that need relief, and for creditors to detail how they will carry out the restructurings on “comparable terms.”
The three point proposal is not a change but simply a repeat of China’s long standing position:
Spokesperson发言人办公室 @MFA_China – 15:09 UTC · Apr 14, 2023To effectively resolve the debt issue, the key lies in joint participation of multilateral, bilateral and commercial creditors under the principles of joint actions and fair burden-sharing.
The case of Ghana shows that the IMF, over which the U.S. has a veto, will only lend fresh money if bilateral lenders like China, but not the ‘multilateral’ IMF or World Bank, nor private ‘western’ lenders, take haircuts.
A long People’s Dispatch piece about the IMF and Ghana’s debt crisis describes how the debt spiral is hitting the poor but resource rich countries again and again. The debt is a continuation of colonialism and China has little to do with that:
Based on the World Bank’s International Debt Statistics, 64% of Ghana’s scheduled foreign currency external debt service, which includes principal and interest amounts, between 2023 and 2029 is to private lenders. 20% of the debt is to multilateral institutions and 6% to other governments. Notably, while mainstream reporting on Ghana’s debt scenario tends to emphasize China as the country’s “biggest bilateral creditor,” only 10% of Accra’s external debt service is owed to Beijing.Approximately $13 billion of Ghana’s external debt is held in the form of Eurobonds by major asset management corporations including BlackRock, Abrdn, and Amundi (UK) Limited. “Ghana’s lenders, particularly private lenders, lent at high-interest rates because of the supposed risk of lending to Ghana,” the open letter read.
“The interest rate on Ghana’s Eurobonds is between 7% and 11%. That risk has materialized… Given that they lent seeking high returns, it is only right that following these economic shocks, private lenders willingly accept losses and swiftly agree to significant debt cancellation for Ghana.”
In 2020 the G20 promised to implement a Common Framework for debt relief:
[T]he Common Framework had the opportunity to provide a broader debt cancellation, involving private creditors alongside bilateral lenders in the process to ensure that countries’ debts became sustainable.“But very little was done to outline the details of how that would work. While the G20 stated that government and private lenders would be included in the scheme, however, multilateral lenders were excluded,” [Tim Jones, the head of policy at Debt Justice,] said.
“They did not give any new mechanisms to countries to negotiate a reduction in their debt owed to private creditors, leaving it to the debtor governments to say ‘If you want debt cancellation from governments, you have to negotiate the same deal from private creditors.’ But they did not offer any tools to help indebted countries to do that.”
There should of course be a mechanism by which countries can restructure their debt and in which all lenders make similar concessions. However the IMF and others offer no such thing. They are only willing to give more money when a country makes political concessions over IMF prescribed austerity measures and uses the fresh money to pay private ‘western’ lenders.
China is now determined to end that scheme. China insists that the IMF, the World Bank and private lenders take a similar share of debt losses as it is willing to take:
China is willing to implement the common framework for debt disposal with other countries, China’s central bank governor Yi Gang said during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings, according to a statement released by the People’s Bank of China on Friday.
Echoing Yi’s remark, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Friday that China attaches great importance to the sovereign debt issue of developing countries and called for multilateral creditors, bilateral creditors and commercial creditors to participate in debt handling in accordance with joint action and fair manner.
…
“China has contributed more than anyone else to implementing the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). Besides, we have played a constructive part in the treatment of individual cases under the G20 Common Framework,” Wang said.
…
In contrast, Western creditors claim they need to maintain their credit rating and have thus refused to be part of the debt relief and service suspension effort, Wang said, noting that unprecedented massive interest rate hikes have led to tightening of financial conditions worldwide, making the severe debt problems of certain countries even worse.
China continues to press for its new scheme of international debt relief under equal terms for all lender. I am not ware of any pressure point the ‘West’ could use to change that position.
The IMF and its abusive role in global debt was likely a subject matter in the hours long talks Presidents Xi and Putin had in Moscow last month. Lets remember what was said at the end of that visit:
“Right now there are changes – the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years – and we are the ones driving these changes together,” Xi told Putin as he stood at the door of the Kremlin to bid him farewell.The Russian president responded: “I agree.”
As Radhika Desai, quoted above, said about China’s debt relief standpoint:
This is one of the biggest changes since the First World War.
Well obviously, the one thing the characterizes the new global World Majority order is a mixed economy where other countries will do what China has done. They will make money and land, meaning housing, and employment into public rights and public utilities instead of commodifying them and privatizing them and financializing them as has occurred in the West.So we’re really talking about, in order to move away from the dollar-NATO-sphere, we’re not really talking about just one national currency or another.
It’s not going to be a question of the Chinese yen and the Russian ruble and other currencies replacing the dollar. It’s a whole different economic system.
That’s the one thing that is not permitted in the mainstream media to discuss. They’re still on the “There Is No Alternative” Margaret Thatcher slogan, instead of talking about: What is the alternative going to be?
Because obviously things cannot last the way they are now.
Posted by b on April 15, 2023 at 17:30 UTC | Permalink
Thai Chicken Bundles
2023 04 16 17 15
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
8 Rhodes Texas Rolls or 12 Dinner Rolls, thawed
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 cup cooked chicken, chopped
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1 cup grated hot pepper Monterey jack cheese
Mango chutney, if desired
Instructions
Combine 2 Texas rolls or 3 dinner rolls together and flatten into a 6 to 7 inch square. Repeat with remaining rolls.
In a large bowl, combine sour cream, peanut butter, curry powder, ginger, garlic salt and soy sauce. Mix well.
Add chicken, carrots and cheese and toss until well combined.
Divide chicken mixture evenly between dough squares. Bring 4 corners of each dough square up over filling, to meet in the middle, overlapping slightly. Secure with a toothpick.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve with mango chutney, if desired.
Did American weaponization of the dollar and assault on global trade networks greatly accelerate the demise of U.S. former hegemony?
The way things have been going, I believe so.
The actions and words from the US seems toxic and desperate. From stealing oil from Syria to generating conflicts whether ’hot’ or ‘cold’ with Ukraine and China, it is obvious they have chosen confrontation instead of diplomacy. My take on the Nordstream sabotage bears signs of US bullying footmarks. (With the EU response in dragging their feet on the issue only indicates that their leaders have been forewarned not to tread on it.)
Their indiscriminate issuance of their currency foretell their financial shortfall in their attempt to maintain that do-or-die hegemonic privileges that they’ve enjoyed at the expense of others, EU and allies included.
Now it looks like they’ve trampled on more grounds than they can possibly handle, they turn to allies to do their dirty work by proxy.
Their hegemony is rotting so badly that one can’t avoid but ‘smells’ it daily.
Is there a worldwide run on the Bank of the United States of America?
by Douglas MacKinnon, Opinion Contributor – 04/15/23 12:00 PM ET.In talking this week with a friend about the United States seemingly imploding from within across multiple sectors, my friend stressed:
“It’s not just from within. There is a run on the United States from certain nations and business interests around the world.
Just like there was a run on banks after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, many nations are either thinking about — or actually proceeding with — transferring at least a portion of their allegiance, assets and commitments from the ‘Bank of the U.S.’ to the ‘Bank of China’ or elsewhere.”
This was not just some person sitting on a porch casually talking about current events while whittling a stick waiting for his Social Security or pension check to hit the mailbox.
This was a former high-level U.S. government official, now a CEO, someone who sits on the boards of directors for multiple companies. He has massive real-world and business experience and believes the United State may be on the verge of collapse.
He is far from the only one to think that.
Some fear the Biden administration is losing control of our southern border; losing control of our decaying, crime-infested big cities; creating a recession; vilifying and needlessly destroying the fossil fuel industry while pushing suspect and subsidized “green” energy alternatives; leaving tens of billions of dollars in military equipment in Afghanistan while withdrawing our troops and abandoning an ally; stepping closer to a trip-wire in the Ukraine war, which could trigger a nuclear strike; turning on Israel over ideological issues as Turkey and others call on Arab and Muslim nations to unite and crush the Jewish State; weakening our military with one “woke” edict after another; focusing on “trans” issues at the expense of failing transportation infrastructure; cheerleading the social justice warrior takeover of our colleges and universities; and weakening the dollar (the currency much of the world depends upon).
Is it any wonder, then, that nations such as France, India, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and others are suddenly hedging their bets by looking beyond the United States of America for partnerships and stability?
On top of those problems, our allies and certain foreign corporations now have the legitimate concern of wondering what between them and the United States will be kept private and secure, in light of the massive and reportedly deliberate leak of classified Pentagon documents.
Who is an ally or foreign business partner to trust? More importantly, in the eyes of some of these nations and foreign business interests, who will prove to be the more stable and dependable partner in the coming years and decades?
In an example of a world leader hedging his bets, French President Emmanuel Macron recently traveled to Beijing to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping. Macron did not travel alone. He brought along Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. Some saw this as Macron advertising that much of the European Union was with him in spirit as he met with Xi.
On his way back to France after the meeting, Macron emphasized that Europeans should not be “just America’s followers” and “get caught up in crises that are not ours.” Even though the French leader seemed to be spelling it out in 100-font, one could read between the lines and assume he meant not getting dragged too deeply into the Ukraine war or defending Taiwan, should China invade. The last part was music to the ears of China’s strongman, Xi.
Next, we have Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador openly criticizing — and challenging — the leadership of the United States for months, by calling the U.S. an “oligarchy, not a real democracy.” He threatened to sabotage calls for U.S. military action against Mexican cartels, and has made it clear that he is not afraid to pick a fight with what he may see as a United States in decline.
Or, last month’s news that Saudi Arabia was inching closer to joining a China-led Asian security and economic bloc, after having been granted the status of a dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Aside from China and Russia, the bloc also includes India, Pakistan and some ex-Soviet states. It’s an organization one might view as not always having the best interests of the United States in mind.
As Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst and writer, made clear during an interview: “The traditional monogamous relationship with the US is now over. And we have gone into a more open relationship, strong with the U.S. but equally strong with China, India, [the] UK, France and others.”
Finally, we have Brazil — China’s most important trading partner in South America — announcing a new agreement to conduct bilateral commerce in their respective currencies, rather than the U.S. dollar. The move not only shocked many in the U.S. government but opened the eyes of others around the world to the possibility of decoupling from the dollar.
Some believe these things are happening because a growing number of political and business leaders around the world now lack confidence in the United States, believing our country truly is in disarray, decline and increasingly polarized and politicized. Will such concerns accelerate a “run on the Bank of the United States” with assets being transferred to China or even Russia?
Only time will tell. But as with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the signs are out there, should the analysts care to pay attention.
No matter how crazy things get, keep in mind that there are a couple of things that you can count on…
The United States fails at everything it does, tries to do, or intends to do.
China succeeds at everything it does, tries to do and intends to do.
So, were a “hot” war to occur between the two powers, it is unlikely that the above calculus would change.
Hoàng Thuỳ Linh – See Tình | Official Music Video
Vietnamese song very popular in China. Watch the entire video.
Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?
I had worked at a nuclear power station for 28 years as a nuclear chemist and chemistry supervisor. I decided to step down from management and take a computer analysist position for our IT department. I had earned a masters degree in computer science and felt I needed some more hands on experience with computers if I wanted to work part time in retirement.
The person whose job I was taking over, told me that he routinely backed up the hard drives on critical computers in the plant. One such computer was an ancient DELL PC that had proprietary hardware and software running on it. The purpose of the computer was to automatically extract and convert plant equipment analog signals to digital which was used by control room personnel to monitoring critical plant equipment during operation.
While he was showing me how to do this, I asked him, “Do you defrag the hard drive before backing it up?” He said he never thought about that and it sounded like a good idea. When we went to try and defrag it it looked similar to this:
main qimg cb35b2fe84f0bc7647b97d4cdc36c9ba lq
Only it was solid red. It was over 85% fragmented. Even after several attempts, we couldn’t defrag it. I suggested we get another hard drive and image it with an older, clean backup, just in case the one on the computer failed. Unfortunately, it didn’t exist and the company who developed the software no longer supported it. To make matters worse when I opened up the computer case to get hardware information it looked similar to this:
main qimg 9cbe9b4b658874dfdb6fad863a29c78f lq
I pretty much considered it a miracle that it had survived as long as it did. About the only thing we could do blow it out with air and pray that it would keep running long enough to find and build a replacement, which took nearly a year. I only stayed at this job for a little over a year simple because of the nightmares.
Documents posted online appeared to reveal details of how US agencies spy on other nations, including allies.
A series of documents, purporting to contain highly classified Pentagon intelligence related to the Ukraine war and information gathering on close US allies, have emerged online in recent weeks.
As United States media has increasingly reported on the apparent leak, officials have walked a careful line in their response, with Pentagon spokesman Chris Meagher saying that the circulating photos “appear to show documents similar in format” to those provided to senior military leaders.
On Monday, Meagher said the documents could pose “a very serious risk to national security”.
While further details have continued to emerge, it is clear the situation has sent shock waves through the US administration, as it seeks to contain and assess the scope of any data breach, while roiling allies.
Here’s what you need to know.
Where did the documents first emerge?
According to the investigative website Bellingcat, the documents appear to have first
emerged in photos posted on Discord, an online social media platform that is popular with gamers.
The photos show creased documents placed on top of magazines and other household objects. Former officials who reviewed the photos told the New York Times they appeared to have been folded, possibly to be taken from a secure location in a pocket.
Bellingcat further traced the leak to a now-defunct Discord server. Their research suggested that the documents had already appeared on social media in March, when some were dated. The open-source investigative website also said it had viewed evidence some of the documents were posted as far back as January on Discord.
The documents bear classified markings, with some labelled “top secret”, the highest level of classification, and appear to be briefing slides prepared by the US military’s chief of staff.
Some also contain the marking NOFORN, or “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals”, meaning they cannot be shared with foreign intelligence agencies, including Five Eyes, the collection of spy agencies in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, according to the New York Times.
The images of the documents spread from Discord to the online imageboard 4chan, before emerging on more mainstream social media platforms, according to Bellingcat.
Who may have leaked the documents?
The US Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the incident, but amid much speculation, no official information has been released on a possible leaker.
The NOFORN classification and geographical breadth of information contained in the documents have led some to speculate the leaker is American, although two US officials told the Reuters news agency that authorities had not ruled out the possibility the documents may have been altered to hide their origin.
One official told Reuters that investigators were looking at four or five theories, from a disgruntled employee to an insider threat who actively wanted to undermine US national security interests.
It was also unclear how the documents came into the possession of the person who leaked them.
But on Tuesday, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed to uncover the identity of the possible leaker: “We will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it.”
And later that day, in a speech from Texas’s Rice University, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, said that the ongoing investigations into the source of the leaks was “quite intense”.
What do the documents appear to show, and which countries are involved?
The documents purport to reveal a wide range of information, including potentially sensitive information about the Ukraine war. They also indicate that the US has been eavesdropping on its allies, including South Korea and Israel.
Ukraine – If proven authentic, the leaks suggest that the US had been monitoring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s calls with defence and military officials by using signals intelligence.
They also reveal apparent weaknesses in the Ukrainian air defence systems and the size of military battalions.
Russia – The documents would also reveal that the US had penetrated the Russian military forces and the Wagner Group, a mercenary organisation, much more than previously understood.
The documents also reference details about the internal planning of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency. Much of that information on Russian troop movements was gathered through human sources who could now be at risk.
United Arab Emirates – One document appears to show that US spies had caught Russian intelligence officers boasting that they had convinced the oil-rich UAE “to work together against US and UK intelligence agencies”.
The Emirati government on Monday dismissed the accusation that the UAE had deepened ties with Russian intelligence as “categorically false”.
Egypt – One leaked document appeared to show that Egypt planned to supply Russia with rockets and munitions. The paper, dated February 17, claims to summarise conversations between President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and senior Egyptian military officials.
South Korea – Another document appears to provide details of alleged internal discussions among top aides to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol that suggest that the US applied pressure on Seoul to help supply the US with artillery shells, which could then be sent to Ukraine.
Israel – One document, which appears to be a CIA intelligence update from March 1, suggests Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, was encouraging its officers to participate in protests against their government’s plans to weaken the independence of the judiciary. Israel has denied Mossad played a role in the anti-government protests.
What advice can you give to someone who is on the fence about whether or not Western media sources can ever be trusted when they criticize the CCP?
I like Logic
So let’s see the facts here
First is Chinas enormous growth
This is undeniable. From a Agrarian Economy of zero consequence in the 1960s to one of the most powerful industrialized nations on Earth in the 2020s
It happened under the CPC
main qimg 8b81bef8385b4ba2dab22b84a5756de2
The Average Chinese has become more educated, has more access to healthcare, has money, has a job and has prospects
And this is a Nation of a whopping 1.4 Billion people
So that’s a big big thanks to the CPC
How do i know?
Just look at my Country INDIA
I hate putting down my Country in a public forum but I like facts
In the 1960s we were ahead of the Chinese both Industrially and Development wise
main qimg 0955b8eb3d1deceaa9e2042656682ce3
Yet in 2023 ,
our Economy is a Sixth of the size of the Chinese ,
our trade is still in deficit,
we have four times more poor rural households than the Chinese,
We have near zero core technology while even Russia has its Telegram,
We have near zero high manufacture while even Iran makes war grade Drones near indigenously
Since both Nations started at the same time, , were both Socialist for decades and since both Nations began equally poor and since I won’t assume Racial Superiority
The ONLY THING DIFFERENT IS ONE PARTY MERITOCRACY VS CESSPIT DEMOCRACY
Nothing else is different between the Two Nations
main qimg fd91b6b9ef650dfc2ded46aed987d59b
And I don’t buy this excuse of religious and cultural diversity being Indias enemy. That’s nonsense
From Bhabha to Tata to Ambani to Premji to Narayana murthy we had Parsi to Hindu to Muslim creating our Industries
Therefore the CPC must have done something that Democracy simply cannot.
And look at India today?
Everything is Politics
An Expressway is not complete and yet is inaugurated at abysmally high costs because of an election
Discipline and Masking were ignored due to elections resulting literally in Covid II and Delta decimating over 150–200K Indians, many rolling about on the roads and dying
Look at China today?
After three years of Lockdowns, they still grew more than India over a three year aggregate timeframe and lost virtually a sixth of the lives that India lost
Again the only difference – CPC versus Democracy
I see nothing else different
On one hand I see a Party without any opposition, doing the best for their people realizing that a Prosperous China is what everyone wants
I see a Populace that agrees and gives mandate to the party in exchange for Growth and Respect of China
Meanwhile i see how Democracy (God I loathe that word so much) has pushed the world into four conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and seven sizeable regime changes
I see how Democracy has created an Evil Hegemony
I see how Democracy no longer does what the people want, acting every day like brutal dictatorships but pretending to be free Nations
My Advise is thus simple
You heard of a Berlin Wall right?
You know of any such Wall preventing Chinese from leaving China and never coming back?
Nopes
You see the same Western Leaders and their Business Execs meeting Chinese Leaders every day right?
You see Zelensky desperately hanging on to that “Phone call” from Xi
You see Peace between neighbors who were enemies for almost a decade or longer being supervised by the Chinese
So now you tell me – WHOM WOULD YOU BE ROOTING FOR?
And in case you choose the Western Media
Trust me the CPC doesnt give a damn. They simply go on with their jobs
Chicken Gyros with Dill Sauce
Chicken Gyros with Dill Sauce is a traditional Greek sandwich.
chicken gyros 7sm 5 680×1020 1
Ingredients
1 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 pound skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 fresh pita bread rounds, heated
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
In small bowl blend together yogurt, 2 tablespoons dill, garlic and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken with oregano, 1 teaspoon dill, salt and pepper. Sauté until browned and cooked through, about about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon oil to skillet and sauté onions until golden brown, about 10 minutes.
Return chicken and any juices to skillet. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Stir until heated through, about 2 minutes.
Top pita rounds with chicken mixture. Spoon dill sauce over chicken and serve. This sandwich is folded in half and eaten. Pass the extra sauce, as desired.
The single Iranian-Saudi handshake buried trillions of dollars of western divide-and-rule investments across West Asia, and has global leaders rushing to Beijing for global solutions.
By Pe.pe Es.cobar
April 07 2023
The idea that History has an endpoint , as promoted by clueless neoconservatives in the unipolar 1990s, is flawed, as it is in an endless process of renewal. The recent official meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Beijing marks a territory that was previously deemed unthinkable and which has undoubtedly caused grief for the War Inc. machine.
This single handshake signifies the burial of trillions of dollars that were spent on dividing and ruling West Asia for over four decades.
Additionally, the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the fabricated reality of the new millennium, featured as prime collateral damage in Beijing.
Beijing’s optics as the capital of peace have been imprinted throughout the Global South, as evidenced by a subsequent sideshow where a couple of European leaders, a president, and a Eurocrat, arrived as supplicants to Xi Jinping, asking him to join the NATO line on the war in Ukraine.
They were politely dismissed.
Still, the optics were sealed: Beijing had presented a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine that was branded “irrational” by the Washington beltway neocons. The Europeans – hostages of a proxy war imposed by Washington – at least understood that anyone remotely interested in peace needs to go through the ritual of bowing to the new boss in Beijing.
The irrelevance of the JCPOA
Tehran-Riyadh relations, of course, will have a long, rocky way ahead – from activating previous cooperation deals signed in 1998 and 2001 to respecting, in practice, their mutual sovereignty and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Everything is far from solved – from the Saudi-led war on Yemen to the frontal clash of Persian Gulf Arab monarchies with Hezbollah and other resistance movements in the Levant. Yet that handshake is the first step leading, for instance, to the Saudi foreign minister’s upcoming trip to Damascus to formally invite President Bashar al-Assad to the Arab League summit in Riyadh next month.
It’s crucial to stress that this Chinese diplomatic coup started way back with Moscow brokering negotiations in Baghdad and Oman; that was a natural development of Russia stepping in to help Iran save Syria from a crossover NATO-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) coalition of vultures.
Then the baton was passed to Beijing, in total diplomatic sync.
The drive to permanently bury GWOT and the myriad, nasty ramifications of the US war of terror was an essential part of the calculation; but even more pressing was the necessity to demonstrate how the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, had become irrelevant.
Both Russia and China have experienced, inside and out, how the US always manages to torpedo a return to the JCPOA, as it was conceived and signed in 2015. Their task became to convince Riyadh and GCC states that Tehran has no interest in weaponizing nuclear power – and will remain a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Then it was up to Chinese diplomatic finesse to make it quite clear that the Persian Gulf monarchies’ fear of revolutionary Shi’ism is now as counter-productive as Tehran’s dread of being harassed and/or encircled by Salafi-jihadis. It’s as if Beijing had coined a motto: drop these hazy ideologies, and let’s do business.
And business it is, and will be: better yet, mediated by Beijing and implicitly guaranteed by both nuclear superpowers Russia and China.
Hop on the de-dollarization train
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) may exhibit some Soprano-like traits, but he’s no fool: he instantly saw how this Chinese offer morphed beautifully into his domestic modernization plans. A Gulf source in Moscow, familiar with MbS’ rise and consolidation of power, details the crown prince’s drive to appeal to the younger Saudi generation who idolize him. Let girls drive their SUVs, go dancing, let their hair down, work hard, and be part of the “new” Saudi Arabia of Vision 2030: a global tourism and services hub, a sort of Dubai on steroids.
And, crucially, this will also be a Eurasia-integrated Saudi Arabia ; future, inevitable member of both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS+ – just like Iran, which will also be sitting at the same communal tables.
From Beijing’s point of view, this is all about its ambitious, multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A key BRI connectivity corridor runs from Central Asia to Iran and then beyond, to the Caucasus and/or Turkey. Another one – in search of investment opportunities – runs through the Arabian Sea, the Sea of Oman, and the Persian Gulf, part of the Maritime Silk Road.
applied to sustainable development. The Chinese always remember how the Ancient Silk Roads plied Persia and parts of Arabia: in this case, we have History Repeating Itself.
A geopolitical revolution
And then comes the Holy Grail: energy. Iran is a prime gas supplier to China, a matter of national security, inextricably linked to their $400 billion-plus strategic partnership deal. And Saudi Arabia is a prime oil supplier. Closer Sino-Saudi relations and interaction in key multipolar organizations such as the SCO and BRICS+ advance the fateful day when the petroyuan will be definitely enshrined.
. The high-speed de-dollarization train has already left the station. ASEAN is already actively discussing how to bypass the dollar to privilege settlements in local currencies – something unthinkable even a few months ago. The US dollar has already been thrown into a death by a thousand cuts spiral.
And that will be the day when the game reaches a whole new unpredictable level.
The destructive agenda of the neocon leaders in charge of US foreign policy should never be underestimated. They exploited the 9/11 “new Pearl Harbor” pretext to launch a crusade against the lands of Islam in 2001, followed by a NATO proxy war against Russia in 2014. Their ultimate ambition is to wage war against China before 2025.
However, they are now facing a swift geopolitical and geoeconomic revolt of the World’s Heartland – from Russia and China to West Asia, and extrapolating to South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and selected latitudes in Latin America.
The turning point came on 26 February, 2022, when Washington’s neocons – in a glaring display of their shallow intellects – decided to freeze and/or steal the reserves of the only nation on the planet equipped with all the commodities that really matter, and with the necessary nous to unleash a momentous shift to a monetary system not anchored in fiat money.
That was the fateful day when the cabal, identified by journalist Seymour Hersh as responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, actually blew the whistle for the high-speed de-dollarization train to leave the station, led by Russia, China, and now – welcome on board – Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Neil Diamond – Sweet Caroline (Live At The Greek Theatre / 2012)
Is the housing crisis really tough on China? How is it affecting the lives of common man in China?
It’s great for the common man/woman. For the investor? Not so much.
If you’ve been following me for a while, affordability for common people is much better than in the past. People can afford to buy homes now and don’t have to borrow so much.
Other half bit the bullet and bought a home in Foshan recently. Back in 2020 she needed to borrow an fair chunk of money. 2023 she only needed to borrow 15%.
I so happened to look over and see a Sherriff pumping his gas, so I walk over and kindly ask him if he could help since I was alone and 4 hours from home. He looked at me and kind of brushed me off as if he had better things to do.
This gentleman in the picture named Klennis overheard and saw that the cop wasn’t interested in helping me and said “come on I will help you”. Klennis knew the tire wasn’t any good anymore. I thought I had a spare in the trunk but sadly I did not. Long story but Klennis was able to retrieve a new tire at wall mart and managed to get the tire off the rim to replace it with the new tire. Klennis’s son and another young man were able to help the process along. God was truly watching over me on my delay home.
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Angels come in all shapes and sizes. Klennis worked 2 continuous hours trying to get me back on the road. He told me he had a daughter who was 21 and he would want the same for her if she was in my situation. I was truly blessed to be able to get back on the road and make it home safe and sound. Klennis Anders if you guys happen to run into Klennis please tell him what a wonderful man he is! My family truly appreciates the selflessness this man offered upon me.”
By Lisa James Thompson
Lush – Kiss Chase
American grunge.
Why doesn’t France buy American fighter jets?
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France deliberately refuses to buy American military equipment in a bid to maintain autonomy in terms of their foreign policy. While everyone else in NATO heavily buys American, France has made the deliberate decision to go it alone on as much as possible. As a result, France buys local for virtually all major combat systems: fighter jets, tanks, artillery, ships, submarines, etc.
Make no mistake, it would be far cheaper for France in monetary terms to buy into massive American defense programs that take advantage of economies of scale rather than to go it alone. However in doing so, it would surrender control of its foreign policy to its Anglo-American rivals. As a result, France makes the conscious decision to pay for more expensive equipment, so long as it is locally produced.
Unicorn Being A Jerk
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Mystical, gentle, magical . . . as if. You’ve obviously neverseen a unicorn in his natural habitat—those guys are jerks. CartoonistC. W. Moss reveals the less-than-wonderful side of the world’s most wondrouscreature in his hilarious series of single panel comics, UnicornBeing A Jerk.
Take a gander at what these fantastical creaturesare really like, in comics like “Unicorn Being a Stalker,” “UnicornTrying to Peek at Breast-feeding Woman’s Nipple,” “Unicorn Denying theHolocaust,” and more. Readers of Moss’s online strip will love thesignificantly expanded book, which features what Moss describes as “a wholebunch of new illustrations,” in a collection perfect for fans of The Book ofBunny Suicides, Cyanide & Happiness, Penny Arcade and TheTruth about Chuck Norris.
I never tried bremelanotide but I've read positive reviews. I tried a similar drug called sublingual apomorphine hydrochloride (brand names Uprima, Zyprima), which is also a centrally acting drug and it worked really well.
Putin: I still think of Ukrainians as our brotherly nation. What is happening is not our fault
An expanded meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Defenсe was held in Moscow on December 21. During the meeting, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu delivered a keynote speech. President Vladimir Putin also spoke at the meeting. Below are key remarks that Shoigu and Putin made about the army, the special operation and priority tasks for 2023.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin:
Of course, the hostilities and military operations are always associated with tragedy and loss of lives. We understand this very well, we are aware of this. But since this [conflict] is inevitable, better today than tomorrow. I think that everyone present in this auditorium perfectly understands what I am talking about.
I still consider the Ukrainian people our brotherly nation. What is happening now is a tragedy, but it does not come as a result of our policy.
We need to study NATO’s experience and tactics in order to include that in the troops training programme and equipping the army. NATO weapons must be analyzed and used to build the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Russia will continue to develop the nuclear triad. This is the main guarantee of maintaining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.
As many as 150,000 of the 300,000 mobilised are now undergoing training at training grounds. The other half is in the zone of hostilities. This is enough for the special operation.
The past mobilisation has revealed certain problems. To eliminate them, we need to modernise the system of military commissariats.
The hostilities have identified issues that need to be worked on, including communication issues.
The Ministry of Defence should be attentive to criticism. The ministry should respond to it in a timely manner.
Everything a fighter needs must be modern and reliable.
Officers and sergeants who have gained experience in the special operation should be assigned to new positions as a matter of priority.
It is necessary to develop and use drones in the army — they must be everywhere.
We need to expand the arsenal of modern attack weapons.
Sarmat intercontinental missiles will be put on combat duty in the near future.
The Admiral Gorshkov frigate with state-of-the-art Zirkon hypersonic missile systems will enter combat service in early 2023.
We need to saturate the troops with everything necessary — from modern first-aid kits to sights. Everything is important on the battlefield.
There are no restrictions to finance the Russian Armed Forces. The country gives the army everything they ask for.
We’ve got everything.
We look forward to constructive and meaningful negotiations with a visible end result that would ensure equal security for all, within a certain timeframe.
We will not engage in the militarization of the country and economy.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu:
A priority goal for 2023 is to continue the special operation until its full completion.
Russia is always open to constructive peace talks.
Partial mobilisation was carried out to stabilise the situation, protect new territories and carry out further offensive operations.
300,000 people were called up for partial mobilisation, 830,000 people working at defence industry enterprises and other socially significant areas were exempt from the draft.
More than 20,000 people volunteered for the troops.
During the special operation, more than 100,000 people received state awards, 120 of them were awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
More than 250,000 servicemen gained combat experience during the special operation.
When recruiting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, we need to gradually raise the conscription age of citizens from 18 to 21 years, and the upper conscription age — to 30 years.
It is necessary to increase the strength of Russian Armed Forces to 1.5 million people, including 670,000 contract soldiers.
It is necessary to accept Borey-A project nuclear cruiser Emperor Alexander III, as well as 4 submarines and 12 surface ships into the fleet.
To strengthen the troops participating in the special operation, the supplies of most popular types of weapons have been rescheduled from 2024-2025 to 2023.
The Russian Army strikes military command and control system, military-industrial complex enterprises, and related facilities in Ukraine, destroying arms supplies chains.
During special exercises, the Russian nuclear forces successfully practiced the delivery of a massive strike in response to the use of weapons of mass destruction by the enemy.
Are durians as smelly as I’ve heard?
Ah durians! I’d heard about them for years. I’ve seen them frozen at my local Chinese grocery but I’d never tried them until recently. While in Southeast Asia I had durian in Malaysia and Singapore.
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Do durians smell bad? No. I say that very honestly, and I have a weak stomach when it comes to smells. Seriously. You can be bleeding to death and I will snap into action without the sight of blood bothering me. But if I clean out the fridge and something was forgotten at the back of it? I’ll throw the plastic storage container away because if I try to clean it I will be sick on my stomach and have another mess to clean. Nope. Containers are cheap at the Dollar Store. Mopping my kitchen floor extra is not worth it. Anyway, I digress…
Durian is, however, pungent, aromatic, and musky. The taste though, is delicious! Don’t just take my word for it:
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Durian is so creamy and melts in your mouth. It’s very sweet. I will say, the two I had were a bit bitter in aftertaste but I think there are some types of durian that are just sweet. It’s rich in vitamins and nutrients.
I’ll tell you a humorous story. When I was in Singapore I struggled with public transport. My town is so small that we don’t have it. I’m used to driving everywhere. The MRT and bus routes were overwhelming. (I honestly think when I return I need some sort of map that outlines where everything is and what lines run where.) I felt very lost. So when I didn’t ride with friends or have someone helping me figure out the bus routes I took taxis.
One night I was out with a friend and it was getting late. She helped me find a taxi stop where I could wait. I queued with everyone and finally it was my turn. I quickly enter the cab and immediately I knew there was durian nearby. Before I can even fasten my seatbelt the driver starts apologizing.
“What’s wrong? Why are you sorry?” I asked.
“My last passengers had durian and now it smells ah!” He said.
“Oh is that all? Don’t worry about it. No big deal. It’s just durian.” I said.
“You don’t mind? Usually if I have passengers who aren’t local they would complain.” He said.
“No! I don’t mind the smell. The durian I’ve eaten here was very good. I have no reason to complain. I just appreciate you taking me home late.” I assured him.
“Are you from England or Australia? You have a different accent.” He asked.
I laughed heartily. “Oh my goodness. Wait until I tell people back home that someone thought I sounded sophisticated enough to be from England or Australia! They’ll never believe it! No, I’m from the United States. And yes my accent is definitely there. The Southern US has a distinct one.”
We chatted about our countries politics after that. He taught me some of LKY’s quotes. Finally we arrived and he came around to open my door and said, “I’m sorry. You’ll go inside smelling like durian.”
“Don’t worry. If anyone asks I’ll just say it’s a new perfume!”
If you’re ever in Southeast Asia and have the opportunity you must at least try it. It isn’t fair to dislike something unless you try it first! And if you approach the experience with a positive attitude I really think you’ll like it!
Ozean – Scenic – THE BEST DREAMPOP SONG YOU’VE NEVER HEARD (but the lyrics are AI generated images)
Why is there a labor shortage in the United States? Please no comments like “because of lazy people.”
Because of cheap employers.
Plus some other stuff I’ll get to in the end.
As I write this, the US unemployment rate is holding at 3.6%. That’s around a 50-year low. And it suggests there aren’t a lot of jobless people left.
But remember that figure is a percentage of the people looking for work. If only there was some way to coax some of those people back into the labor force…
Oh. Right. The minimum wage has been $7.25/hour since 2009. Just to keep up with inflation, employers should be paying $10.33. Throw in the risks of spending your day inches away from unmasked customers in the age of COVID, and minimum-wage fast food, retail and hospitality jobs are looking like a really bad deal.
So make the deal better.
As many McDonald’s have done. But you can see the problem there at the bottom of the sign: full time.
Full time gets you 2x the minimum wage, and, presumably, healthcare. So tight-fisted employers like Walmart have lots of jobs that require 30 or so hours a week that offer no consistency of hours, no benefits, crap pay, and few prospects for promotion.
And they’re surprised they’ve got jobs they can’t fill.
For the last few decades, the rich have been getting richer and everyone else has been getting… the same as always. COVID changed that. It gave workers, even those not in a union, more bargaining power than they’ve had since I was in short pants. Employers either sweeten the offer, or man the burger grills themselves.
The smartest thing Congress could do — but won’t — is raise the minimum wage. That would lift the playing field for EVERYONE, and give working class people the financial breathing room needed to start spending again.
The usual counterargument is that it would put some mom-and-pop businesses out of business. Which is possibly true. But if the ONLY way you can break even is by paying your employees 2009 wages, you arguably shouldn’t be in business in the first place.
Moreover, if you put more money into the pockets of the wealthy, they send it to Switzerland or Panama. Give more to working class Americans and they’ll spend it, often in the community, thus helping to build the economy.
All we lack is the political will.
And immigrants. (Told you I’d come back to this.)
The GOP is still singing the ancient ditty about foreigners coming over here and taking our jobs. What they refuse to recognize is that right now, we’ve got a lot of jobs that need taking. That’s particularly true in agriculture, fast-food, and other service industries.
Even I am not silly enough or drunk enough that we can sort out a sensible immigration policy in the next month or so. But guest worker programs, for targeted industries, with both an expiration date AND a path to an extended stay for people who meet certain conditions could relieve most of the pressure in a matter of weeks.
Unfortunately the culture wars tend to prevent us from making a sensible and rewarding peace.
How can Putin believe he is winning the war with all that is going on in the Ukraine. Is he totally delusionsal?
He is not delusional, you are? To the world 41 of the worlds richest nation collective throw their kitchen sink at Russia for 14 months straight.
The result is these 41 nations has the highest inflation for 40 years, their banks are going bankrupt, their fuel cost went up 3–4 times before the war, their economy imploded and minus GDP! And their population is dumping them and 60% of Ukrainians are squatters in their country and Ukraine has lost almost all Black Sea Coast. And 4 regions has become part of Russia.
Meanwhile Russia U.S. doing very well, it’s Ruble appreciate, it’s economy is just as good. And cleverly it move from spending on the stagnations west to a dynamic east. To the world the only delusional people are the leaders of these 41 nations! And you are part ofthe delusional brigade.
Artist Places Iconic Horror Characters Into Classic Disney’s Mickey Mouse Cartoons
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Whatever your age is, we all loved Disney growing up and feel pretty nostalgic about it, but when you look back at the cartoons from the past, there is something oddly creepy about them.
LIKE MANY of America’s bases in the Pacific, Guam mixes hedonism with war jitters. Japanese and South Korean visitors revel on the sand of Tumon Bay, a coral-reef lagoon. Above, F-15 fighters and B-1 bombers bank to land at Andersen Air Force Base nearby. Below, nuclear attack submarines slip in and out of Apra Harbour. The marines are building a base up the road. Around lie reminders of the Pacific war between America and Japan. The last Japanese soldier surrendered in 1972.
“Where America’s day begins”, as Guam likes to sell itself (incorrectly), is also where a future American war with China may begin. This westernmost speck of America, just 30 miles (48km) long and with a population of about 170,000, helps it project power across the vast Pacific. As tension over Taiwan worsens, war games often predict early and sustained Chinese missile strikes on Guam, and perhaps the use of nuclear weapons against it.
Startlingly, for such a vital military complex, Guam is only thinly defended. Its THAAD missile-defence battery is not always switched on. It is in any case intended to parry only a limited attack from North Korea, not an onslaught from China. Andersen has no Patriot ground-to-air missiles, though they are deployed at American bases in South Korea and Japan. Warships with Aegis air-defence systems offer extra protection, but they may not always be nearby. To judge from the ubiquitous metal traps on fences around Guam’s bases, commanders seem more worried about the brown tree snake, an invasive species, than a surprise Chinese strike.
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China makes no secret that Guam is in its cross-hairs. The DF-26 missile, with a range of 4,000km, is commonly called the “Guam killer”. In 2020 a Chinese propaganda video depicted an H-6K bomber attacking an undisclosed air base: the satellite image was unmistakably of Andersen. To survive within China’s “weapons engagement zone”, the American air force is developing “agile combat employment”.
This involves scattering aircraft to deny China an easy shot, and networking them with distant “sensors” and “shooters” to give battle. It practised such tactics at the Cope North exercise with Japan and Australia on Guam and nearby islands in February. At the end of each day, though, the jets were all parked together in neat rows in the open. The base has no hardened shelters for aircraft, and its fuel is stored in closely packed tanks above ground.
“We are playing catch-up,” admits Vice-Admiral Jon Hill, director of the MDA. He says the first step will be to put the ship-based Aegis system on land. Unlike “Aegis ashore” systems in Poland and Romania, the version on Guam will have better radars, and many components will be “distributed”: movable on wheels to improve their chances of surviving attack. There will be several radars to give all-round coverage. Together with THAAD, this will provide more robust protection against ballistic missiles.
Cruise missiles may prove a bigger menace because of their greater numbers, and ability to fly low and turn. These would be taken on mainly by a combination of army systems: Patriot; its new and more powerful radar, LTAMDS; and a shorter-range system called IFPC. The first elements should be in place by 2024. Future kit will be integrated as it becomes available. It may eventually include weapons to take out hypersonic missiles, which are hard to hit because they fly fast and maneuver, and “directed energy” systems (using lasers and microwaves)
All this raises questions. One is the timetable: several of the components are not yet in production, and much of the money is still going on research and development. Another is whether disparate systems from the MDA, navy and army can be fully integrated so that commanders can fight off many kinds of missiles from many directions. A third is whether a polarised Congress will pass a budget on time. And last, many of Guam’s people may well ask: will ever more military hardware on Guam endanger us, or scare away the tourists?
Jake Owen Apple Pie Moonshine
American country-western. One of my favorite songs to sing at a KTV.
Nuclear magnetic resonance MRI is known as the lighthouse in the field of high-end medical equipment because it helps doctors and patients to establish the cause of disease as early as possible and seize the golden time for treatment as a mirror for diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases tumors Etc.
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Nuclear magnetic resonance instruments have been occupied by Western countries for a long time by virtue of their technological advantages forcing China to spend huge sums of money to introduce them which not only brings additional burdens to economic investment but also costs an average of 1000 Yuan per session it also makes many patients sigh.
The good news came recently with the Advent of the domestic (China’s own) 3.0 T nuclear magnetic resonance instrument. This technical barrier that has been monopolized by Western countries for nearly 40 years has finally been broken through.
Western countries do export nuclear magnetic resonance instruments at high prices. It is understood that the cost of an imported nuclear magnetic resonance instrument is as high as 35 million US dollars.
R&D of superconducting magnets, the core component requires the support of Decades of scientific research reserves of a big country. The related technologies have been monopolized by the US and Germany for a long time and they are sold worldwide. India too imports them.
China’s domestic 3.0 T nuclear magnetic resonance instrument came out breaking the 40-year Monopoly of the West. China has only been researching nuclear magnetic resonance instruments for less than 20 years compared with the United States which completed its first experiment in the 1930s the Gap Can Be Imagined but difficulties have never frightened the Chinese people.
Several top scientific research institutions led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences worked together and with the cooperation of more than 200 manufacturers and tens of thousands of employees they finally developed the first domestically produced 3.0 t-strong magnetic field resonance instrument it is reported that the core components of this instrument are all independently developed and it holds 124 invention patents.
Greek Chicken and Rice (Kotta Pilafi)
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Ingredients
6 chicken breasts (about 3 pounds)
1/4 cup butter
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes
2 cups water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup uncooked rice
Dairy sour cream for garnish
Instructions
Sauté chicken breasts in butter until golden brown. Add onion, tomato, water, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
Add rice and stir to mix evenly. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes longer or until the rice is tender. Add more water if necessary.
Serve with a bowl of sour cream to be spooned over the rice.
Serves 6.
Additions called in from Bessie: Use one whole broiler (3 pounds) cut up into pieces. Sauté in 1/4 cup olive oil (not butter). Use 3 cups boiling water with the rice instead of 2 cups (you won’t have to add water later this way).
The US HATES the Peace Breaking Out In The Middle East
Gonzalo Lira.
Is it true that companies fire old programmers (around 35ish) to hire young programmers who recently came out of college just because they could pay the young ones a lower salary?
No.
Older, experienced programmers are much cheaper than new graduates.
I’m quite serious about this.
New college graduates get themselves excited arguing about which IDE they think is best. They advocate for whichever language they were shown at university and how they think that’s the only game in town. They will have strong opinions about how you should write your own stuff and not use libraries.
Older programmers show up, write code that works and solves the business problem they’ve been asked to work on, then they go home.
Per unit of useful work produced, older developers are much, much cheaper than new college graduates. Even if their salaries are a lot higher.
I keep running into Americans who think Russia and China are more belligerent than the United States. By far, the United States has been the most belligerent country in the 21st century. Figure 1 shows the number of people displaced by America’s so-called “war on terror” in the 21st century.
According to the Watson institute, the US and its allies (mostly Britain) have killed almost 1 million people in the 21st century:
Human Costs of U.S. Post-9/11 Wars: Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones
HUMAN COSTS The number of people killed directly in the violence of the U.S. post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere are estimated here. Several times as many more have been killed as a reverberating effect of the wars — because, for example, of water loss, sewage and other infrastructural issues, and war-related disease. Posted September 1, 2021. September 2021
In racking up refugee and death tolls, the United States stands alone at the top.
If not for the shitty US media, Americans would know their country is the most belligerent.
KitJah feat. MOSKILA – Kyndykan (Prod. by Vadim Borisov)
Kyndykan is a striking story of a little girl who, 200 years ago, was the only survivor in the camp, completely extinct from the smallpox epidemic.
Biden on numerous occasions expressed interest to talk to Mr Xi, do you think Biden has a chance to talk to Mr Xi given China & Mr Xi are busy meeting visiting country leaders? Do you think Biden should make good his previously promises first?
It’s simple
Xi won’t talk to Biden because he knows the talks are fruitless
Biden and over three fourth of US are still living in the 1990s -Early 2000s
Their foreign policy is still that under Bush Senior or Clinton or Bush Junior
They believe they can intimidate and threaten and convince people by using a combination of vague promises and using the word “Freedom” fifty times in a sentence
Nobody believes it anymore
This is a Nation which in the last two years had a mob of people storm their Government Headquarters and threaten to hang their Vice President
This is a Nation that has seen 26 Regional and State based Riots and 2 National Riots over the last 3 years
This is a Nation which has seen 102 Young Students being killed by Shooters in a mere 3 years period across 11 States
This is a Nation that literally destroyed any chance of their allies and citizens having a peaceful prosperous life by ensuring their energy costs rose by 312% in the last 14 months
A Nation sinking to decadence fast and a Nation chock full of EVIL and DESTRUCTIVE IDEOLOGY
Xi knows Biden is a Senile Puppet of the Neocons who believe in that destructive Ideology
He knows talks are pointless with US Politicians now
INSTEAD
He keeps the talks with Businessmen all the time like Tim Cook of Apple or the CEO of Qualcomm or the Big Bosses of Intel
He ensures that US Consumers and Businessness remain economically friendly to China and they HATE THE US even more than some Middle Easterners
Trump was a businessman
Xi and China liked him
He always was ready to deal.
Biden is a puppet of some very evil people ready to kill their citizens for world dominance
Xi has no time or inclination to listen to these people except when they are on their death beds
譚艷 – 光明 (DJ抖音女聲Remix版2022) Guang Ming【Cahaya Harapan / Light】- Lirik Pinyin Terjemahan Indonesia
Indonesian song, sung in Chinese, very popular in China.
Are people aware of the China-US economic imbalance, and how did Trump deal with it?
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A Couch made of Wood with Cushions in Akron Ohio costs $ 495 after Discount
The Same Couch made in China with Cushions from China costs $ 215 without Tariffs and $ 278 with Tariffs and gives a profit of between 20–38% to the Retailer.
So the Customer gets his couch at a price at half the cost and the Retailer makes more profits.
This is the Story of the United States since 1985. Labor is too expensive, Transportation is too expensive, Work Force is too demanding – hence all these costs mean that Products are also terribly expensive.
Tyres, Refurbished Materials, Furniture, Paper, Reamwoods, Saunas, Vehicle Components, Shoes, Jeans, Clothes, Underwear, Caps and over 17000 other products and their owners relocated their factories to China and ensured that they could survive happily and even become richer.
China welcomed this relocation from 1998 to 2013 for 15 years – and then stopped. Instead their own Chinese Companies competed with these relocated american businesses and delivered even cheaper imports – They could offer this couch at $ 225 with Tariffs and $ 187 without Tariffs and suddenly the public and consumers got even cheaper goods.
From 2013 onwards – those businesses that Relocated to China sold their businesses off and got a lot of money and settled down happily but businesses that did not have since gone bankrupt because they simply cannot match the price of the imports.
And this has extended to Steel, Cement, Small Tech, Medium Tech,Laptops, Smart Phones, Smart Phone Components – where US Companies which relocated to China dominated the market from 2004–2017 but since then Huawei and other Chinese entities began to compete and push their products into the US.
The Fear is – What started with Furniture and Caps and went on to Smart Phones could one day reach to High Technology like Chips, Robots, Space components and Defense Related Products and that could be catastrophic to the US.
Everytime US Companies first relocated – had a good run – then Chinese entities began to compete and slowly the US companies that had relocated merged or sold to the Chinese Entities.
So the Imbalance widened and widened and widened – Lower Costs dominating the day and WTO rules followed by Obama and Bush
Trump like our Modiji had the right idea but ridiculous implementation
He chose to bully chinese to import US Products and chose to raise Tariffs.
This was Stupid.
IN the long run – the make america products would have cost 2.5 times more than any Chinese import and many families that could afford decent products and Flat Screens would have to give them up.
Simple example – A US Made Nike would have to cost $ 559 and would make barely 4% Profit compared to $ 219 for a China imported Nike even with Tariff and a 41% Margin of Profit.
The only way was to Keep increasing the Technological Divide and ensure High Tech companies manufacture only in the US
Instead he began insane bullying – and creating Farm related problems when China refused to import the required quantities and Chinese Farm Equipment and other equipment became more restricted.
How should Biden deal with it?
Like Obama or Bush did. Keep Defense Local. Keep Advanced R & D Local. Keep High Tech Development, streets ahead of China and ensure that these Industries hired Americans only and they generated sufficient income to establish service industries to employ the others.
The following is something that I wrote for Quora…
Going to war is a FAILURE of diplomacy.
China, which has endless lists of successes, is not prone to failure. From poverty elimination to coronavirus, from high speed trains, to technological advancements. China runs things with intelligence, and fully funds efforts lead by merit. For China to fail at something; anything would be truly a rare event.
The United States, at least in the last fifty years, has a near endless list of failures. It seems that there is nothing it can get right. From a simple pedestrian bridge, to building a high speed rail. From solving homelessness, to simple maintenance of roads and bridges, the United States is flailing and failing at everything.
Now, let’s talk “WAR”.
China who is able to succeed in anything it puts it’s mind to, and the United States that fails at everything. The two nation go head to head.
What is the probable outcome?
The United States will start a war.
It will under-estimate China.
It will make foolish decisions.
It will under supply.
It will make political decisions instead of practical ones.
It will count on allies who are unreliable.
It’s media will spew out disinformation.
It will bear tremendous losses.
China will finish the war.
Nothing will be reported.
It’s all robotic, calculated, precise and detailed.
It will be one surprise after the other.
China will dictate the terms of American surrender.
And that is that.
And everyone knows that this is what will happen. You can put lipstick on a pig, but after all, a pig is still just a pig.
A Tale of two leaders–and of two regions
What a study in contrast! At exactly the time when Ma Ying-jeou, the former Taiwan leader, made a nostalgic trip to the mainland, returning to his roots for the first time and welcomed home like a long-lost son, Tsai Ing-wen, his successor, was offering herself as a pawn in America’s geopolitical game, kowtowing to China-bashing US politicians. Ma’s emotional visit was shared on social media and melted millions of mainland hearts. In a single day, it exploded with 120 million likes. With an uncanny sense of timing, Ma shows Taiwan how to repair the ruptured relationship. Tsai, by contrast, was cursed as a traitor by sputtering-mad Chinese patriots in America. One offers a common future, the other pumps boatloads of cash into the accounts of American merchants of death for deadly weapons. One promises the sunny upland of peace, the other the gates of hell.
Despite her LSE education, Tsai can’t think straight. How can she not realize that Beijing will never accept Taiwan as a US surrogate? It’s like having a foreign master in your household. During Ma’s rule, Taipei and Beijing enjoyed a long honeymoon, with the 1992 Consensus anchoring cross-strait relations, and both practically breathing through the same nostrils. Now all you hear is saber-rattling and the drumbeat of war. By prostituting herself to America, Tsai is hastening Taiwan towards doomsday. How does she sleep at night?
Beijing had pinned its hopes on Taiwan’s eventual and peaceful return to the motherland on the Hong Kong and Macau model. It works like a charm in Macau. But Hong Kong is another story.
Hong Kong is vulnerable—unlike Macau, it is only half-decolonized at best and crawling with sinister foreign agitators.
Hong Kong is historically an economic city, and its people are economic animals. Pre-Handover, they were indifferent to politics. Suddenly, they were handed more freedom than they could handle. Under the British, street demonstrations were banned. But after they left, Hong Kong quickly descended into the “protest capital” of the world—the curse of excess freedom.
A high degree of autonomy opened the floodgates to freedom, quickly weaponized by anti-China activists. What Hong Kong needed was not more freedom but better local leadership, not the likes of the disaster-prone Carrie Lam.
Neither New York nor Washington, nor London enjoys this much freedom. None allows rioters to occupy its streets for 10 months. Yet, the unrest was portrayed to the world as a fight for freedom. Hong Kong was on the brink.
Simple-minded activists never told us they were fighting for a worthless objective: Under the Basic Law, candidates for the top job must first win Beijing’s blessing. Given the poor slate of candidates, a universal vote is meaningless. The city is awash with smart money-makers, but wise leaders are a rarity.
For this useless one-person-one vote over lousy leaders, they paralyzed the city—a high price exacted for a hollow ideal.
Organizers of lawless protests included a tenured professor of law. He and his cohorts got carried away, playing superhero to American cheerleaders, making pilgrimages to Washington for photo-ops with Nancy Pelosi.
In an ugly show remote-controlled by America, rioters reached a point of no return. Local political clowns began hallucinating of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The circus had come to town.
But soon, the pendulum has swung the other way– a belated chaos control, not a trampling on basic rights.
Unconscionable Western press came to Hong Kong blindfolded, determined to bad-mouth China and acted as American mouthpieces.
They didn’t tell the world that “One country Two Systems” was faithfully honored by Beijing, but dishonored by anarchists. Under the system, locals were not supposed to call for the downfall of the CCP. They wanted two systems but no country. Washington knew, if things went south in Hong Kong, geopolitical repercussions will spread, most notably, across the Taiwan strait. Tsai was teetering on 11% popular support. The mess in Hong Kong breathed new life into her politics.
Had Hong Kong carried off the experiment smoothly, Taiwan might have been ready for Beijing’s embrace. Instead, it now threatens to become another Ukraine, despite being Chinese territory. But China is not Russia, and Taiwan is not Ukraine.
China has a big dream, and America is determined to derail it–inadvertently aided and abetted by an incompetent local leader who in five short years sold the national reunification master-plan down the river.
Hong Kong must reboot its system, heal the wounds and seize the opportunities dangled by the Greater Bay Area. This time, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and focus on local livelihood. As for Beijing, bring Taiwan back into the fold, using Ma’s healing ways. Dialogue, not dogged enmity. A purely domestic quarrel must never escalate into a history-ending global conflict. Outside meddlers trying to fish in troubled waters can take a long walk on a short pier.
Are Americans ready for a possible war with China?
No, not at all, America just desperate, unable to hide its bandit culture and behavior.
America is begging China for help, bandit style/ways, pointing gun at you demand help, threatening blow out if not meet demand.
America is sick, broke on the brink of collapsing, lost in all wars it found over the years. How can it fight with superpower like China.
Unfortunately, this time around China will not heal or buy the bandit culture and behavior.
China has better things to take care at home and around the world. All American provocations do not mean anything to China.
China popular idiom said, a wise man will not take near eye-sighted humiliation, revenge is a long term mission. Just like recent landing of military aircraft in Taiwan to antagonise China.
America can not effort to have another war let alone war with superpower China.
President Donald Trump took to his social media account this afternoon and posted “WORLD WAR III” . . . nothing else. S going to HTF is my guess . . .
I am endeavoring to find out what may be going on worldwide that would give rise to a man like him, making a posting like that. On Easter Sunday, no less.
Something’s up . . . something big.
UPDATE 8:15 PM EDT —
BRICS+ is taking over and there’s nothing the West can do about it. The US dollar won’t be the worlds reserve currency and the US Govt won’t be able to print money on the backs of other nations. US Govt bonds will be junk because of insane US debt. The End
Top 10 Nations by natural resources:
RUSSIA
$75 trillion
BRICS+
UNITED STATES
$45 trillion
The West
SAUDI ARABIA
$35 trillion
BRICS+
CANADA
$33 trillion
The West
IRAN
$27 trillion
BRICS+
CHINA
$23 trillion
BRICS+
BRAZIL
$22 trillion
BRICS+
AUSTRALIA
$20 trillion
The West
IRAQ
$16 trillion
BRICS+
VENEZUELA
$14 trillion
BRICS+
Multipolar world wins!
FRANCE ABANDONING U.S.
FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON on the plane returning from his 3-day trip to China: “Europe should reduce its dependence on the extraterritoriality of the U.S. dollar… If the tensions between the two superpowers heat up … we won’t have the time nor the resources to finance our strategic autonomy and we will become vassals.”
FtRoMOrWYAAKF 9
MACRON also said: “Europe must reduce its dependency on the US and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan.” So not only is France abandoning the US, they are now actively encouraging Europe to do the same. Bear in mind, France just conducted the first-ever transaction for Liquified Natural Gas in a currency OTHER THAN the U.S. Dollar! So the French are cutting off their use of our Dollars as well.
EUROPEAN UNION
Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the “European Commission” (of un-elected tyrants) departed the PRC through a regular terminal at the airport with baggage screening and passport checks, just like any other nobody. Notice the look on her face as she has to be around us commoners . . .
FtRnlOcXwAAXxM
China’s amazing “dis” of the head of the European Commission in this way — and in such a public manner, is a statement by China that the EU isn’t even worth paying attention to. Not militarily, and not with its “EURO” currency. It shows that the EU doesn’t matter anymore. Not in the coming version of the world.
MORE:
The Germans are asking the Kremlin to allow them to produce cars in Russia. The German publication Speigel reports that it has sent a three-page letter to Vladimir Putin with a proposal to resume cooperation.
This shows that EU Sanctions against Russia are literally starting to come apart at the seams. If trade with Russia resumes in any meaningful way, the West ENTIRE plan in Ukraine and to takeover Russia, will fail before it starts.
CHINA
China controls 98% of the world’s rare earth Minerals productionand plans to ban their export to the US for national security reasons!
The U.S. __must__ have some of those rare earth minerals to manufacture for our Military. Without those rare earth minerals, our military might – and the accuracy of our weaponry in particular – is __gutted__. No more playing Globo-Cop; except it won’t be by OUR choice, it will be forced upon us by China.
UKRAINE
Ukrainian medium-range air defense systems will be completely depleted by May 23.
They will be able to withstand only two or three more waves of blows. /The Washington Post, citing Pentagon documents/ Air defense systems
NASAMS, Iris-T, and Patriot Missile Systems will soon arrive in Ukraine, said Yuri Ignat, adviser to the country’s Air Force Command. Not certain if – or how many such systems – can arrive in Ukraine before May 23.
If Russia strikes 3, 4, or more times, Ukraine will be finished before May 23. This __may__ prompt a direct NATO entry, and thus . . . WW3.
MORE
Russia is moving elite units of its army, including paratroopers, to Bakhmut. Wagner PMC has suffered very severe losses, but has gained significant ground there. Now, the regular Russian Army is sending its units.
If (OOOOPS) WHEN Russia takes Bakhmut, the entire south and southeast of Ukraine will be cut off from supplies. It will likely fold fast. Again, another possible reason for NATO to come “all-in” and thus trigger WW3.
All these developments are troubling, but I am not sure any of them individually, or all of them collectively, get us to what President Trump said: “World War 3.”
More if I get it.
Greek Mint and Ouzo Flavored Meatballs (Keftedakia)
f82a6178b47e3fbec0a9d4e57fe3448b
Ingredients
2 slices Italian bread, crusts removed
1/4 cup ouzo
7 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 pound ground turkey
1 egg
1 teaspoon dried mint flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
Pour Ouzo in a small bowl. Tear bread into small pieces and soak in Ouzo 5 minutes.
In a skillet, over medium heat, sauté onion in 3 tablespoons oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove from skillet with a slotted spoon and place in a large mixing bowl. Squeeze bread dry, discarding Ouzo, and combine with onions. Add in turkey, egg, mint, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and mix well to combine. Form meat mixture into 1-inch balls and roll in flour to coat evenly. Place on a cookie sheet and refrigerate 1 hour.
Add remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil to a large skillet, over medium high heat, and sauté meatballs until browned, about 8 – 10 minutes.
The public fallout and Brand destruction of “Bud Light” beer continues, with Internet meme’s and all sorts of public criticism. Sales, though, show the facts: Stunning LOSS of customers, nationwide.
The brief video below, from an affiliated Distributor for Anheuser Busch makes it plain: The company is losing customers and sales at a ferocious pace:
This PLUNGE in retail sales is a direct result of Bud Light hiring a trans-something as a spokes-something.
When I was a Regional Sales Manager for North American Van Lines, I had occasion to speak with R. Allan Brogan, a Senior Vice President of Norfolk Southern Railroad (which owned North American Van Lines) and he told me something I never forgot.
"I had to fire a couple sales guys and they were family men.
I had major concerns about firing them BECAUSE they had mouths to feed. I
never fired ANYONE flippantly; to me firing someone is waaaaaay serious.
There was just no hope for these guys, but I still felt bad.
R. Allan Brogan told me
"Hal, it's not the people you fire who hurt you the most. It's the people you KEEP . . . but SHOULD HAVE fired, that hurt you the most."
I never forgot that.
With that sage advice firmly in mind, I can say with confidence that the people who PROPOSED this “Tranny” hire should be FIRED by Anheuser Busch for bad judgment. The people who APPROVED this “Tranny” hire and ad campaign for Anheuser Busch, should be FIRED.
Their poor judgment is literally destroying the Bud Light Brand and costing millions in lost sales. Out the door with all of them!
I suspect it’s only going to get worse.
Now, people are going to wonder if any guy they see drinking a Bud Light is a homo. Worse, people are going to look at any GIRL drinking a Bud Light, and wonder if she’s __really__ a girl!
No normal person wants to be associated with this “Trans” mental illness. Grown-ups playing “make-pretend” they’re something they’re not. It’s sick!
Clearly, the people at Anheuser Busch who put this project together have NO IDEA AT ALL who their customers are. I suspect that very shortly, there won’t BE very many customers anymore. NOT because customers are “Bigots” but because the Trannies and their movement are deranged perverts.
But . . .
Maybe there is a bright side to this ?????? After all, it seems to me in two days Anheuser Busch has done more to stop drinking than AA has done in 80 years.
麥小兜 – My First Song『你聽，這是我真實的聲音。』【動態歌詞Lyrics】
‘Peace In The Middle East? That’s A Threat.’
Thanks to China’s and Russia’s mediation peace is breaking out in the Middle East.
The United Arab Emirates has begun withdrawing its forces from #Yemen. The Saudi-Emirati-Yemenite agreement will be announced soon.
The Middle East is solving its conflicts without the #US negative impact.
Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai · Apr 7
Great news:
#SaudiArabia will announce the end of the war in #Yemen after the Eid al-Fitr. Saudi is ending all its (high/low) conflicts in the Middle East with #Iran, #Syria, #Iraq, #Yemen & #Lebanon(not interested in the country for now) to turn towards its own development. …
Peace will also come to Syria. The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia will soon visit Damascus. He will invite Syria to rejoin the Arab League. An Arab League summit will be held next month in Saudi Arabia and the Syrian president Bashar al Assad is expected to be there.
This comes after agreements between Iran and Saudi Arabia to bury the hatchet and after agreements between Iraq and Iran to reign in a Kurdish uprising in Iran that was controlled by Kurdish forces in Iraq.
‘We can’t have that’, says U.S. president Joe Biden. He sent CIA director Bill Burns to Saudi Arabia to threaten consequences:
CIA Director Bill Burns made an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia this week where he reportedly aired Washington’s frustrations over Riyadh’s opening to Iran and Syria through mediation brokered by US rivals China and Russia.Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official confirmed the trip to Al-Monitor. “Director Burns traveled to Saudi Arabia where he met with intelligence counterparts and country leaders on issues of shared interest,” the US official said.
The official did not disclose the exact day of the trip but said that Burns discussed intelligence cooperation, especially in the area of counterterrorism. The CIA director met the country’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Burns likely threatened to withhold U.S. intelligence on terrorist groups from the Saudis. The CIA could additionally push some of its ISIS assets to make some nasty appearances in Saudi Arabia to then offer ‘help’ to ‘fight terrorism’.
I do not think that this will work. The Saudis have had enough of U.S. interference in their region. They are looking for development and development requires peace.
The US Navy deployed a nuclear-powered submarine capable of carrying 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Middle East waters via the Suez Canal, a spokesperson revealed Saturday.The Pentagon’s rare disclosure of the location of one of its Ohio-class submarines came amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran after an American military contractor was killed by a drone attack on a US base in Syria last month.
The USS Florida arrived in the region before transiting the canal on Friday “to help ensure regional maritime security and stability,” Cdr. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, told Al-Monitor via email.
…
Last week, the Pentagon extended the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS George H. W. Bush in the Mediterranean to support US forces in the Middle East in case of further conflagration and moved up the planned deployment of a squadron of A-10 attack aircraft to the region, CNN first reported.
Meanwhile the Zionists finally have to confront their ideological core:
Sina Toossi @SinaToossi – 15:28 UTC · Apr 8, 2023Israel’s former defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says Jewish extremists who believe in “Jewish supremacy” & seek a “big war” are influencing the Israeli government’s decision-making. He likens their agenda to a “Mein Kampf” in reverse.
Muhammad Shehada @muhammadshehad2 · 15hExtremely important! #Israel’s *right-wing* ex-Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya’alon, sheds light on Israel’s most dangerous government & the supremacist ideology of its Finance & Security Ministers.
Listen to every word to understand the ongoing escalation! video
Moshe Ya’alon describing the ideology of two current ministers: “Jewish supremacism. Mein Kampf in reverse. … To as soon as possible get to a big war. … This is what goes into the decision making process in the Israeli government.”
When government ministers seek a big war they will probably get one. A civil war between ‘liberal’ Zionists and hard core ideological Zionists, fought on the back of Palestinians, may become a prelude to that.
Iraqi Transport Minister Announces that Sumerians Launched Spaceships 7,000 Years Ago
ancient Spaceships 1
The Minister for Transport in Iraq made a controversial speech at the inauguration of a new airport in southern Dhi Qar, in which he stated that ancient Sumerians built the first airports 7,000 years ago and launched spaceships from there to explore other planets. He also claimed that all the world’s angels were Sumerian. To support his claims, he referred to the work of Samuel Kramer, Russian professor and Sumerian expert, who highlighted the Sumerians’ advanced understanding of the cosmos.
The Sumerians were the first known people to settle in Mesopotamia over 7,000 years ago. Located in the southernmost part of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (modern day Iraq), Sumer was often called the cradle of civilization. By the 4th millennium BC, it had established an advanced system writing, spectacular arts and architecture, astronomy and mathematics.
The Sumerians recorded their astronomical observations as early as 3500–3200 BC. Astronomical phenomena were important to the Sumerians, who equated planets with gods that held an important role in their mythology and religion. Jupiter, for example, was associated with their main god, Marduk, patron deity of the city of Babylon.
Arab news channel Albawaba reported that Minister Kadhem Finjan al-Hamami made his comments during a visit to a new airport construction site in southern Iraq, near Basra, where he claimed that the Sumerians had built an airport in exactly the same location in around 5,000 BC.
“It’s a long story, maybe you don’t know about it. Maybe even people from Dhi Qar don’t know – the first airports that were built on planet Earth were built in the 5th Millenium BC in Dhi Qar,” al-Hamami said , in an Al Jazeera translation. “There were Sumerians who launched spaceships [from Dhi Qar] and headed to other worlds,” he added, arguing that all the world’s angels “were Sumerian” and stating that Sumerians were the first to discover Pluto.
The video of his statement [in Arabic] can be viewed below.
While no one in the audience questioned the Minister, listeners were quick to jump to social media to rubbish his claims. The Middle East Monitor shared comments from internet users who criticized the incompetence of the government. “Iraqi transport minister’s hallucinations about spaceships in Nasiriyah proves that the [Haidar] Al-Abadi government is full of fools, hashish addicts and the most worthless of humanity,” said Dawood Al-Basri.
To support up his claims, Finjan referred to the work of the late Samuel Kramer, who was one of the world’s leading Assyriologists and a world-renowned expert in Sumerian history and Sumerian language. In his book, ‘History Begins at Sumer’, Kramer argues that the Sumerians had the first achievements in all the major fields of human endeavour, including government and politics, education and literature, philosophy and ethics, law and justice, agriculture, and medicine. However, critics of the Transport Minister’s speech say that Kramer never mentioned ancient airports or spaceships.
Nevertheless, the Minister does have a number of supporters among ancient astronaut theorists, who argue that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity, with many believing that ancient Sumer was the first place in which contact was made.
Ancient astronaut 0
Ancient astronaut proponents suggest that aliens came to Earth long ago, citing such evidence as this ancient Mesopotamian cylinder seal as proof of advanced technological influences ( public domain )
CHINA Surrounds TAIWAN, USA on ALERT, Russia Moves Nukes toward
Irish Joe Biden’s Irish Sopranos
Declan Hayes
April 8, 2023
Biden’s visit is just one further shameful act of degradation of a people who once stood for something infinitely nobler than Joe and Hunter Biden.
The ostensible reasons for POTUS Joe Biden, the Grim Reaper himself, to visit his Irish colony in mid-April is, firstly to view the areas of Ireland that were unfortunate enough to spawn his ancestors and, secondly, to cash in on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the deal that allegedly brought peace in our time to Ireland.
Because pretending to be Irish brings political dividends and lots of uninformed votes in America, it is not currently worth dwelling on. Vichy Ireland’s Peace Process is a very different matter. This deal copper-fastened NATO rule in Ireland by allowing the gerrymandering of politics and the fruits of office flowing from it in the occupied north east to be divvied up between the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party and the Catholic Sinn Féin group, both of whose histories are mired in organised crime. It allowed the Southern and nominally independent Southern part to be fully subsumed within the American umbrella and, more importantly, it allowed its CIA and MI5 architects to bestride the narrow world, falsely claiming they were peace-makers rather than war-makers. Far from being an exercise in bridge-building that Gandhi or the Buddha himself would be proud of, it is one of the CIA’s most cynical moves of the last half century.
These latter points can be seen by how rabidly the Irish government and the toadyish Sinn Féin opposition support NATO’s Ukrainian campaign and with Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin’s nominal boss, demanding Russia’s entire diplomatic delegation be immediately expelled from the country over a war she and her drug dealing friends know absolutely nothing about. This is the same Sinn Féin nominal boss who was “profoundly shocked” that Jonathan Dowdall, her right-hand man, was also the right-hand man of top mobster Gerry Hutch, whose charge of murdering a top capo in the Kinahan organised crime cartel will be decided by a non jury Irish court at about the same time Biden’s plane is fecking off back to America.
The main thing, the obvious thing to emerge from the Hutch and Dowdall trials is that the Irish secret service, together with their MI5 and CIA bosses, have all of Ireland’s criminal and paramilitary groups totally infiltrated and that, far from being progressives, these drug dealers are, in effect, just an extension of the British and American armed forces. Because NATO has used the same human dregs to much the same purpose in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and a host of other countries, the Irish experience that Irish Joe Biden is now cashing in on is therefore worth a second glance.
Although the so-called Troubles kicked off in 1969, much like Syria and Ukraine, the British and Irish security services had already laid the groundwork for the mayhem that was to follow. Protestant gangland boss Gusty Spence has recalled how British generals briefed him on what was required of his counter gang and Irish military intelligence recruited Joe Cahill and other dodgy IRA leaders to do their bidding.
Though Cahill had received the death penalty in 1942 for murdering a Belfast cop, the authorities instead hanged brave Tom Williams for it, whilst Cahill was allowed work unmolested in Harland & Wolff shipyards, whose workers had a history of murdering Catholics whenever the fancy took them. That a notorious Catholic cop killer could work there unmolested for decades defies common sense; the only explanation is that he was a protected species.
But then, as noted journalist Kevin Myers points out, the Cahill and other families that were at the centre of the Belfast IRA also had a side hustle in raping children, a low-risk crime, given their omerta practices they passed down through the generations.
Thus, when the Troubles erupted to scar entire generations of Irishmen and women, the British, Irish and American security services were ready. They would let chaos reign but then emerge with a peace process that suited their needs, rather than those of the combatants or the civilians unlucky enough to have endured hell.
As Ireland was at the centre of a major low intensity counter-insurgency operation from 1968 to 1998 and, as that campaign continues to this day, MI5 and the CIA had plenty of time to put their assets in place. John Joe McGee and Stakeknife, the bosses of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit, were both MI5 agents. As was Denis Donaldson, a long time confidant of IRA martyr Bobby Sands and Sinn Féin boss Gerry Adams, whose IRA brother and IRA father were both notorious child sex abusers and who was himself implicated in some of the worst war crimes of the Troubles. As were so many others, the list is an almost endless geometric progression.
Although I have touched on Sinn Féin’s flawed pedigree here and here, the main thing to take going forward is how M15 and their CIA bosses not only choose the ground on which they fight but fashion it to their needs. One key way to do this in Ireland was through the supergrass trials where scores of IRA diehards would be remanded in custody for years on the word of a paid MI5 agent and their places within the IRA be filled by others on the MI5 payroll, who would rise through the IRA ranks over time.
This tactic was so successful that, at the time of the Good Friday Agreement, the IRA had been reduced to a single sniper in South Armagh and recalcitrants in nearby East Tyrone were dealt with by the simple shoot-to-kill expedient, of summarily executing them, in other words.
Following the Good Friday Agreement, the British Government allowed the IRA to do some housekeeping, as British warlord Mo Mowlam euphemistically put it, to slaughter those opposed to their criminal shenanigans in plainer English. Although that housekeeping continues with Protestant and Catholic criminal gangs to this day, with more government-approved murders in South Armagh and savage beatings in East Tyrone, it has metamorphosed into the Irish wing of ANTIFA Inc, where women, children and others in the U.S. Democrats’ cross hairs are as much fair game as they are anywhere else in America’s evil empire. To see how this works elsewhere, one only has to see the criminal contribution of Ukraine’s Nazi thugs to the post-Maidan “peace process”, or the widespread slaughter of minorities and secular Sunnis by Syria’s “moderate rebels”.
Though Biden can don his leprechaun hat and claim himself to be as Irish as a crock of cow manure, the key thing to see is how the CIA, MI5 and Irish military intelligence have shifted the goal posts to such a degree that Biden is neither immediately lambasted nor run out of Dublin town for the senile creep that he is. As with Sir Keir Starmer’s British Labour Party and the joke that is the Scottish National Party, the practical effect of all this is that whatever Western resistance might emerge to NATO’s litany of war crimes, the Irish, with their joke of a Peace Process, won’t even offer token resistance to Biden and NATO’s other war devotees. Biden’s visit is just one further shameful act of degradation of a people who once stood for something infinitely nobler than Joe and Hunter Biden and their crack cocaine fueled wars of conquest, expropriation and extermination.
BRICS countries and candidate countries for the BRICS Plus
Enigmatic Artifact: Possible Chinese Bi Disk Found in a Kentucky Garden
ancient Chinese bi disks
“It was just lying there” the finder explained as he recalled the moment and the previous two years of inquiries to understand what it was, along with his frustration of not knowing how it ended up in his garden. Afterwards, and with a look on his face that he expected me to have all the answers, asked, “How do you think it got here?”
As with other such Chinese in appearance artifacts found in North America without supporting contextual information, I could only respond that there are multiple possible explanations
A more informative answer came from the Burke Museum in Washington State, responding to the finder’s earlier inquiry and photograph. Paraphrasing… we don’t know what it is, but similar objects have been found on the West coast of Mexico and “it should not have been found in your part of the country.”
Other responses, also based upon photographs, from universities, art dealers and museums were equally inconclusive. Some thought it was a 20th century fraud, others didn’t know, and one based on personal inspection thought it to be authentic. Until it is subjected to rigorous examination its authenticity remains unknown.
What Is Known
This artifact was found in a small garden next to a pond, on heavily wooded acreage in a sparsely populated area of Harrison County (Kentucky, USA), which the owner characterizes as being “in the middle of nowhere”. Several miles away are two earthen mounds and the general area has long been popular with surface collectors of Native American artifacts.
Based upon a specific gravity test and visual inspection, the disk is Nephrite Jade and has areas of a white surface film, which is concentrated around the bas-relief features. Interestingly, one side is darker than the other. The depictions of a possible Shui dragon and a partial bird, both playing prominent roles in Chinese mythology, add to the Chinese theme of the disk, along with the four script characters.
The history of the bi extends back to Neolithic China some 5,000 years ago. The earlier versions were simple disks with no ornamentation, but became increasingly ornate with motifs representing deities associated with the cardinal directions and heaven and earth images. Aside from its religious symbolism, the bi also represented the person’s high social status and that he was of high moral character… and it ultimately accompanied the person in his grave.
Disc with Dragons
Perforated Disc (Bi) with Dragons. China, Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644 ( CC BY 2.0 )
Perforated Chinese Disk
Perforated Chinese Disk (Bi) with unfinished Relief Spirals, circa 481-100 BC. ( Public Domain )
Until such time when more definitive testing results are available, the enigmatic artifact remains a mystery to be solved.
Sixbomb (식스밤) – Step To Me /東大門ミリオレライブ/스텝 투 미
How to Take Off a (Political) Straitjacket
Tatiana Obrenovic
April 6, 2023
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Serbia should understand that it could and must take off the straitjacket the West put on it with its generous assistance.
This issue should have already been resolved which means that there is no reason for concern until ‘the next one reason comes round’. Namely, Kosovo is Serbia and even after the Ohrid meeting in the same proportion it used to be before that meeting on the 18th March between Belgrade and Pristina – the first lady of the Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova explained a few days ago, which means that Kosovo remains the heart of Serbia with its essential autonomy in accordance with the Resolution 1244. Above all, Zakharova, when we asked her a few further questions gave two very important and equally reassuring questions.
Firstly, the Serbian province of Kosovo entering any international organizations is non-negotiable. These are not the UN only. We asked specifically about Interpol and UNESCO and we got said response. And secondly, the EU can change their negotiating positions as much as they wish, and regrettably with our (Serbian) forced consent. but the Security Council is to be asked i.e. Russia and China with it. Anyhow, if the matters were any different, the self-proclaimed pseudostate of Kosovo would have joined the UN a long time ago. In this way it cannot move an inch from the UN Resolution 1244. That goes to say in case that the unfavorable total turnaround does not happen, except that we do not have anything to hope for, we should not fret too much about the International Donors’ conference for Kosovo (without the asterisk and a footnote) and this crippled rump of a country which might be left behind out of Serbia.
It is common knowledge that by Ohrid Annex we were threatened within the next 150 days. Mercifully, it is written there that no allocation of funds will occur before the EU determines that all the clauses of the Agreement are fulfilled in its entirety. Lest we forget, the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic himself pledged in public that not all the clauses will be fulfilled. We should take his word for it. And not only because the breaching of his pledge would mean the breaching of the Serbian Constitution. Our ‘not meant to be’ donors did not express enough resourcefulness yet again. We were offered the very same thing earlier as well: to bribe us into selling our Kosovo to them demanding from us to agree to the Faustian bargain.
At the time of the Ahtisaari negotiations, as part of the secret K1 strategy, which was later exposed by Wikileaks so as ”to move us away from the Kosovo issue laden with emotions, towards a more democratic, more prosperous future”. They offered us the long-term programme worth $23 million ‘most generously’ for agriculture, $14 million in technical aid for the sectors with high growth potential, $21 million for Sandzak and the south of Central Serbia; One may wonder why there exactly because that was not a mere coincidence, and $1 million for the Dom Omladine (Youth Cultural Centre) in Belgrade ‘to throw the Serbs off the scent’. All in all, it was about $60 million in total. In other words: beads and trinkets – the good old recipe already tried and tested on all the other ‘Indians‘.
But back then the benefactors were, at least they thought they were, in a much better financial state than today. Back then they were not going through the great economic crisis such as the one in 2008 which did not happen out of the blue, whereas now 15 years later, they should brace up for a perfect storm, so to speak. That is most probably the crucial aspect of this war between the Collective West and the rest of the world. Thus it is vitally important for us to pay particular attention. Anyway none of this can be avoided, be it good or evil so it would not go amiss for us to prepare to any extent imaginable.
For starters we should understand that we could and we must take off the straitjacket they put on us with our generous assistance and moreover that for this procedure of taking off a strait jacket we do not need the skills of Harry Houdini but the readiness to do it. On one hand, the banking crisis is gaining momentum as we speak. The collapse of a few smaller banks in the USA nobody has heard of before immediately spilt over to the systemically important Credit Suisse Bank of which many have heard of course, and then even more important Deutsche Bank is mentioned for its notoriety, which in its portfolio has an abnormal amount of speculative financial derivatives which is dozen times bigger than the total GDP of Germany.
Bloomberg reports that Charles Schwab’s financial empire worth 7 billion dollars is in turmoil. This is not the Klaus Schwab of Davos but nonetheless both belong to the same order. Fox TV warns that out of 17 thousand billion dollars in deposits with the U.S. banks only 128 billion dollars are insured. Dr Mohamed el Erian, the President at King’s College, Cambridge University, warns that the crisis which is now taking shape will not be limited to the banking sector only. By the way, all those who are prone to believe the pledges given by the ‘competent authorities’ that all will be fine, it might be worth remembering that the very same ‘competent authorities’ claimed the very same thing 15 years ago.
The crisis which began to raise its ugly head in February 2007 exploded with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers only in September 2008. It further goes to say that most probably the chaos is yet to unleash. And this chaos will be substantially bigger because that crisis back then was concealed by using all the means said ‘competent authorities’ had at their disposal. This crisis now starts exactly for that reason because the unlimited amount of fiat money printed and low interest rate. But other means are non-existent. Additionally not even the causes of the original crisis were resolved. Now there is an ever worse backlash against them because there is an ongoing parallel process which did not exist back then.
The news comes in quick succession. The ASEAN members are giving up on the trade in dollars, euros, pounds sterling and Japanese yen. India and Russia are now using ruble and rupee. Brazil and China are ditching the dollar currency from their trade calculations. Kenya will be buying oil from Saudi Arabia for their own currency and not for U.S. dollars. All these are the news from the past few days and there are more similar news. Saudi Arabia and China already agreed on yen currency to be used to purchase oil. And it is not a coincidence that at the same time Iran and Saudi Arabia are en route to mutual reconciliation helped by China and Russia and all of them together complete with India will be members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The formula: oil for security as the basis for petrodollar and the basis of power of the U.S. dollar ever since it had to leave the Gold Standard is becoming meaningless. The key word is de-dollarization. It goes without saying that it did not come from nothing and it is not a random matter either. In fact, in all likelihood now mechanisms which were designed after 2008 to be used under these circumstances are being set in motion now. And sanctions against Russia and the freezing of its assets in the range of Western finances and control, those finances which are already within their range must wonder who may well be the next one in line to be brutally robbed (by the U.S. and NATO) has accelerated matters. And then add to all this the protests throughout the USA and Europe to all this. And what we see now is just the beginning of what will inevitably escalate because the discontent will not be any less, the bigger the economic crisis becomes. And the accompanying efforts by the government to suppress the expression of this discontent.
In line with that, draconian measures are being issued even for bad mouthing Macron on Facebook – which is now, strangely enough, a verbal injury whereas the regime in the USA in the eve of the U.S. elections 2024 is issuing an indictment against Donald Trump, the leading opposition candidate and the former U.S. President. (N.B. indicting a former U.S. President is illegal and unconstitutional per se according to the very same U.S. Constitution) These are the golden standards of the Western ‘democracy’. And we are still wearing said (political) straitjacket. We are so constrained with this straitjacket that we ‘banned ourselves’ by the Law of National Bank of Serbia (Article 62) from borrowing as a country with our own National Bank. But we are allowed to borrow from foreign banks which leads to debt slavery which is the most ‘desirable’ state of the matter we should sink deep into.
The same applies to Greece, which is now more indebted than before it even entered into the savings programmes and it sold off everything they could, somewhere along the line. It is worth noting that the aforesaid Article 62 has one crucial exception. Namely, we can borrow from our own National Bank of Serbia but only for the liabilities we have with the IMF. As if the IMF had written that law for its own interests and not ours. But times change. Bloomberg informs us these days that there is an alternative to the IMF. China, research indicates, has become the chief financial saviour of the developing countries rather than the IMF. It is already carrying out the rescuing missions throughout Africa. And we (Serbia) are a developing country. And we are in close (economic and political) proximity to China in the same manner Africa is, which means that even that excuse of not having another economic choice to make is inapplicable any more, in order to ‘keep on wearing the straitjacket’.
The former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Treasury, Monica Crowley, is warning these days that with the current political process and economic realignment in the world, the dollar will lose its status of a global reserve currency and alongside that, she says the USA will lose their economic dominance and the status of the super power in the world. One should not even elaborate on how favorable this development will have to be for Serbia. But only if we do not fritter it away for the proverbial ‘trinkets and beads’. Otherwise, we do not deserve to be rescued from the straitjacket. Because we would prove we truly deserve it.
“Why does Russia think NATO is the biggest threat?”
SHORT ANSWER
Because it’s what makes the most sense for our political class right now.
LONGER ANSWER
At the start of his rule, President Putin had no problems either with NATO or with its enlargement. There’s no record of his anti-Westernism ahead of his moving to the Kremlin. Moreover, after the Washington ’99 summit, he quietly asked the Americans if he could join the club, too.
Road fork
But about 15 years ago, Russia entered a period of turbulence. The model of commodity-fueled growth from the 2000s exhausted itself. Radical nationalists were gaining ground. And the ruling oligarchical clans got a piercing sense of danger. Any rotation of power would lead to some new hungry predators grabbing their riches and tearing to pieces themselves and their families.
How to get out of such an impasse? Anywhere in what people in my time in propaganda called the “Third World,” the easiest way has always been “FIGHT THE WEST!” and “DOWN WITH AMERICA!”
In 2012–13, President Putin obviously made a decision to raise this flag. Then, barely a year passed before Crimea was captured. The Ukraine war started in anything but name.
Now you see why Putin must be our President for life?
No grand vision
Most in the West seem to believe our hybrid war with them sprang from Putin’s “imperial visions.” That’s silly.
It’s fully a product of our internal politics. Ever since 2014, the war has been Putin’s perfect tool for defanging the radical nationalists—the most numerous and largely invisible threat to our state-oligarchical elite.
“Liberals” in Russia are a joke as a political force. Most of them are easy to buy. Among the rest, the principled ones are easy to scare enough for them to flee to the West. After all, it’s where their home is, isn’t it? And the most obstinate can be eliminated like Nemtsov or locked up behind bars. There are not too many of them, no problem.
The enemy inside us
The radicals are different. They’re hard to spot. The most dangerous of them are the silent ones lurking among the security services and the military. They are Ridley Scott’s xenomorphs, waiting for their hour here and there inside the body of our Derzháva (“the mighty State”).
The beasts are ready to burst out any day they decide their moment has arrived.
This is why it’s so imperative to keep the State busy with what seems like a radical nationalist project. It’s the Russian Reconquista. As long as they believe that it’s exactly this, President Putin and his men are safe in the Kremlin. And hey, many thanks to Western propaganda! They repeat in a thousand voices that this is the “USSR 2.0” going on, too!
Why the West?
There are three major reasons why the West—and not China, or the “Great Displacement” by the Muslims from the south—was picked as a mortal threat to Russia’s existence.
Foreign invasions from the west (Napoleon, the Keizer, Hitler) are deeply embedded in our collective memory.
Rotation of power and civil society are distinctive Western concepts, toxic to our Statist foundation.
Centuries-long pent-up hate among the lower classes against anything they associate with progressivist activism on the part of our State. Our rulers’ modernization projects rarely failed to bring pain and misery to millions of their subjects. When Putin says the Westerners are the ones to blame for all our carnage, this deeply resonates with something in our national archetypes.
Below, a piece by Vitaly Podvitsky from the early days of Putin’s second presidency. Vladimir Putin is St George striking the serpent of Russophobic globalism in the shape of Obama.
To us, Obama was easily the most harmless American president since Reagan. His administration considered us a “regional power”, and was asleep at the wheel when the Ukraine war broke out in 2014. What made him the most hated US president for our propaganda? My bet is on the unique combination of “black” + “clueless” + “progressive” + “American.” Go Brandon, try to beat that!
The SUN is SETTING on the U.S.
https://youtu.be/87p_LbZd-lE
Controversial Claim by Geologist: Mysterious tracks in Turkey caused by unknown civilization millions of years ago
Mysterious ancient tracks
In what is sure to cause controversy, a researcher has claimed that the mysterious and ancient ruts which crisscross the Phrygian Valley of Turkey were caused by an unknown and intelligent race between 12 and 14 million years ago.
Dr. Alexander Koltypin , geologist and a director of the Natural Science Scientific Research Centre at Moscow’s International Independent University of Ecology and Politology has recently completed investigations at the site in Anatolia which is marked with strange ruts, described as “petrified tracking ruts in rocky tuffaceous deposits’ made from compacted volcanic ash,” according to MailOnline.
volcanic rock in Turkey
Repeated travel with vehicles eventually cut into the soft, volcanic rock in Turkey. Credit: Alexander Koltypin, Dopotopa.com
The tracks cut across the landscape of the Phrygia Valley, dating back to various historical periods, according to conventional academia. The earliest roads are thought to have been made during the Hittite Empire (circa 1600 BC – 1178 BC). As time went on, paths were cut deeply into the soft rock by the Phrygians, then by the Greeks, and Alexander the Great with his armies. They eventually became part of the Roman road network, writes Culture Routes in Turkey .
Relief in basalt battle chariot
Relief in basalt depicting a battle chariot, Carchemish, 9th century BC; Late Hittite style with Assyrian influence. Did such vehicles leave the tracks in the ancient Phrygia Valley? (CC BY 2.0 )
Koltypin and colleagues have examined the rocky fields interlaced with deep grooves, and have suggested that it was indeed vehicles which caused the tracks, but not lightweight carts or chariots. Instead he suggests the “unknown antediluvian all-terrain vehicles” were huge and heavy. In addition, he dates them back to approximately 14 million years ago, and claims they were driven by an unknown civilization.
He told MailOnline, “All these rocky fields were covered with the ruts left some millions of years ago….we are not talking about human beings.”
The geologist says with certainty that the ruts are prehistoric without a doubt, due to the weathering and cracks observed.
“The methodology of specifying the age of volcanic rocks is very well studied and worked out,” Koltypin said.
deep tracks
The deep tracks run along the landscape, some reportedly as deep as 3 feet (1 meter). Credit: Alexander Koltypin, Dopotopa.com
The scientist notes that the distance between each pair of tracks remains consistent, and that the measurement fit that between the wheels of a modern vehicles. However, the tracks are much too deep for today’s cars, raising more questions about what sort of transport device was being used.
The deepest ruts are three feet (one meter), and on the walls of these ruts are horizontal scratches, very much appearing to have been left by the ends of axels poking out of ancient wheels.
scratch marks side tracks
Photograph showing the scratch marks along the side of the tracks. Were these caused by ancient axels? Credit: Alexander Koltypin, Dopotopa.com
News site Express reports that Koltypin believes the deep channels were cut into the soft, wet soil and rock due to the sheer weight of the large prehistoric vehicles. He says, “And later these ruts – and all the surface around – just petrified and secured all the evidence. Such cases are well known to geologists, for example, the footprints of dinosaurs were ‘naturally preserved’ in a similar way.”
prehistoric mysterious vehicle tracks
The prehistoric mysterious vehicle tracks as found in the Phrygian Valley of Turkey, with a modern car for scale. Credit: Alexander Koltypin, Dopotopa.com
Koltypin is aware that his claims are controversial, but says mainstream academia will not address the subject matter as it will “ruin all their classic theories.”
“I think we are seeing the signs of the civilization which existed before the classic creation of this world. Maybe the creatures of that pre-civilization were not like modern human beings,” he proposes.
Very similar interesting and mysterious tracks exist in other locations of the world, notably in the Maltese archipelago. These ancient grooves continue to puzzle researchers. Some of the strange tracks of Misrah Ghar il-Kbir deliberately plunge off cliffs or continue off land and into the ocean. It is not yet known who made the tracks, or why.
Like the channels at Malta, questions remain surrounding the deep tracks cut into the stone in the Phrygian Valley.
Koltypin’s research work continues as he investigates anomalous sites, but it will likely be some time before established academia embraces his unconventional theories.
BIGBANG – BAD BOY M/V
Korean boy kpop.
Bank Robbery
During a robbery in Zimbabwe, the bank robber shouted to everyone in the bank: “Don’t move. The money belongs to the State. Your life belongs to you.” Everyone in the bank lay down quietly. This is called the “Mind Changing Concept” Changing the conventional way of thinking.
When a lady lay on the table provocatively, the robber shouted at her: “Please be civilized! This is a robbery and not a rape!” This is called “Being Professional” Focus only on what you are trained to do!
When the bank robbers returned home, the younger robber (MBA-trained) told the older robber (who has only completed Year 6 in primary school): “Big brother, let’s count how much we got.” The older robber rebutted and said: “You are very stupid. There is so much money it will take us a long time to count. Tonight, the TV news will tell us how much we robbed from the bank!” This is called “Experience.” Nowadays, experience is more important than paper qualifications!
After the robbers had left, the bank manager told the bank supervisor to call the police quickly. But the supervisor said to him: “Wait! Let us take out $10 million from the bank for ourselves and add it to the $70 million that we have previously embezzled from the bank”. This is called “Swim with the tide.” Converting an unfavourable situation to your advantage! The supervisor says: “It will be good if there is a robbery every month.” This is called “Killing Boredom.” Personal Happiness is more important than your job.
The next day, the TV news reported that $100 million was taken from the bank. The robbers counted and counted and counted, but they could only count $20 million. The robbers were very angry and complained: “We risked our lives and only took $20 million. The bank manager took $80 million with a snap of his fingers. It looks like it is better to be educated than to be a thief!” This is called “Knowledge is worth as much as gold!” The bank manager was smiling and happy because his losses in the share market are now covered by this robbery. This is called “Seizing the opportunity.” Daring to take risks!
So who are the real robbers here?
Armies of Azerbaijan and Armenia FIRING at each other along border
Heavy Fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian Forces is being reported North of the Village of Tegh near the Lachin Corridor in Eastern Armenia. What started as a Small Skirmish earlier now reportedly involves Artillery and possible Heavy Armor. Fighting took place near Tegh during the Border Clashes in 2021 as well.
Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan confirmed the death of at least 6 Azerbaijani soldiers. It is __said__ that Armenia has suffered substantial losses of troops in today’s fighting.
Armenia’s MoD says that Azerbaijani forces are firing mortars in the vicinity of the armenian village of Tegh.
Armenian Forces are Shelling the Positions of the Azerbaijani Army across the Border near Tegh utilizing 120mm Mortars and 152mm Self-Propelled and Fixed Artillery.
Azerbaijani Sources are claiming that they have seen indications that Armenian Tanks and Armored Equipment is currently being Transferred to “Forward Positions” near the Fighting along the Border with Azerbaijan and along the Lachin Corridor.
UPDATE 11:28 AM EDT —
Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of using Iranian shahed drones to target troops. Armenia is denying reports
– Reports that Armenia has abandoned posts in Tegh in anticipation of Azerbaijan drone attack.
– Armenian parliament cancels meetings
Greek Orange Cake in Orange Syrup (Pontica)
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Ingredients
Syrup
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
Cake
1/2 stick butter, melted
6 eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
First make the syrup by combining the orange juice, water and sugar in saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove the syrup from the stove and allow to go cold.
Butter an 8 x 12-inch baking pan with all the melted butter. Mix the flour and baking powder together in a small bowl. Beat the egg whites until stiff and they can form a peak.
In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks until light yellow; add the sugar, orange rind and vanilla and blend well.
To the egg yolk mixture add the egg whites a little at a time, alternating with 2 tablespoons of flour mixture until all used. Pour the batter into the pre-buttered baking pan.
Bake for 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Remove the cake from the baking pan and cut into diamond shapes. Place the cake pieces on a large plate that will trap the syrup when poured over.
Pour the cooled syrup over the still warm cake. Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.
Rema, Selena Gomez – Calm Down (Official Music Video)
African pop music. I will be present much more African music as Africa is going to replace America as a middle class of value.
Testosterone Levels in Men Chart
There is a tremendous benefit for men who are experiencing symptoms of fatigue, muscle loss, joint pains, stiffness, hair loss, low libido, erectile dysfunction, mental fog, depression, or memory loss to contact their doctor to discuss the possibility of getting a blood test for Low T. These are all possible signs that testosterone levels are below what is needed by the body for optimum functioning.
Take a look at the normal testosterone levels in men by age chart below as a reference:
Age Years
Free Testosterone Average Range
Total Testosterone Average Range
Normal Total Testosterone
30 – 40
8.7 – 25.1 pg/mL
219 – 1009 ng/dL
600 – 675 ng/dL
40 – 50
6.8 – 21.5 pg/mL
201 – 993 ng/dL
500 – 550 ng/dL
50 – 60
7.2 – 24.0 pg/mL
170 – 918 ng/dL
400 – 450 ng/dL
Over 60
6.6 – 18.1 pg/mL
156 – 700 ng/dL
300 – 350 ng/dL
What is considered normal testosterone levels in men by age varies considerably, as shown above. A man in his early fifties who falls at the low end of the average range will most likely be experiencing many of the symptoms associated with Low T. Treatment with bioidentical testosterone therapy will be beneficial at this point.
No More Conspiracy Theory; They ADMIT Using Chemtrails!
Former CIA Director John Brennan gave a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations and in it, he admitted government is engaged in “Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI)” which, he claims, can slow or halt “Climate Change.”
So all of us who have seen these “chemtrails” with our own eyes, but been called “Tin Foil Hat Conspiracy Theorists” are proven right once again; they ARE spraying from planes – deliberately. And we’re all breathing it.
Within the US Constitution, there is no power delegated unto Congress, to allow them to engage-in, or even pay for, this type of atmospheric experimentation. It is a power NOT granted to the UNITED STATES.
Worse, they are doing this activity based on a “theory” of “Climate Change.”
So, since it is only a theory, it is now clear they are experimenting UPON THE AIR WE BREATHE, to examine their little pet theory.
I have not, do not, and will not, consent to be experimented upon.
Abbey
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Our 14-year-old dog Abbey di*d last month. The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so, and she dictated these words:
Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.
I hope you will play with her. She likes to swim and play with balls. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.
Love, Meredith
We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven.
That afternoon she dropped it into the letterbox at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.
Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, ‘To Meredith’ in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it.
Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, ‘When a Pet Dies.’
Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page were the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:
Dear Meredith,
Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help and I recognized her right away.
Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.
Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank you.
Deagel Map summary
Deagel.com’s [infamous] 2025 forecast was removed from their website sometime in 2020. The content is reproduced here for reference and educational purposes. This map is a visual summary of the forecast percentage population change by country, 2017-2025.
When I was eleven years old, a neighborhood friend, named Jeff <redacted> had this great plan to become a millionaire. His mother placed a PE tarp on the floor of the car garage, and had a truck dump a full load of dirt on it. He then went and bought some worms from the local fishing tackle store, and put them in the dirt. For weeks, he would water the mound of earth, and occasionally reach in and dig out some worms.
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They were doing fine. Nice, plump and well pronounced. He was certain that he could “make a fortune” by selling them on hot weekends near the river.
Well, long story short, after one entire hot and long day trying to sell the worms, no one bought any. And he was pretty much discouraged. I told him to keep trying, perhaps he would wait a little longer, I argued.
Well, he decided to “throw in the towel” and gave up. One week later, the garage was clean and free of dirt, and he was off working on another plan. This new plan involved buying and selling macramé. That one, actually got some “legs” before it too “died on the vine”, but that is a story for another time.
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Today’s installment…
What you need to understand about the Ukraine war…
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Israel gets a USA “color Revolution”
15 minutes. Not long, but very informative in regards to the massive changes in the world.
U.S. CAUGHT inciting protests in Israel, Netanyahu furious
As a pro-democratic Chinese, do you like how the CCP handles China?
Yea, why not?
When we have natural disasters, thousands of rescue teams formed by soldiers, firefighters, policemen and volunteers would come instantly from other provinces, all actions are for free. And trust me, they are the fastest in the world.
When we have pandemics, thousands of doctors and professors from other provinces would come to save lives, and it takes only 6 days to build several whole new emergency specialty field hospitals, each one has the capacity for over 1000 patients. Also, everything is for free including the treatment process and vaccines for everyone in China.
When your house is on fire, call 119 and firefighters would show up in only 10 minutes 24/7, and it is for free. If firefighters are not enough, they will deploy more firefighters until the fire is extinguished.
When your property is stolen, call 110 and they will find your stolen property and catch those thieves faster than you could imagine. Even if your property is already carried to other provinces, they will find it.
When people you love are hurt or killed, call 110, they will find the murderers 100% even if they are burned into ashes. Don’t ever underestimate the determination that the Chinese Police has. With the development of technology, more and more murderers killed people last century are getting caught recently, none of them could run away from judgement.
We are having countless highways and you can drive wherever you want thru different highways. Although you need to pay for the highway toll, the money they make from us is not even enough to keep daily maintenance, the government loses money every signal fucking day from it but they still keep building new highways.
When some roads are broken due to bad weather or something, the government would send hundreds of excavators and thousands of workers to do rush repairs, have you ever seen the picture that hundreds of excavators are working simultaneously?
Everyone in China has a non-stop power supply, no matter where you live, the government brings electricity to your home. If your home is located in high altitudes area that they can’t deploy the high-tension cables near your home, they would build a new home at the foot of the mountain for you for fee, just in order to let you use the electricity.
The high-speed railway ticket has remained the same price for over 10 years, as well as buses and subways. Public transportation companies are owned by the government, and every year the government gives those companies huge fiscal subsidies to support their business because none of them can actually make money from it, they lost money every year. (by the way, we have telephone signal coverage for all subways, we don’t read books in subways)
If someone has guns illegally, he will be arrested by police and spend 10 years in prison, if he resists being caught, police would directly shoot him to death.
If someone is producing drugs, he will get the death penalty if he produced over 50g of drugs. Same as everyone who sells and transports drugs, all of them can have the death penalty, even if they are foreigners.
Have you seen the differences between western countries and China?
The main difference is, in western countries, the subway system, the bus system, the power supply, the water supply, all these public facilities are run by some private companies, and everyone knows that companies need profit, otherwise how could they survive? That’s why people are spending expensive money on public facilities, while mostly the facilities haven’t been redecorated for decades. (the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard is that you need to pay for the firefighters if they come to your house, I have spent $1200 for 2 fire engines when I was in Canada, fuck the Canadian government.)
But in China, all the communal facilities and services are run by the government, they don’t make any profit from people, that’s why the railway, the bus, the subway tickets are always the same price. We also don’t need to pay for the police or firefighters in any circumstances, we don’t need to pay for the oxygen or ECMO or surgery or vaccine in the pandemic, we don’t need to worry about the power shut down because that hasn’t happened for decades.
Things have changed a lot these years, the Chinese government would like to hear what you say and make changes for people. China is developing every day, it is getting better and better every second. While KMT is handling Taiwan into total chaos, we are having good good good lives here. To handle such a huge country like China, no one could do better than CCP.
These are how CCP handle China, the CCP cares about people’s lives, they come from us, and they will get back to us. We know they are doing their best for us all the time.
How do Chinese people feel that the entire collective west hates Xi Jinping and the CPC?
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Most of them don’t bother too much
Like I told you these guys are the most APOLITICAL people in the world, just behind Singaporeans
They don’t care what others say about Xi Jingping Or whether what Western Media lies about Xi Jingping
They care more about BUSINESS DECISIONS like Trade Embargos and Tariffs and Export Restrictions and they get nationalistic and patriotic and duly get angry at the West
They boycott any western entity in China that talks nonsense about Xinjiang or Uyghurs. Their rule is IF YOU WANT TO DO BUSINESS IN CHINA, YOU SHUT YOUR GOB AND DO BUSINESS
They trust and know that the CPC will handle the Politics and it’s neither their place nor their knowledge on how Geopolitics works
They trust Xi Jingping is powerful enough to fight his own battles and rarely bother with defending him
Instead they defend business and trade decisions against China which the common man can understand much better
Maja Säfström’s Illustrations Are Witty And Relatable
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Illustrator and author Maja Säfström is known for her playful style of illustration based on her witty observations of the world around her. Based in Stockholm, she works full-time as an illustrator and runs her own shop in central Stockholm.
Having earned a tremendous international following on social media, as well as widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards, it’s surprising to learn that Säfström’s background actually lies in architecture. “I have been drawing for as long as I can remember,” she shared in an interview with Lake. “I drew a lot when I was a kid. I had a few years in high school where I thought I was really bad. Then I started studying architecture at university and found myself drawing the scenes around the buildings with MUCH more enthusiasm than the actual houses. Well, one thing led to another!”
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Indeed one thing led to another. “I used to work as an architect and illustrating was something I did in my time off work,” she says. “Now that it is my full-time job, I realize, it is much less meditative. Because now the drawings are often commissioned, which is a bit different from just drawing whatever you feel like. It is the best job in the world though. Being an illustrator! My new hobby is taking care of my plants at home.”
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Each of her illustrated pieces is made by first drawing a thin outline with a pencil, after which the final drawing is made with a fineliner. Her comic-like illustrations often include speech bubbles. “I think the speech bubbles are a very important part of my work,” says Säfström. “I love combining text with drawings. I often experience something in life and make a drawing of that.”
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the State of the Nation Address to a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces in Cape Town, South Africa, February 10, 2022
Walt Zlotow became involved in antiwar activities upon entering University of Chicago in 1963. He is current president of the West Suburban Peace Coalition based in the Chicago western suburbs. He blogs daily on antiwar and other issues at www.heartlandprogressive.blogspot.com
When President Biden announced sanctions against Russia over their February, 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he called it a battle of democracy over tyranny. He expected Africa to rally to the US lead.
Unsurprisingly, not one of Africa’s 54 countries as joined US sanctions against Russia. Many are neutral; some even supporting Russia’s war to prevent NATO’s eastward expansion to Russia’s borders and gain independence of Ukrainian Donbas from Kyiv aggression that has killed thousands of Ukrainians there.
Why unsurprisingly? For starters, the US was delusional Africa would follow America’s proxy war on Russia. It’s the US, not Russia that is bombing Africans in Somalia, Niger and possibly others. It was the US, not Russia that supported colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa to suppress nationalist movements assumed to be led by commies. Even if Marxists were involved, that was none of Uncle Sam’s business. Since 2008, US trained officials attempted at least 9 African coups.
Russia recently convened its Russia-Africa in a Multipolar World conference in which most African nations were represented. Not one condemned Russia’s invasion while some blamed the US and NATO for provoking it. South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa told his Parliament after extensive lobbying by US Secretary of State Tony Blinken, “The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less, instability in the region.”
What we’re witnessing is a seismic shift worldwide weakening US unipolar dominance. US claims of democracy v. tyranny are ringing hollow not only in Africa, but aside from NATO and a few others, globally. Over two thirds of our 8 billion souls live in countries rejecting US proxy war propaganda.
Instead of sanctimonious, self serving adulations of American ideals, President Biden might consider ending US drone strikes in Africa killing many. Stop bullying African leaders to blindly support our proxy war. Remove our 29 African military bases and bring home the troops defiling Africa sovereignty. No more African coup plotting might help as well. Regarding Ukraine, the US should pivot from weapons to negotiations, end NATO eastward expansion, and support Donbas independence, not sabotage it as they did with Minsk II in 2015.
Any chance Uncle Sam will wise up and do even one of those things? Don’t bet on it. While Africa is “all out” supporting America’s proxy war, America is “all in,” blundering down a very unstable, unpeaceful road of its own choosing.
Yellow Rice (Nasi Kuning — Indonesia)
2023 04 05 11 26
Ingredients
2 cups coconut milk
1 cup uncooked regular rice
1 (2-inch) piece lemon grass
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
Instructions
Heat all ingredients to boiling in saucepan, stirring once or twice; reduce heat.
Cover and simmer 14 minutes, without lifting cover or stirring.
Remove from heat.
Fluff rice lightly with fork; cover and let steam 5 to 10 minutes.
Remove lemon grass.
What are your thoughts on current events related to the dollar?
My thoughts?
That the USD is in DEEP SHIT. What brings me to this conclusion?
This essentially.
About a 1 minute clip. Pay attention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9EbPxTm5_s
Who is that? That’s Jim Cramer in 2008 he slammed a person who phoned in asking if Bear Sterns was safe.
He screamed that it was safe. He promised that it was safe. He yelled over and over again, that it was safe.
Bear Sterns went bust a few days later.
Fast forward to today…
Massive movements around the world have happened to move away from USD to other currencies.
Brazil, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and 20 other countries lining up to do it.
This in itself is huge.
The tell I’m looking at is how there’s suddenly thousands of bot accounts everywhere. And they are all posting about how strong the USD is! And how weak every other currency is. And throughout these ‘bot accounts they state repeatedly that anybody who speaks out against it is a troll apparently.
The Jim Cramer effect.
West Kittanning and Kittanning PA
This is the large town next to where I grew up. We used to come here to buy our groceries, get gas, and go bowling. My mother used to live here, and looking at the video, I can positively affirm that it hasn’t changed at all since 1977.
Every now and then, I get on you-tube to watch some videos of my old “stomping grounds”. East Brady, Kittanning, Butler. It only serves to remind me that I am really glad that I am in China.
BRICS rising as neocons destroy the west w/Jeffrey Sachs
34 minutes. Worth your time. I will list this as “must watch” video.
2023 04 05 10 49
The United States (Neocons) are furious that BRICS+ is going along with Asia and not obeying the orders out of Washington.
So glad three great minds can make sense of such a fast-moving chaotic time. Without the Duran channel thousands of viewers would be overwhelmed with disinformation. Thank you.
Joe has a plan that would rival China’s BRI why did USA not have such a plan before?
Its plain nonsense
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Reason No 1 : Trade vs ?????
China has a reason for all that Infrastructure. Long term trade. It builds roads and railways in Kenya because in a few more years – China may transfer 50–100 Factories to Kenya for Low Grade Manufacturing and needs the Trains and Roads.
US has no such reasons. Surely AirBnB and other Service Companies are not going to move to Kenya or Ethiopia in such big numbers to provide Motel Services to People who can barely eat 2 Square meals a day???
US is service Dominated, China is Export, Manufacture and Trade Dominated
Reason No 2 : Labor
Chinese Workers have no issues packing their bags and moving country to country earning Salary + Foreign Allowance and a flat National Insurance Policy
US Workers demand far far more. No US Worker would be prepared to work for 4 years in Pakistan. Those days which existed in the 1970s and 1980s when US Workers worked in Saudi or Iran are gone. US Workers will demand massive foreign allowances, visitation with families, big chunks of insurance etc.
It would take 50 US Workers to replace 450 Chinese Workers in Infrastructure Projects.
Reason No 3 : Cost Competitiveness
China has a complete ready-made system for Infrastructure. It has machinery, the workers, the finance – its all a Package deal – once the Politicians sign the dotted line -the Unit begins to work like a Precision army. No dependence on anybody whatsoever.
US doesn’t have such a ready-made system. Machinery is far more expensive, workers are more expensive, hiring workers from other countries may make sense but the liability factor would come into being (US Companies being liable for the work of say Indian or Bangladesh workers)
Reason No 4 : FINANCE
In China – the Govt has control on financing of Infrastructure projects. The Contractors are assured and have Govt Guarantees which is why they have no issues. Policies exist to defer or extend loans, defer or extend or reissue debt.
In USA – the Govt has ZERO CONTROL on Financing or Banking. The Banks are entirely on their own and they would say “Nothing Doing” to Biden in 10 seconds flat. Contractors will need Federal Govt Guarantees
Reason No 5 : Democracy
Its not that easy to spend $ 500 Billion on Foreign Charity anymore.
Since no Infrastructure project will get even 50 cents profit, there is no sense in burning $ 500 Billion of US Taxpayers money
Republicans will ferociously protest
Reason No 5 : Track Record
52 Unfinished Projects in Pakistan, 39 in Afghanistan – This is US and its track record. They never finish projects anywhere in areas which are even 10% violent.
In fact i believe strongly that this Idea would be counter productive
US is way ahead in High Tech Manufacture and Research and Development. That is the path for the US. Keep the Technological Edge. Keep inventing better and better things – so that the gap with China doesnt reduce.
However US is not doing that. US research and development is becoming lower and lower except in the area of defense. Chinas is becoming larger and larger. This would be the changing factor
Instead blowing $ 500 Bn – $ 1 Trillion would be a stupid, stupid decision
Especially given that US Govt would transfer these funds to Corrupt Politicians who will “spend” 90% of this money and give only 10% to the Projects.
Africa tells the United States to go to Hell!
Kamala Harris Gets SMACKED DOWN During Visit To Africa
2023 04 05 11 02
13 minutes. Very good. Watching this will tell you what the rest of the world thinks about America right now. Pay attention. Especially if you are living in a US proxy nation.
It's really beyond all comprehension that this could all be perceived as unintentional at this point. We are literally watching them drive the last nail in America's coffin.
Why is China against Jack Ma who built wealth for many Chinese?
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Why is China against Jack Ma?
Simple reason. Jack Ma is beginning the trend of the Hyping and Overvaluation of Entities that is so common in the west.
Chinese Financial Experts are not so gullible and naive as other valuators. They dont value random companies for billions of dollars just after seeing advertisements or watching celebrities dance in those ads.
They had a 3 Step Process of Valuing a Start Up and demand certain tough conditions to be met before the Start up can become an IPO. Remember – as a Start up – the investors and their money are involved but as an IPO – Public Money is involved.
So they control the valuation of start ups and have their own valuations of the same startups which ensures that Institutional Investors in China go by the Bankers Valuations rather than other Valuations.
For instance say a Company is valued at 40 Billion Dollars by a Group of US Valuators, the Chinese Banks value the same Company for only 19 Billion Dollars. So Any Chinese who wants to invest will invest based on the 19 Billion instead of 40 Billion Dollars – though Americans, Europeans, Japanese are welcome to invest in over inflated companies and burn their wallets.
This process slowly merged into a Single Valuation of an Entity by the Chinese Bankers through a Specialized Body specially formed to evaluate Startups .Since 2018 – Startup Valuations have been based on the Chinese Moderate and Conservative Values rather than the Speculative 100 Billion or 1000 Billion valuation by the Entities themselves.
#1
Jack Ma did not like this.
Now Jack Ma is the Mukesh Ambani of China. He is the First Billionaire there. Every Billionaire, every Entity looks to him and models his actions. He is the most Important Billionaire in his country. The Big Boss.
Ma was deeply upset when the Chinese Bankers refused to accept Mas valuations for his Ant Group IPO of $ 35 Billion and also believed his valuations especially his futuristic numbers could be possible only by monopolistic domination of the domestic market in certain areas which is Antitrust Violation.
This made Jack Ma Angry especially as he felt – every other country did the same/similar valuations and Chinas Bankers were more Pawnbrokers than Bankers.
This angered the Chinese Regulators and the CCP. In a Autocracy – casting blame on a financial system could become a dangerous objective.
# 2
Jack Ma has too much Global Influence and the Big Tech are starting to do so
Ma has long been on Chinas watchlist since he has tremendous global influence especially with the US and Europe.
The Chinese Government Fears that Ma and Others could end up making China too dependent on the Big Tech Industries which could damage the political stability of the country which Xi Jingping Fears.
Hence China plans to introduce the Shen Zi Law – the 51:49 Law to ensure that all Major Tech Companies sell 51% of their Share to the Chinese Government Entities to ensure that the Big Tech Industries dont establish an Oligarchy in the long run. After all China has seen what happened to Libya or Iran (pre 1979) when Companies controlled the Governments.
# 3
Big Tech led by Jack Ma could destroy the Financial Stability of China
Overvaluation is something China is scared of. In a Democratic Country – Overvaluation and Collapse of entities results in depressions which result in Govt changes but in an Autocracy – it could be Catastrophic. People could take to the streets.
China have controlled this for some time now (Since 2018) by forcing the Companies to operate based on the Govt Approved Valuation which is realistic but deemed by many companies to Harsh and Pawnshop based.
For instance if BYJUS was in China – they would value the company at $ 3.42 Billion instead of $ 12 Billion under their GRMV Valuation Model.
Its why Big Tech have different numbers in NASDAQ – US has no such regulations. I can form a Company and 10 years later sell shares at $ 100000 a share if i want to as long as people want to buy them.
China has been looking the other way for some time – but now it has decided ENOUGH. China wants a 51:49 Law OR very tough regulations to ensure that the Public dont experience a 1929 Depression or a 2008 Crisis.
Baked Macaroni with Beef
and Cheese (Pasticcio)
2023 04 05 11 28
Ingredients
2 cups uncooked ziti or elbow macaroni
3/4 pound ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups grated Kasseri, Parmesan or Romano cheese
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
Cook macaroni as directed on package; drain. Cook and stir beef and onion in 10-inch skillet until beef is light brown; drain. Stir in tomato sauce and salt. Spread half the macaroni in a greased 8-inch square baking dish; cover with beef mixture.
Mix 1/2 cup of the cheese and cinnamon. Sprinkle over beef mixture. Cover with remaining macaroni.
Cook and stir milk and butter in 2-quart saucepan until butter is melted. Stir at least half the milk mixture gradually into beaten eggs. Blend into milk mixture in saucepan; pour over macaroni. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese.
Bake uncovered at 325 degrees F until brown and center is set, about 50 minutes.
Sprinkle with nutmeg. Garnish with parsley if desired.
Yields 6 servings.
Playing “Fool’s Mate” on the Grand Eurasian Chessboard
For at least a generation or more, America’s international policies have increasingly been governed by our Ministry of Propaganda, and the bill may finally be starting to come due.
Last Wednesday the Wall Street Journalreported that Saudi Arabia was joining China’s Shanghai Cooperative Organization, a decision that came just a few weeks after the announcement that it had reestablished diplomatic relations with arch-enemy Iran following negotiations held in Beijing under Chinese auspices. For three generations, the oil rich kingdom had been America’s most important Arab ally, and the lead sentence of the Journal article emphasized that this dramatic development reflected our waning influence in the Middle East.
That same day, Brazil declared that it was abandoning the use of dollars in its transactions with China, its largest trading partner, following an earlier statement that its president planned to meet with China’s leader in support of that country’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, a diplomatic initiative strongly opposed by our own government. Geopolitical dominoes seem to rapidly falling, taking down American influence with them.
Given our country’s horrendous budget and trade deficits, America’s continued standard of living is heavily dependent upon the international use of the dollar, especially for oil sales, so these are extremely threatening developments. For decades, we have freely exchanged our government script for goods and commodities from around the world, and if that becomes much more difficult, our global situation may grow dire. During the 1956 Suez Crisis, the threatened collapse of the British pound marked the end of Britain’s influence on the global stage, and America may be rapidly approaching its own “Suez moment.”
Despite our enormous efforts and the shrill support of the global Western media, few countries other than our own subservient vassals have been willing to follow our lead and impose sanctions on Russia, further evidence of our greatly diminished international clout.
RussiaSanctions
Since the 1980s I have regarded the tectonic shift of geopolitical power to China as an almost inevitable consequence of that country’s development, and more than a decade ago I had described those powerful trends, already long visible.
But the facts have now become blatantly obvious. Jacques Sapir serves as director of studies at the EHESS, one of France’s leading academic institutions, and a few months ago he published a short article setting forth the striking economic statistics, an analysis that has received less attention than it deserves.
He explained that according to nominal exchange rates Russia had a small economy, just half as large as that of France and roughly the same as Spain’s, so it had seemed very vulnerable to the unprecedented wave of Western sanctions imposed after the outbreak of the Ukraine war. But Russia survived almost unscathed, and instead it was the West that suffered critical energy shortages, a severe bout of inflation, and other serious economic stresses, suggesting that those comparisons were merely illusory.
By contrast, according to the far more realistic Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) metric, Russia’s economy was actually far larger, being comparable to that of Germany. But even that measure seriously underestimated the true balance of international power.
Among Western economies, services comprise a large, sometimes overwhelming fraction of total economic activity, and those statistics are far more subject to manipulation. Some economists have argued that drug-dealing, prostitution, and other criminal activity should be included in that total, which would therefore boost the supposed measure of our national prosperity.
By contrast, during periods of sharp international conflict, the productive sectors of GDP—industry, mining, agriculture, and construction—probably constitute a far better measure of relative economic power, and Russia is much stronger in that category. So although Russia’s nominal GDP is merely half that of France, its real productive economy is more than twice as large, representing nearly a five-fold shift in relative economic power. This helps explain why Russia so easily surmounted the Western sanctions that had been expected to cripple it.
When Sapir extends this same analysis to other countries, the results are even more remarkable. Although our disingenuous mainstream media invariably describes China as having the world’s second largest economy, it actually surpassed America in real terms several years ago as anyone can confirm by consulting the CIA’s World Factbook. But while a substantial 44% of China’s fully modern economy consists of services, America’s service sector—advertising, retail sales, education, personal services, diversity consulting—amounts to nearly 80% of our total, reducing our productive output to merely a small residual fraction.
One of Sapir’s tables demonstrated that as far back as 2019, China’s real productive economy was already three times larger than America’s.
Sapir 45
Indeed, by 2017 China’s real productive sector exceeded the combined total for America, the European Union, and Japan.
American boosters often take comfort in our supposed advantages in technology and innovation, but although our past lead had been enormous, this seems less true today or in the future. Sapir provided a chart showing the tremendous growth in Chinese patent applications over the last forty years, which have increased from almost nothing to more than 60% of the world total by 2018, nearly five times America’s share.
Sapir 6
There is some empirical evidence that these official statistics have real-world impact. American companies created and once entirely dominated the social media and smartphone ecosystem that is so important to global consumers, and for years their position seemed unassailable. But according to a recent WSJ article, four of the five most popular smartphone apps in the U.S. are now Chinese, with Facebook ranked fifth. The main response of our bipartisan political class has been to threaten a ban on TikTok, wildly popular among our own youth, much like the nomenklatura of the decaying Soviet Union had once desperately tried to ban Western blue jeans and rock music.
This rapid rise of China in technology and economic competitiveness is hardly surprising. As physicist Steve Hsu pointed out in 2008, according to international psychometric data, America’s population probably contains some 10,000 individuals having an IQ of 160 or higher, while the total for China is around 300,000, a figure thirty times larger.
China’s greatest strategic vulnerability had been its dependence upon imported energy and raw materials to feed its massive industrial base, and during an international confrontation America could potentially have used its control of the seas to interdict such vital supplies. But Russia possesses the world’s greatest treasure-chest of such resources, and our unremitting hostility has now driven that country into a tight embrace of its Chinese neighbor, as recently emphasized by the Moscow Summit of their two national leaders.
Thus, our own actions have forged a strong China-Russia alliance that seems likely to displace America from its dominant global position. Such an outcome would be an event of historic proportions, comparable in magnitude to the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago.
Harvard’s Graham Allison was the founding dean of the Kennedy School of Government, assuming that post while I was still in high school, and his influential 2017 bestseller Destined for War coined the phrase “the Thucydides Trap” for what he feared might be an almost inevitable conflict between a rising China and a globally dominant America. But our irrational hostility toward Russia has now transformed the geopolitical landscape, and last week he took to the pages of Foreign Policy to argue that the China-Russia alliance now probably outweighed our own:
An elementary proposition in international relations 101 states: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” By confronting both China and Russia simultaneously, the United States has helped create what former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski called an “alliance of the aggrieved.” This has allowed Xi to reverse Washington’s successful “trilateral diplomacy” of the 1970s that widened the gap between China and the United States’ primary enemy, the Soviet Union, in ways that contributed significantly to the U.S. victory in the Cold War. Today, China and Russia are, in Xi’s words, closer than allies.Since Xi and Putin are not just the current presidents of their two nations but leaders whose tenures effectively have no expiration dates, the United States will have to understand that it is confronting the most consequential undeclared alliance in the world.
According to Allison, we are currently witnessing the end of the unchallenged American global dominance that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago. Therefore, it was quite fitting that he quoted the views of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Polish-born political scientist who had been a major architect of our successful strategy during the victorious later stages of that Cold War conflict.
A longtime academic scholar of the “Realist” school at both Harvard and Columbia universities, Brzezinski had been the primary organizer of the Trilateral Commission in 1973 and in 1976 was named National Security Advisor in the Carter Administration, gradually gaining ascendancy for his harder-line views against his rival, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. He strongly supported Eastern European dissident activity, notably including the powerful Solidarity movement in his own native Poland, and he also orchestrated heavy military assistance to the Muslim rebels in Soviet-controlled Afghanistan. Both those efforts probably played a significant role in fatally weakening the USSR.
Indeed, although Brzezinski was himself a Democrat of strong social democratic leanings, his foreign policy positions were so greatly admired by Republican conservatives that there were even later claims that Ronald Reagan had asked him to stay on in that same role after Carter’s 1980 defeat.
By the mid-1980s, Brzezinski had become convinced that Soviet Communism was in terminal decline and in 1989 he published The Grand Failure, bearing the prophetic subtitle “The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century.” The work appeared in print nearly a year before the Fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of an epoch.
The collapse of the Iron Curtain reunited the severed halves of Europe two generations after their separation, and this was followed two years later by the shocking collapse and disintegration of the Soviet Union itself. Moscow soon lost control over territories it had ruled for centuries, with most of the boundaries of the Russian successor state rolled back to what they had been prior to the reign of Peter the Great in 1682.
The sudden disappearance of the USSR totally transformed the geopolitical landscape, leaving America as the world’s sole superpower, having unchallenged dominance over the entire globe, a situation unique in world history.
Brzezinski considered the consequences of that global upheaval and in 1997 published The Grand Chessboard, a short but influential book summarizing our unprecedented international position and outlining geostrategic policies to buttress our new dominance on the Eurasian world continent, the region that constituted the “grand chessboard” of his title.
Over the years, I’ve frequently seen accusations that Brzezinski was advocating a strategy for permanent American global hegemony, but I think such critics were confusing his ideas with the crude triumphalism espoused by the Neocons, who followed an entirely different ideological path. I finally read his book several years ago and encountered a very thoughtful and moderate analysis of the dangers and opportunities America faced on the Eurasian landmass, with the author repeatedly emphasizing that our worldwide dominance was merely a temporary condition, impossible to permanently maintain.
America was his country and he certainly proposed alliances and other measures to strengthen and extend our global position, but he sought to do so in a reasonable and restrained manner, avoiding provocative or precipitous actions and properly accommodating the legitimate geopolitical interests of other major powers such as China, Russia, Japan, and the larger European states.
His book had appeared near the absolute high-water mark of American prestige and influence and in the aftermath of the 9/11 Attacks a few years later, Brzezinski became a strong public critic of the Bush Administration’s Neocon-influenced plans for an Iraq War, a disastrous mistake that wrecked the stability of the Middle East, squandered our national credibility, and cost us many trillions of dollars. Since the mid-1970s his closest ally and collaborator had been his former military aide Bill Odom, who as a three-star general later ran the NSA for Ronald Reagan during the mid-1980s, and the two of them later urged an immediate strategic rapprochement with Iran and withdrawal from Iraq.
The dramatic geopolitical shifts we are now experiencing recently prompted me to reread Brzezinski’s short 1997 book and doing so fully confirmed my recollections. Early on, he set forth the key reasons for America’s global dominance, expecting that most of them would persist for at least a generation and possibly longer:
In brief, America stands supreme in the four decisive domains of global power: militarily, it has an unmatched global reach; economically, it remains the main locomotive of global growth, even if challenged in some respects by Japan and Germany (neither of which enjoys the other attributes of global might); technologically, it retains the overall lead in the cutting-edge areas of innovation; and culturally, despite some crassness, it enjoys an appeal that is unrivaled, especially among the world’s youth—all of which gives the United States a political clout that no other state comes close to matching. It is the combination of all four that makes America the only comprehensive global superpower.
Although the Polish-born author surely retained some deep personal hostility toward his homeland’s traditional Russian adversary and his book was written close to the nadir of Russia’s national decline, only traces of such animosity were visible, and he fully considered the possibility that a revived Russia would successfully integrate itself into an enlarged Europe, the “common European home” once espoused by Mikhail Gorbachev. He expressed some concern about instability in the Islamic world, but our disastrous post-9/11 Middle Eastern wars would have seemed acts of unimaginable recklessness and folly.
The penultimate and longest chapter of his Eurasia analysis was entitled “The Far Eastern Anchor” and he described that region as experiencing “an economic success without parallel in human development.” He noted that during their takeoff stage of industrialization, Britain and America had each required roughly a half-century to double their output, while both China and South Korea had achieved that same result in merely a single decade. Brzezinski felt confident that barring unfortunate circumstances, China would surely grow into a leading global economic power, and believed that our own country should seek to incorporate it into the world system we had constructed, while properly recognizing that “China’s history has been one of national greatness.”
But although Brzezinski’s appraisal of China’s prospects was highly favorable, his 1997 analysis was actually quite cautious in its projections. He doubted that the country’s remarkable economic growth rates would continue for another couple of decades, something that would require “an unusually felicitous combination of effective national leadership” and numerous other favorable conditions, arguing that such a “prolonged combination of all of these positive factors was problematic.”
Instead, he leaned towards a more conventional prognosis that by about 2017, China might have a total GDP considerably larger than that of Japan, thereby establishing it as “a global power, roughly on a par with the United States and Europe.” But the reality was that by that year China’s real GDP was more than four times larger than that of Japan, and its real industrial production was greater than that of America and the European Union combined.
Thus, China’s economic weight in today’s world vastly exceeds Brzezinski’s 1997 assumptions and that difference magnifies the importance of his strategic warnings, which our political leadership has utterly disregarded. Throughout his book, he repeatedly emphasized that the greatest danger America faced would be if we needlessly antagonized major Eurasian nations, which might then unite against us:
Finally, some possible contingencies involving future political alignments should also be briefly noted…the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America’s status as a global power…Potentially, the most dangerous scenario would be a grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran, an “antihegemonic” coalition united not by ideology but by complementary grievances…Averting this contingency, however remote it may be, will require a display of U.S. geostrategic skill on the western, eastern, and southern perimeters of Eurasia simultaneously.
However, a coalition allying Russia with both China and Iran can develop only if the United States is shortsighted enough to antagonize China and Iran simultaneously.
Given recent events, his prophetic warnings were completely disregarded. Instead, our national political leadership chose to exactly invert his suggestions, and they did so despite China having grown much stronger than he had envisioned.
Brzezinski himself recognized some of these important developments, and the year before his death in 2017, he updated his analysis to proclaim that the era of American dominance was already drawing to a close and we should recognize that reality.
Toward a Global Realignment As its era of global dominance ends, the United States needs to take the lead in realigning the global power architecture.
Zbigniew Brzezinski • The American Interest • April 17, 2016 • 2,500 Words
Instead of heeding his concerns and adjusting their policies accordingly, our government has doubled-down on its crude strategy of attempting to maintain an impossible American global hegemony, a policy that seems likely to end in national disaster.
Our leaders have apparently decided to play a game of “Fool’s Mate” on the grand Eurasian chessboard.
The United States is starting to dramatically collapse.
2023 04 05 11 07
I got fired from my job a week ago but now suddenly, I received an email that they want me back ASAP. What should I do?
Ha. They’ve probably figured out that they didn’t actually know what you did before they fired you but now that it’s all going to custard without you, they desperately need you back to fix it.
Let me introduce you to a concept called “a contractor”.
That is where you charge (like a wounded bull) for the privilege of your temporary return. Make sure you have a rock-solid contract charging at least double your previous rate (plus “per diem”; expenses like travel, meals, lodging) with minimum contracted periods. Do not forget a penalty clause if the company breaks the contract.
You hold the power right now so it makes sense to leverage it.
It’s not like they valued you previously either, I mean, they fired you.
If you return to them, sure, they may be using you to train your replacement but if you’re earning triple what you did before and are contracted for a minimum two-month period, who cares? I repeat: they didn’t value you in the first place. That they don’t value your efforts won’t change anytime soon and they’d be questioning your loyalty post-firing anyway.
When you leave for good (once your temporary contract ends), you get to do so with your head held high. Plus, being called back post-termination as a contractor will look better on your CV than just a termination. It will demonstrate that you had real value to your previous business and were proffessional even in light of the termination…
…as for the fact that you charged them extra for the privilege of your company? meh, we just don’t talk about that.
If the company rejects your negotiated offer, who cares? You’ll have lost nothing you wanted.
French Protests Escalate – Macron Ready To Back Down!
2023 04 05 11 15
Is the United States qualified to define the state of democracy in other countries?
Of course not, but the US thinks it does.For nearly 50 years, the US has been shamelessly publishing Country Reports on Human Rights Practices as if it can objectively and fairly document the human rights situation around the world. While being the backseat driver, the US has ignored its own human rights problems. In its annual Country Reports, the US arrogantly blamed other countries while ignoring the massive and systematic human rights violations in its own country.
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Let’s see how the US “objectively” judge the human rights issues of other countries.
The trajectory of US history shows that the US has always viewed human rights as a tool for maintaining its world hegemony, and has selectively used it as a pretext to label other countries as human rights violators. The US has invaded Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan. Studies show that the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan may have resulted in the deaths of as many as 250,000 people. The US has also been plagued by its own money politics, racial discrimination, proliferation of guns, police brutality, and polarization between rich and poor.
Pepe Escobar
April 10, 2023
The leaked intel might be advantageous to Russia were this not to be misdirection: and the possibility is quite real, Pepe Escobar writes.
The script reads like a spoof straight out of legendary Mad magazine 1960’s cartoon “Spy vs. Spy”: Secret Pentagon Documents Fall in the Hands of Malign Russia. Well, actually in the hands of millions accessing Twitter and Telegram.
So here, at face value, we have a major leak essentially detailing Pentagon planning for the next stage of the NATO vs. Russia proxy war in Ukraine: the interminably debated Spring “counter-offensive” that may, or may not, start in mid-April, as well as war plans shared with FVEY – the Five Eyes.
The leaked intel might – and the operative word is “might” – be advantageous to Russia were this not to be misdirection: and the possibility is quite real.
The inestimable Ray McGovern, who knows one or two things about the CIA, noted whether the Pentagon is “falsifying kill-ratio to gild Easter lilies in Kyiv? Recent leak of an apparently official NATO document shows 71,500 Ukrainians KIA and only 16,000 to 17,500 Russians, a far cry from earlier Pentagon ‘estimates’. All sounds so Vietnam-déjà vu!”
So this may be Vietnam all over again – never count on the Pentagon learning from their mistakes – but could be something way more alarming, according to a top Beltway intel source, retired: “Our interpretation of this breach is that intel sources in the United States have released critical intel data in order to avoid a nuclear war with Russia.”
As it stands, the only certainty is that the spin war has gone berserk. So the leaker may have been a – disgruntled – U.S. insider. No, wait: the whole thing may be fake, as the Pentagon insists. In spin speak, that would be an attempt to “spread false information that could harm the U.S.”.
Tweaked or not, the “secret” Pentagon comparative war dead ratio between Russians and Ukrainians still does not make sense. The numbers appear to reflect Bakhmut/Artemovsk casualties, where Russian casualty ratios were highest. Yet reliable on the ground Russian military correspondents assure the ratio is really 10 to 1, with the Russians employing the snail technique combined with a formidable artillery mincing machine.
“Stupefying” incompetence
The undisputable conclusion out of the – real or fake – Pentagon leaks is that the U.S. is in a state of war against Russia. And that is serious enough.
Washington has been feeding information non-stop on command posts, ammunition depots and key nodes in the Russian military lines. It’s such real-time intel that has allowed Kiev to target Russian forces, kill senior generals and force ammunition depots to be moved farther from the Russian front lines.
Anything Pentagon/NATO stenographers say about Kiev playing the proverbial “decisive role” in planning and executing these strikes is a lie. The U.S. exercizes total, absolute control of the Ukraine war on a central command basis. Including from that “secret” underground bunker near Lviv which recently received a business card from Mr. Khinzal and has gone to meet its maker – along with over 200 NATO high-level operatives.
Fake or not fake, we also have confirmation that the Pentagon has direct access to communications of the Russian Ministry of Defense. And that the Americans listen to everyone and his neighbor: the sweaty T-shirt actor in Kiev, all the Five Eyes allies, and the Mossad.
As for the notion that Kiev has changed its counter-offensive “military plans” because of the Pentagon leaks, everyone should feel free to control the pitch of their roaring laughter.
The Russian non-response response to all this hoopla could be seen as a classic of misdirection. Responding to the U.S. de facto engaged in an undeclared war against Russia, much hotter than Hybrid, President Putin said that Russia is interested in “peaceful coexistence with the U.S. and establishing a balance of interests” given their status as the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.
Well, no one can possibly imagine Stalin saying that Russia was interested in peaceful coexistence with Nazi Germany in July, 1941 as the Wehrmacht was rushing towards Moscow, Leningrad and the Caucusus oil.
From the point of view of valuable military information, the indispensable Andrei Martyanov summed it all up: these “documents” contain none, apart from confirming that the Pentagon is absolutely clueless on the SMO: why is it happening, what is the modus operandi and what it plans to achieve.
As Martyanov stresses, Russia maneuvers an extremely advanced ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) complex, including human intel on the ground, electronic warfare and satellite constellations: “In terms of war correlates and combat statistics – I wouldn’t touch anything coming from Pentagon with a long stick.”
There are indeed several serious issues with the Pentagon “top secret” intel. It oozes the impression it was redacted based on open data, and not actual intel. And all that packaged by some quite shoddy work.
For instance, the insistence to “re-equip” Ukrainian air defense with missiles is not supported by data on where such missiles will be coming from. The name of the NASAMS – the middle range, ground based air defense system co-developed by Raytheon – is misspelled.
In official NATO documents, weapons from the USSR and from Russia are indicated in NATO codification. There is no style uniformity: it’s a messy mix of official code designations and transliterations from Russian into English.
So no wonder the impression is solidified that the U.S. Army Command in Europe (EUCOM) got their “intel” from open sources, and is absolutely clueless on how many weapons, how much equipment and how many people the Ukrainians actually have.
And that explains what’s going on in Artemovsk – with the Russians taking all the time in the world to calibrate their strategic defense, and after the orderly abandon of Kherson, lure the Ukrainians into a non-stop slaughterhouse. Martyanov qualifies U.S./NATO incompetence to see it coming as “stupefying.”
A do-or-die war to control Eurasia
Once again: the most important consequence of the Pentagon leaks is to establish that the U.S., de facto and de jure, is at war against Russia – whatever may be the spin by that Norwegian piece of dead wood in Brussels. Russia will establish a war crimes tribunal for Ukraine, so sooner rather than later, selected collective West luminaries better take refuge in their New Zealand bunkers.
It’s also crucial to always keep in mind Ukraine is a mere pawn in their game for not losing world power, against China, Russia and potentially Germany.
The initial psycho Straussian neocon goal was to cut off Germany from Russia using “Liver Sausage” Chancellor Scholz, who was briefed in advance on the terror attack on the Nord Streams.
Scholz was also involved in the CIA misdirection scam, channeling the blame for the terror attack on some obscure Ukrainian “dissident” and a bumbling yacht – as brilliantly covered by Seymour Hersh.
The next step is to cut off Ukraine from Russia – “reconquering” Crimea, the focus of the current P.R. blitzkrieg, and Donbass, thus originating a cataclysmic psychological upheaval in Russia leading to a Putin regime change.
Then the Straussians would finally command Russia’s massive natural resources – and block them from China by land and by sea via the U.S. Fleet.
That’s not exactly clever – but Straussian neocons do revel in their own intellectually shallow pond. Cue to that insufferable idiot Admiral John Kirby saying there can be no negotiations with Russia until they leave Ukraine, abandoning Donbass and Crimea.
So the (show) war in Ukraine must go on, to the last Ukrainian, or all these elaborate plans will irretrievably bite the dust. This is a do-or-die war against Russia-China for the control of Eurasia. Will that imply more Pentagon leaks? Bring them on.
Steak, Philippine-Style (Bistek)
2023 04 05 11 2d3
Ingredients
2 pounds sirloin steak, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Salt to taste
1 cup thinly sliced onion rings
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup water
Instructions
Marinate the meat in lemon juice, soy sauce, pepper and salt for 3 hours or more.
Cook onion rings in oil until transparent.
Transfer to a serving dish, leaving the oil in the skillet.
Add the meat to the skillet and cook over high heat, stirring often, until tender.
Transfer the meat to a serving dish.
Add marinade and water to the skillet, simmer for 10 minutes and pour over the meat and onion rings.
2023 04 05 11 23
The End Of The US Dollar | What You Must Know
Why the Saudi Arabia actions matter…
2023 04 05 11 30
What are the 5 mistakes that ruin youth?
First – Feel your peak too early
Youngsters should peak at 24–35 years
Many youngsters who slog and slog and slog for JEE, NEET from 10th standard may burn out by the age of 21–22 years They may feel they have achieved their peak. This reduces their comprehension, analytics and overall drive and ambition.
It’s why the rule is ALWAYS HAVE FUN
Even if preparing for IITs, have fun, watch a movie from time to time, hang out with friends, take a day off from time to time
If you study hard, understand concepts and show Aptitude, you will keep a rising linear growth and hit your peak by your late 20s to mid 30s and that would be normal.
If you slog too hard, you burn out by even 17 and feel a JEE rank is your peak. You feel irritated at more slogging.
Second – Peer Pressure
Smoking, Boozing and Sex is a common thing for youngsters from conservative backgrounds with free spending peers
Its common to fall under peer pressure where you feel that you have to do these things to belong to a group.
The Golden Rule is – First drop of beer after first paycheck, No Smoking ever, No Drugs ever and paid sex, preferably never or only in safe countries after the 24th paycheck minimum and hard drinks only when some corporate is paying for them (Office parties) and not more than 2 pegs a week
Third – Relationships
Girls mature faster than boys
Thus a 16 yr old girl is way more mature than a 16 yr boy.
By maturity I mean mental maturity
So a girl who talks as a friend could definitely be interpreted by a boy as the girl showing romantic interest.
It’s a script for 10,000 movies where the girl says “Tum sirf mere acche dost ho”
So Golden Rule is – No relationships until 21. Otherwise be prepared to see it end abruptly and dont get too depressed. Have a 7 day period to bounce back. No more.
Even if a girl shows interest, give it a 2–3 year period and if by 21 the interest is still there then fine. Pursue it
Otherwise many kids become Devdas
Fourth – Pressure
Find your horse
Find what you are good at and pursue it
Don’t succumb to pressure from family
That’s the biggest problem for Indian youth. The belief that if you aren’t an Engineer Or Doctor then you are a failure.
Understand your aptitude
Remember a standard reply – if Papa asks you to get a JEE rank, reply – I want you to become the MD of your bank, can you do that???
My son asked me the same question and funny enough I wasn’t annoyed or angry. I was amused. It was a logical argument.
Fifth Following the Herd
Hrithik was lucky in Lakshya that he found his calling by accident but you may not be.
Don’t just follow the herd and do something you don’t like.
Brazil and China
“Americans Will Be Poor Overnight!” – Reaction To China & Brazil Agreement To Ditch US Dollar
Ukraine SitRep: Leaked Briefings, Holding Roads, Split Training
Apparently some briefing documents about the war in Ukraine for the Joint Chief of Staff of the U.S. military were leaked on the internets. I have so far only seen five pages of those. The total number is supposed to be 53 or 56 pages. If anyone knows where I can find decent copies please let me know in the comments.
I was cautious after the first release was discussed in major U.S. media. The first batch was used to demonstrate that the U.S. is allegedly successfully spying on Russia. I therefore thought that the whole release might be a disinformation campaign. However a second round of files discussed in the media over the last days paints a different picture.
Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism has decent roundup about them:
Again, recall the New York Times was the first MSM outlet to discuss that what turned out to be the first of (so far) two groups of Pentagon slides, focused on Ukraine preparedness, had made their way to a Russian Telegram account. Some had argued that the first set was a US or Russian psyop, but the authenticity of jargon and the amount of unflattering information argued against it. The second batch extends beyond Ukraine and is perceived to be damaging to US interests.Mind you, as many war-watchers have pointed out, these revelations don’t appear likely to have much impact on the too-widely-anticipated Ukraine offensive. While the level of detail is tantalizing, the broad findings, like Ukraine’s air defenses have been depleted and are only going to get worse, were evident via open sources. Yet some of the claims are bizarre, like 97% of Russia’s forces being committed to Ukraine. Recall UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that in February, and appeared to be retailing Ukraine propaganda then. Did Wallace get that factoid from these documents?
Nevertheless, this breach will make the US clamp down on distribution of sensitive information, which won’t be helpful so close to the launch of the expected counter-offensive.
…
At least one slide in this second group bore the label “Secret/NoForn,” which means distribution is limited to US citizens. That would seem to rule out our notion, based on the first batch (widely distributed among US allies, including Ukraine) that a Ukrainian unhappy with how the war is being conducted could have been behind the leak. This marking suggests these documents came from a Pentagon source, which could include contractors.
The page below shows the timetable for training and equipping nine new brigades.
Those brigades will have too few state of the art tanks and too few artillery to be really effective. There is also a shortage of 122mm ammunition for the artillery howitzers.
If or when that Ukrainian counterattack comes it will hardly be the punch that some seem to expect. Ukraine had also put other units into reserve to prepare for that attack. But some of those have already been used. In a piece about Bakhmut the New York Timeswrites:
But in farm fields and villages on Bakhmut’s outskirts, Ukrainian military officials say Kyiv’s forces have fought the Russian Army essentially to a standstill in the battle for two key roads, the T504 highway and a route known as the 506.Six weeks after the start of a Ukrainian operation to reinforce supply lines outside Bakhmut and protect the roads, Ukrainian military officials say they have thwarted, at least for now, a Russian effort to sever those roads and surround the city.
The T504 highway is also known as the M-32. Over the last days the Russian military has moved from the south in Bakhmut to now physically block it. The T-506 (O0506 on the map below) is still open but under constant artillery fire.
ukrleak0 s
biggerA recently published drone video shows that it is hard to pass:
MilitaryLand.net @Militarylandnet – 8:34 UTC · Apr 8, 2023📷Destroyed/damaged Ukrainian vehicles, including HMMWVs, BTR-4, M113 and T-72 tank on the road connecting #Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar via Khromove settlement. #UkraineRussiaWar Embedded video
I count 16 destroyed vehicles in that video on a 200 meter long stretch of the road.
But Ukraine has used reserves to keep it somewhat open:
In late February, Ukraine was close to losing the battle for Bakhmut, according to an assessment in a batch of what appear to be classified operational briefs prepared by the Pentagon and Joint Staff and leaked on social media this month. […]At the time, two Russian flanking maneuvers to the northwest and southwest of the city were close to encircling Bakhmut. A single access road, the 506, remained open for Ukrainian forces and the few civilians still in the city, but it was under Russian artillery fire. Ukraine’s commanding general in the east, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, called the route the “last breathing tube.”
Ukrainian commanders decided to reinforce the defenses of the roads rather than retreat, according to the leaked documents. Ukraine’s army deployed many soldiers to the fight for Bakhmut that it had hoped to hold in reserve for a counteroffensive anticipated in the coming weeks or months, and its forces have sustained heavy casualties.
The meat grinder that Bakhmut has become continues to do its work.
The men in uniform could show up almost anywhere, any time.They knock on civilians’ front doors and randomly stop them on street corners, handing out draft papers that can turn lives upside down.
Ukraine needs more soldiers — and fast. Kyiv is preparing for an imminent assault on Russian occupying forces, and while Ukraine does not disclose its casualty counts, commanders in the field have described large losses.
…
Previously, officials could only deliver draft papers to people’s homes, and some avoided the notices by staying at different addresses than where they are officially registered. But new rules have widened the scope of places where men can be stopped and questioned about their draft status.
…
Oleksii Kruchukov, 46, a washing machine repairman waiting in line outside a recruitment office in Kyiv, said he was ordered to report there after police broke up a fight he got into on the street. He did not have any valid military exemptions and said he expected that the incident will result in him soon being sent to training, and then the front.
Oleksandr Kostiuk, 52, a road repairman who helped set up barriers against Russian forces around Kyiv last year, recently received his notice via his human resources department at work. He is willing to go to the front if he has to — but fears for his safety. “Now we understand what’s going on, so I’m more nervous,” he said.
Poor guys. The will get abused to hold onto land that will be lost anyway.
This though is concerning:
Since early February, more than 5,000 people have applied to join what was formerly known as the Azov Battalion, a controversial former right-wing militia that was incorporated into Ukraine’s national guard. Last year, the battle-hardened group was hailed as heroic for withstanding a months-long siege of the southeastern city of Mariupol.Then, in February, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry announced that Azov would be expanded into an assault brigade as part of the new Offensive Guard.
Under its rules, Azov only accepts those who sign up of their own accord — not draftees — and it reserves the right to reject people whom it does not believe will be a good fit, which it says allows it to select the most motivated soldiers. Azov has launched a massive recruitment campaign for its new status as a brigade, with many of its men who were captured in Mariupol last year and eventually released now training recruits.
Does selecting its own recruits change a ‘controversial rightwing militia’ into a ‘controversial former right-wing militia’? I have my doubts. Now guess who is training those Nazis:
Meanwhile, at a training camp in the Kyiv region, new Azov recruits lined up at a shooting range, learning to use C7A1 rifles. One of their trainers, a Russian-speaking former American Marine who joined Azov and goes by the call sign Frodo, said that “the majority of these guys a month ago were civilians.” One sat against a wall, studying a translated U.S. military handbook.That they were motivated enough to sign up on their own means they act more like “warriors than soldiers,” Frodo said.
The training condenses the roughly three-month U.S. Marine Corps basic training into just four weeks, he said. During that time, the troops learn everything from marksmanship and cartography to radios and engineering. It’s possible — likely even — they could then be deployed almost immediately to the country’s hottest front lines.
The basic training the usual draftees get seems not to be of the same effectiveness:
On a recent afternoon outside Lyman in eastern Ukraine, a seasoned enlisted leader vented about the quality of initial training among newly arrived troops, describing it as largely glossing over fundamentals needed in the field that have to be taught when they get to their units.“They’re taught to sing songs and march” in basic training, the leader said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
Once deployed, the troops need instruction even on the most ancient practice of soldiering: how to dig, the leader said. They do not know how to hold their shovels or fortify trenches and fighting positions. For practice, a group of fresh troops dug their spades into a nearby trench line.
Normal Ukraine’s men get send to the front without proper training and equipment. This while the ideologues receive their own special training and Canadian made Colt M16A3 equivalents . The long time consequences for Ukraine from this social split will be horrendous.
There seems to be little of such concerns in the leaked briefing slides. As Yves notes in her piece about the reporting about them:
[G]ood intel becomes less useful when filtered through prior beliefs. As we can see above, the US can’t get over its idea that Russia is out to acquire territory, and not first and foremost destroy Ukraine’s (and now NATO’s) ability to wage war. The articles contain denigrating asides about how Russia has conducted the war. One senses that this isn’t mere media messaging but is well internalized among US and NATO decision-makers. That sort of under-estimation has worked out very well for Russia. And the very solidly build echo chamber in the Beltway means it’s likely to continue.
Posted by b on April 10, 2023 at 17:29 UTC | Permalink
Hormone Replacement therapy for men
Not politics, but a good video. Especially for men. 23 minutes.
Balance your hormones. Take care of your body.
Normalize your testosterone first.
You cannot take these sex pills on a full stomach. Take the pills before you eat. Empty stomach. Empty stomach. Empty stomach.
Face is red, time to bed.
Nasal congestion is normal, but don’t take pills to get rid of it.
Nitric oxide is a good supplement. Monitor your nitric levels.
Local Police, State Police, FBI, and ATF are at the scene of a major shooting at and inside a Bank in Louisville, KY. Radio traffic went like this:
2023 04 11 17 03
As of 10:18 AM Eastern US time, it appears the shooter is down or dead. Multiple people with Gun Shot Wounds (GSW) to their head.
Successfully countering the U.S.!
Chinese countermeasures!
https://youtu.be/QMOj1oJW6pw
Sweet Comics By Luong Thuy Show What Being In A Relationship Is Like
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What is love? Besides a hit song immediately popping into your head with the answer “baby don’t hurt me,” there is no right or wrong answer to this question.
The definition is personal and different to everyone; some might not even have a definition as long as it feels right. Vietnamese artist Luong Thuy, known on social media as beisme08, shares honest everyday moments from life with her loving boyfriend and it looks like they are relationship goals. These comics range from extremely adorable and heartwarming moments some people may call cheesy to goofy situations and relationship struggles which make them much more real and relatable.
Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f6a161a9 880
Luong Thuy works as a freelance illustrator and in addition to drawing her own heartfelt stories, she also does commission work for her clients.
In an interview with Bored Panda, Thuy told that she draws her inspiration from her own experiences and everyday life with her boyfriend and a cat. Through cozy and intimate illustrations and comics, Thuy creates good memories about her relationship. After some time in a relationship and caught up in the routine, people might forget what that connection means to them and these light-hearted and positive snippets of life packed with little things might help you take a fresh look at your loved ones and appreciate the happiness and warmth they bring. And to all single people out there who are still in search of true love, these comics will remind you that there is still hope.
Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f6c1b347 png 880
“I create my art because I want to keep the beautiful moments about being in love and I also want to inspire positive emotions in other couples. I know in a relationship there are always different problems and I hope everyone will always have the most positive outlook,” Thuy says.
Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f6e1598f 880
Around 1.5 years ago, when we discovered Thuy’s comics and illustrations, she said that she wants people “to feel happy and optimistic” after seeing her artwork. At the time, she had been drawing and posting her artwork online for about half a year and had 50k followers. Fast forward to today, it seems that her goal of making people happy and bringing positivity to their daily lives has been working pretty well, as she currently has 257k followers enjoying her work.
Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f7a17590 880
“More than 200 thousand followers is a great spiritual gift to me. I just know I love doing it and everyone is happy to see it. They seem to see themselves in my work, too. I never thought that my works would be supported by so many people. However, my life is still very normal because people know me through my drawings, no one recognizes me in real life, I’m comfortable with that. Everyone’s support is a great motivation for me to continue this work.”
“Life is so much better with love in it,” the artist said and based on her illustrations, we can agree.
Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f7d60d69 880
The artist highlights how important it is that her comics are simple and easily understandable to everyone. Her drawing style and messages are colorful and detailed with a very recognizable cute art style. Leaving very little to interpretation, she is drawing sincere stories about everything her real relationship is made of—from cozy moments together, the perks of being with the right person, and support to funny misunderstandings, moments of loneliness, and fighting. But even struggles and the candid part of any relationship are portrayed in a positive light, with the same message that love is unconditional and forgiving.
Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f661f1c2 880
When asked about the challenges she faces when drawing her comics, she admitted that she doesn’t really have any.
“Actually, I don’t have any big challenges in the process of drawing the story. I feel very comfortable doing it. In the process of doing it, I was able to practice my drawing skills.”
Couple Relationship Comics Luong Thuy Beisme08 2 609b7f7cdf698 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fe415c1e 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fd6198e7 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fd0139be 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fce170b1 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fcc50d78 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fc012403 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fc714ca1 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fc365c6d 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fc214a81 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fb617186 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fbe13ac1 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fb41621d 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fb813c3b 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fb0192e3 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fac16a26 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fa614957 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4fa864a65 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f70514f9 png 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f8063e07 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f921c74e png 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f763d5fa 880Artist shows in comics the daily life of anyone in love New Pics 609a4f661f1c2 880 1
Missile Strikes Hit U.S. Base, Conoco Oil Field, Syria – Again
The United States military base in the Conoco Oil Field, Syria, has been hit by missile strikes – again – within the past hour (1:22 PM EDT) today. The missiles appear to have been fired from Dier Ezor, Syria.
No word yet on injuries, but numerous confirmations of significant fire at the impact sites.
China ranks #3 in law and order globally
2023 04 11 17 36
What The F*ck Is Going On In Ohio?!?
...we have been watching a slow controlled demolition of all systems and institutions which are pivotal to maintaining a healthy and functioning society and the crescendo is rising, hold on to your hats!
LGBQ+ in Taiwan
....Or consider the lengthy survey on Taiwan’s society, which hailed the enactment of gay marriage as a triumph of democracy in the island republic. The actual facts were precisely the opposite since a large majority of Taiwanese voters had opposed that change in a public referendum while the policy was instead established by undemocratic judicial fiat....
What was the most expensive thing you ever got for free, because someone made a mistake and didn’t charge you?
I was given $16,000 “for free” due to other peoples mistake.
I worked for a company that went to great lengths to incentivize good safety performance. During one campaign, the prize for achieving the safety goals for that quarter would be a $500 Walmart gift certificate for each employee, if everyone on the site remained injury free.
As a part of the safety committee, I was tasked with obtaining the certificates once the goal was met. I called American Express (I had a corporate Amex with no limit) to let them know I was going to be making an unusually large purchase so it would clear without problems. Then it was off to Walmart to buy the certificates.
They took my order and offered to have special coupons made to reflect the occasion. Great idea but meant a couple of days delay as they had to kick it up to some corporate office that handles such things. A few days later the certificates arrived, I paid for them, got a receipt, and took them for distribution.
I turned in an expense report with the receipt from WM and had the company pay to my Amex account so it was a completely cashless transaction. The problem is, Walmart never sent their invoice to Amex to collect the $16,000. That means I had all that money sitting as a credit on my card.
After a couple of months, I went back to WM with the receipt to see what the hold up was. They had changed managers during that time so I had to explain the whole thing from beginning to end. They thanked me and said they would take care of it. I reported the issue to my management and recorded everything in a note book. This went on for more than two years. Every couple of months I’d hit up WM, get a promise to fix it, report to my managers, and wait for my Amex bill to once again show an extra $16,000 sitting in my account.
The dilemma: what do I do with that money. It doesn’t belong to Amex as they have never been billed for payment. It doesn’t belong to the company because they got the gift certificates and paid Amex based on my expense report. The money belonged to WM but they apparently had no interest in collecting it. So here I sit with $16,000 in my Amex account that no one seems to want.
The money sat there for more than 10 years until just before I retired. I’ve been retired for almost 20 years. I still have all my documented attempts to resolve it. The company I worked for no longer exists.
This is where MM lives
This is a great video and shows some of my houses in the video. If you want to know where MM lives, THIS is the video to watch!
So the USA raised the retirement age from 64 to 67. Phew! It’s a good thing that I applied for it early. Damn! I’d be forever waiting for this fucking stipend otherwise. Sheech!
Now this…
2023 04 06 09 36
Freedom of speech and press. No longer exists in the USA.
Period.
Europe tries to break Russia and China apart
It failed bigly.
2023 04 09 06 44
An outstanding video!
The idiot will not stop…
EU to sanction home appliance exports to Russia?
Memo to Frau von der Leyen: Pull the plug on it
Since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict in February 2022, the European Union has ratified 10 sanctions packages designed to undermine Russia’s capacity to wage war in Ukraine. Now, kitchen appliances are in the EU’s crosshairs.
British newspaper The Telegraph, claiming to have seen a confidential EU report, says Brussels is considering imposing trade restrictions “on countries helping Russia acquire [microchips] in washing machines and used cars to repair its battle-stricken fleet of tanks.”
Thus the EU is threatening to apply secondary sanctions – that is, penalties on persons and entities outside of the EU’s legal jurisdiction – on countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
When weighing the imposition of secondary sanctions, EU policy should be guided by realpolitik and strategic thinking rooted in common sense, rather than by ideology and moral indignation, whether feigned or sincerely meant.
For the EU to impose trade restrictions on other countries on the suspicion that they are reselling significant quantities of home appliances to Russia, which then strips them for their microchips, is potentially destructive of the West’s strategic interests across Middle Eurasia.
The evidence suggests that harvesting microchips contained in home appliances sourced in “secondary” countries, usually for military use, is an exceedingly rare occurrence. It is cost-ineffective and unnecessary to boot, because EU countries have not seriously clamped down on the export of EU-sourced processors used in refrigerators, washing machines and other such appliances.
EU (and G7) leaders should think twice before insisting that other countries – mainly in Central Asia and the Caucasus – expend energy and resources on so dubious an undertaking with potentially negative political consequences for themselves.
To sanction – and possibly punish – consumers and traders of home appliances is unreasonable and impractical in view of the easy accessibility of military-grade microchips on the market already.
Moreover, these chips are nearly impossible to track after delivery to distributors or resellers in third counties around the world. What’s more, by the end 2022, Qingdao Haier Ltd, a Chinese enterprise, had become the largest maker of washing machines and refrigerators in Russia.
(By the way, General Electric sold its 100-year-old appliances business to Haier in 2016.)
Common sense
Then there is this consideration, which should occur to anyone with an ounce of common sense: Why would the Russian military – or any military for that matter – go through all the trouble and expense of finding, importing or buying vast numbers of washers and refrigerators when it is easier and cheaper to order large quantities of microchips from the many companies and resellers hawking them worldwide, including chips compatible with Russia’s own global positioning system, GLONASS?
A Forbes magazine article titled “Is Russia really buying home appliances to harvest computer chips for Ukraine-bound weapons systems?” states that “these kinds of chips [for drones] have long been widely available to civilian users on the global market, and Ukrainian authorities say at least six US companies produce GLONASS-compatible chips.”
And these components are “not under embargo,” says Sven Etzold, the senior director of business marketing at U-Blox: “They are usually for civil usage and can be officially bought through a distributor.”
Chris Miller, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and specialist in semiconductors, said recently, “My feeling is that most of the chips that Russia is accessing today for integrating into military systems are not coming via this route [home appliances].
“We should probably assume that Russia is going to find ways to get access to lower-tech chips simply because they’re widely available,” he said.
Chip suppliers
According to an investigative report in January summarized in the Netherlands Times, “Several million microchips produced by Dutch manufacturers, including NXP and Nexperia, wound up in Russia last year in shipments that were handled by resellers after sanctions were in place as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
One can only assume that Russia has installed some of these Dutch microchips in military hardware.
“Key technology [used in drones for satellite navigation] is European and American,” reportsCBS Evening News, and “the chips are still flowing” into Russia and available in the global market. The Columbia Broadcasting System singled out U-Blox, a Swiss company, and Maxim and Microchip, two US producers of microprocessors, whose chips could well have ended up in Russia.
In view of all this, it doesn’t seem to make sense to threaten Armenia, Kazakhstan or Turkey, for example, with sanctions of one kind or another when the availability of new lower-tech chips is widespread. Secondary sanctions on home appliances seem uncalled for.
EU-Russian trade
Al Jazeera reported last month that “in total, the EU imported €171 billion (US$186 billion) worth of goods from Russia starting from March 2022 until the end of January 2023.”
According to Eurostat, the EU statistics office, the European Union has posted a net trade deficit in the billions of dollars with Russia each month since January 2021. This means that significant business between Russia and the EU continues despite all the chatter to the contrary.
Europe’s double standards are clear for everyone to see. While Brussels wants to call on non-EU countries to cut their trade with Russia, the EU continues to trade with Moscow.
Start with Western firms
Nearly 9% of Western firms have divested from Russia since the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, according to Simon J Evenett, professor of international trade and economic development at the University of St Gallen, and Niccolò Pisani, professor of strategy and international business at IMD Business School in Switzerland: “Of the total of 1,404 EU and G7 companies with commercially active equity investments in Russia before the invasion of Ukraine … by the end of November 2022, a total of 120 (8.5%) [had] actually left.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen should be careful before boasting in public about the devastating efficacy of her sanctions:
“We have sanctions. We have banned all export of semiconductors. The impact of these sanctions is now very real and tangible on the ground in Russia. The Russian military, for example, cannibalizes refrigerators and washing machines to take out the semiconductors, trying to get the semiconductors for their military hardware.”
The EU does not seem to understand that the imposition of secondary sanctions works against its efforts in Central Asia and the Caucasus – as described in a recent official document – to “mitigate socio-economic dislocation, facilitate trade within and beyond the region, diversify transport routes, [and] lift investments.”
Brussels might go after those EU and G7 companies with active businesses in Russia and prevent its own microchip makers from making available thousands of microprocessors in world markets before giving the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus a hard time about refrigerators and washing machines.
It would be more diplomatically productive for EU ambassadors stationed abroad to engage their hosts as partners rather than as pawns on the global chessboard.
What are your thoughts on China’s RMB (Yuan) potentially replacing the US Dollar as the global currency one day? What do you think China must do/accomplish first before this could be possible?
Why would there need to be a Global Reserve Currency in the first place?
You see what happened to the US Dollar right?
As the US Dollar debts bloated more and more and more, the US survived entirely due to more and more Global circulation of the US Dollars
Initially the US had the TRADE DOMINANCE to keep the Dollar as a Reserve
In 1986 – the US dominated 47.72% trade and had a reserve currency percentage of around 73%
In 2022 – The US had a 15.2% trade and a reserve currency percentage of 56%
You see the difference?
Printed Dollars fled to different nations in various forms and protected the Average American from the impacts like Inflation
Every Dollar represents an IOU from the US Treasury to the holder
So technically the US holds a debt of almost $ 107 Trillion from its institutions and it’s capital markets and debts
As the US Dollar loses hold over the world and as the world begins to move to Economics over Politics, the US Dollar loses appeal and more people will begin to prefer other currencies or Gold Or Trade Barter
So what happens next?
All those US Dollars come HOME
In 2019 if you have $ 26 Billion of Trade in a single day, almost 67% went into foreign accounts of other nations and only around 30% returned to the US , keeping the Dollar Supply restricted
Today out of $ 26 Billion of Trade , only 55.8% goes into Foreign Accounts ensuring more and more Dollars come back to US Accounts
That’s 11.2% gone in a mere 4 years
Add to that newly printed Biden Dollars – $ 9.32 Trillion of them over 3 years
That’s BAD
That means US Citizens for the first time in say 15 years actually suffer Real Inflation and More Inflation
It’s ADANI GROUP except on a much larger scale
It’s a $ 107 Trillion Debt against an Asset base of barely $ 14.7 Trillion of Actual Core Assets
All because USD was a Global Reserve Currency beyond 2001
Let’s see China Today
China is in a Beautiful Position today
It’s economy is wonderfully controlled with a mere 2.14% Inflation because of it’s exchange rate with the Dollar of almost 7 instead of a more realistic 4.23–4.61
China dominates 21.6% Global Trade and the Yuan has a 2.85% Global Share
THIS ALLOWS CHINA TO KEEP THINGS ECONOMICAL IN CHINA YET HAVE ENORMOUS FINANCIAL CLOUT GLOBALLY
The Yuan is non convertible and that protects China from any foreign interference
Now Yuans share can rise to maybe 15% or maximum 20%
However if Yuans share goes to 60% like the Dollar, then China will start rising it’s Debt everywhere and abandon it’s Yuan – Remimbi system and end up in a bad way
Instead THERE SHOULD BE NO GLOBAL RESERVE CURRENCY
Instead maybe a Basket of Pegged Values like Oil, Food, Gold and Yuan and Rubles and a few other currencies to develop a GLOBAL CURRENCY
Like there was once
A Wonderful Pegged Resource called GOLD
Sleepwalkers
This sucker is going down.
Godfree Roberts
In January last year I published (NYT, FT, etc.) three claims, hoping to provoke responses from American readers, making sure that they could dispute my claims. I tracked their engagement until, late last week, a million folks had read at least one of the three:
Social Claim: There are more hungry children, drug addicts, suicides, executions, and illiterate, incarcerated, poor, homeless people in America than in China. 62% of Americans own homes compared to 96% of Chinese, and American families’ net worth, $97,000, is a fraction of Chinese families’ $363,000 PPP, which is also more equitably distributed.
Military Claim: China’s 340-ship navy will have 400 boats eighteen months from now, while the US hopes to grow from 290 vessels now to 300 by 2030. PLAN boats are newer and, thanks to advanced propellants, explosives, and terminal guidance systems, their 10x more numerous missiles outrange America’s. Their fleet sails under an umbrella of satellites and drones that guide 1,000-round salvoes of shore-to-ship missiles that destroy fleets in minutes, and hundreds of ballistic missiles that can sink a carrier in Darwin Port.
Economic Claim: China’s peacetime GDP is $30 trillion, America’s is $25 trillion PPP. China’s will add $1 trillion this year and can maintain that pace through 2049 while the US struggles to add one-fourth of that. China’s productive –wartime – economy, is three times bigger and more diverse than America’s service-based economy.
2023 04 06 19 33
Heartbreaking Truth #1
Clearly, the US has passed the culminating point of its 170-year-long assault on China: it can no longer mount an attack with a reasonable prospect of success, or even survival. General Milley has begun lowering expectations, especially important after Afghanistan and Ukraine. Western elites, usually eager to exchange our lives for their status, find the prospect of nuclear dematerialization by one of China’s bigger, faster, ICBMs unattractive, making a shooting war unlikely.
Heartbreaking Truth #2
One million educated, engaged readers read at leas one of my claims. None seriously challenged them. Make of that what you will, but I suspect that despair plays a part. Besides, who wants to be the bearer of evil tidings?
The Bearer of Evil Tidings
The bearer of evil tidings, When he was halfway there, Remembered that evil tidings Were a dangerous thing to bear.
So when he came to the parting Where one road led to the throne And one went off to the mountains And into the wild unknown,
He took the one to the mountains. He ran through the Vale of Cashmere, He ran through the rhododendrons Till he came to the land of Pamir.
And there in a precipice valley A girl of his age he met Took him home to her bower, Or he might be running yet.
She taught him her tribe’s religion: How ages and ages since A princess en route from China To marry a Persian prince
Had been found with child; and her army Had come to a troubled halt. And though a god was the father And nobody else at fault,
It had seemed discreet to remain there And neither go on nor back. So they stayed and declared a village There in the land of the Yak.
And the child that came of the princess Established a royal line, And his mandates were given heed to Because he was born divine.
And that was why there were people On one Himalayan shelf; And the bearer of evil tidings Decided to stay there himself.
At least he had this in common With the race he chose to adopt: They had both of them had their reasons For stopping where they had stopped.
As for his evil tidings, Belshazzar’s overthrow, Why hurry to tell Belshazzar What soon enough he would know?
I Drove Around California For A Month. It Was A Disaster.
Traditional Beatdown (AKA Being ‘Jumped In’)
Probably the most common method of gang initiation is the classic “beatdown” (aka being “jumped in”). It involves the wannabe gangster fighting a specific number of the gang’s members for a certain amount of time. The wannabe must withstand the beating as well as fight back.
Most gangs have a variation of this method, including “The Line.” Candidates are kicked and punched repeatedly as they walk between two lines of gang members. The prospect must make it to the end of the line while still on his feet. If he doesn’t, he can try again on another day when his bruises and wounds have healed.
But even this method can be deadly . . .
In 2010, a senior from the University of Arkansas was beaten for three minutes as part of a jump-in for the Bloods gang. He suffered irreparable blunt force trauma to his head and died at the hospital an hour later.
Why did Japanese tech companies invest record money in China during 2020-2021 if Japan is a member of the Quad?
I have always said Business is Business
Japanese Investments in China for 2020–2021 hit $ 30.8 Billion of which 86% or approximately $ 28 Billion was by the Tech Industries.
Here are the distributions
Renewable Energy – 37.7%
High Speed Infrastructure – 24.3%
Finance and Domestic Luxury Retail – 14.2%
In 2019–2020, it was $ 18.4 Billion.
Why?
Simple. Japanese Businessmen want the best returns and its China that provides the returns
The rest is Politics
Thats why most Japanese Businesses that wanted to leave China in 2020 have tucked their tail and returned back despite a 32% rise in wages sanctioned by the CPC in 2021.
As Mehmood said The Whole Thing that ki Bhaiyya Sabse Bada Rupaiyya
‘Jacked In’
Being “jacked in” is a street-savvy term for committing an auto theft in the hopes of becoming a gang member.
It works like this: To show his “earning ability” for the gang, a prospective member will steal a car (usually at gunpoint), convincing the higher-ups of his gall. If successful, he’s accepted as a full member.
In January 2008, 17-year-old Charles Brown hopped into the back seat of a parked car in Kiamesha Lake, New York. The back seat already had three passengers. Brown then pointed a gun at the driver, forcing him to relinquish the vehicle. Later, police learned that this had been an initiation attempt for a local Crips gang.
French Keep Dining While Protest Fires Burn Outside
What a time to be alive!
Kidnapping
To prove themselves worthy of induction into the Vatos Locos gang, Jose Cruz and Hugo Torres of North Carolina spawned a national manhunt in 2011 after allegedly kidnapping a man and holding him at gunpoint during a robbery. Police said that the criminals drove the man to a secluded mobile home. There, he was beaten before finally being able to free himself and run for help.
All of this was done as part of the initiation of Cruz and Torres into a local Hispanic street gang.
In another crime in June 2013, Mexican soldiers were able to rescue 165 people—including women and children—who had been savagely kidnapped and held for ransom by Mexican cartel gangs.
Melitzanosalata
2023 04 06 09 40
Ingredients
3 whole medium eggplants, approximately 4 pounds, washed
1/2 cup canned whole tomatoes, chopped, juices strained
Prepare a grill (you may also broil the eggplant). Pierce eggplant with a fork and grill, turning frequently to prevent burning Cook until the skin becomes black and the eggplant is soft, about 10-15 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack over a baking sheet, to catch the juices.
When eggplant is cool, peel the skin and coarsely chop. Discard the juices.
Place the paddle attachment on a standing mixer. Add the eggplant and tomato, onion and garlic, and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and add the yogurt. Mix on medium for 1 more minute.
With mixer on medium speed, slowly add the vinegar and lemon juice. Continue mixing; slowly add the olive oil. Add seltzer water as needed to reach desired consistency; slightly thick, but light and relatively loose.
Add parsley, oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate overnight and serve.
To prepare the yogurt: You’ll need 1/2 cup yogurt to make 1/4 cup strained for this recipe. Line a strainer with cheese cloth and set over a bowl (the bowl should support the strainer so it does not touch the bottom). Put the yogurt in the strainer and let it drain overnight. Discard the liquid and use the strained yogurt as directed.
‘Sexed In’
Most gangs aren’t prejudiced against the idea of recruiting female members. As such, a special initiation process is involved. According to the Florida Gang Reduction website, a female recruit sometimes has to roll two dice. Then she has sex with that number of gang members.
Isha Nembhard, a former female gang member from London, said that women being prostituted as induction into a gang is common.
“A lot of girls are sort of prostituting themselves to have sexual relationships within a gang and get treated in a bad way,” she said. “For example, she might know about what happens to girls in the gang but still sleeps with all of them just for the status.”
Libianca – People (Check On Me) [Official Music Video]
African pop music.
Gang Rape
Once believed to be nothing more than a sensationalized “rumor,” rape is a very active and brutal method of initiation for some gangs. Eight teenagers from a California outfit known as the “South Side Mafia” were accused in 2011 of luring an 11-year-old girl into a park bathroom where they took turns raping her as part of an initiation rite.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, gangs created the ruse of inviting female mall shoppers to a “party” where they would be locked in a room and repeatedly raped by inductees. Given the choice between a traditional “jump-in” (being beaten into the gang) or raping a female, prospective gang members choose rape far more often in Albuquerque.
Vatican renounces ‘Doctrine of Discovery.’ When will Supreme Court do likewise?
Richard Becker
April 2, 2023
More than five centuries after it was formulated in a series of papal decrees, the Vatican issued a formal announcement on March 30 repudiating the Euro-supremacist “Doctrine of Discovery.” In essence, the “doctrine” said that all lands not occupied by “Christians” passed into the hands of the European conquerors as soon as they were “discovered,” and their inhabitants enslaved.
Composed of decrees issued between 1452 and 1497, it served as the quasi-legal justification for the expropriation of entire continents in the name of spreading the Catholic faith. The repudiation by the Pope is the culmination of decades of struggle by Indigenous peoples in the United States, Canada and around the world demanding its withdrawal.
But while the Pope has now renounced it, the U.S. Supreme Court has not. The high court continues to treat the “doctrine” as an integral basis of U.S. law, particularly in regard to the rights — or lack thereof — of Native peoples.
Most notable in recent times was a 2005 decision authored by the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg which invoked the “Doctrine of Discovery” in her majority ruling against the Oneida Indian Nation. The Oneidas were seeking to recover lands and rights in central New York State guaranteed to them under the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua treaty with the U.S., signed by George Washington, then president.
The Oneidas, one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy were awarded 300,000 acres “in perpetuity” by the treaty. By the 20th century, nearly all of that land had been taken over. In the 1970s, the Oneidas began buying small parcels on what had been their reservation land, including in the small city of Sherill, New York. They objected to the demand by the city that they pay property taxes on the basis that they were a sovereign nation. While the Oneidas won in lower federal courts, the Supreme Court ruled against them 8-1, with Ginsburg authoring the decision:
“Under the Doctrine of Discovery, title to the land occupied by Indians when the colonists arrived became vested in the sovereign – first the discovering European nation and later the original states and the United States . . .
“Given the longstanding non-Indian character of the area and its inhabitants, the regulatory authority constantly exercised by New York State and its counties and towns, and the Oneidas’ long delay in seeking judicial relief against parties other than the United States, we hold that the tribe cannot unilaterally revive its ancient sovereignty, in whole or in part, over the parcels at issue.”
In 2020, the Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote upheld the right of Native nations to reservations that would have included nearly half of Oklahoma. While this was a victory for a coalition of Native nations, right-wing justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion upholding the government’s power to deny the right of self-determination to Indian peoples.
“Once a reservation is established, it retains that status until Congress explicitly indicates otherwise,” wrote Gorsuch. “Only Congress can alter the terms of an Indian treaty by diminishing a reservation, and its intent to do so must be clear and plain.”
How did a loathsome “doctrine” authored in feudal times come to have what liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices alike consider a legitimate basis in U.S. law?
It was the Supreme Court itself that incorporated the “doctrine” into U.S. law, which became foundational in dealing with Native nations, in a key 1823 case, Johnson v. McIntosh.
The decision by Chief Justice John Marshall, declared that, in keeping with the “Doctrine of Discovery,” Native people had only the “right to occupancy” of land and not the right to title or ownership. Only the federal government, Marshall ruled, could own and sell Native lands and that “the principle of discovery gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands”
Following the Vatican’s repudiation, the struggle will intensify for the U.S. government to do the same.
Cutting And Slashing
In 2008, three kids from a Coney Island school were charged by police after cutting over a dozen other students with a razor as initiation into a local MS-13 gang. While some students willingly rolled up their sleeves, those who didn’t were pressed against a desk and cut forcibly.[6]
Elsewhere in New York, a pair of similar incidents took place in 1999 when six members of a Bloods gang attacked a woman on a train. They cut her with razors and stabbed her. Two days later, another woman was robbed of her jewelry. During the crime, her face was slashed so viciously that it required 150 stitches.
Karithopita (Greek Honey Walnut Cake)
Karidopita Greek Walnut Cake with Syrup 1 750×563 1
Ingredients
Cake
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 cups chopped walnuts
Honey Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice or extract
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour a 9-inch square baking pan.
Beat all ingredients, except walnuts and honey syrup, in mixing bowl on low speed of electric mixer (scraping bowl occasionally) for 1 minute. Stir in walnuts. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Prepare honey syrup by heating sugar and water to boiling, then reducing heat and simmering uncovered for 5 minutes.
Stir in honey and lemon juice; pour over warm baked cake.
Cut in triangles and serve.
Stabbing
Stabbing someone is a frequent initiation rite among prison gangs, but it isn’t necessarily absent from the streets. Upon his release from prison, Mark Block of Hesperia, California, noticed that his friend’s brother was sporting a gang tattoo—one he hadn’t rightfully earned.
Insisting that the man “make his bones” the proper way, Block, a white supremacist, accompanied 21-year-old Kyle Smither and his tattooed brother on the search for a target. Spotting a Hispanic male working out in his front yard, the Smither brothers stabbed the man several times and slit his throat.
In 2003, a 13-year-old boy stabbed an elderly woman to death after robbing her. This was also a gang initiation. Police discovered the woman’s body in her apartment. She had stab wounds about her face and upper body.
Kizz Daniel, EMPIRE – Cough (Official Video)
African pop music
Trial By Fire
In December 2011, 10 teenagers from Sweden were charged with aggravated arson for gutting a shopping mall as part of a local gang initiation. The Berga Centre Gang had imposed a test on wannabe members. It required them to light a dumpster on fire, which rapidly spread to a nearby mall and burned it to the ground.
But gang arson isn’t limited to property. In 2013, Esterrell Simpson and Maurice Hollis, both of Houston, Texas, were charged with murder after chasing down Carlos Hernandez—a random passerby—and setting him ablaze as part of an initiation ritual for the Black Disciples.
2 ‘Blood In’ (Murder)
Homicides committed for gang initiation can encompass everything from drive-by shootings to the murders of gang rivals or even strangers. Others simply make no sense at all, such as the 2004 death of Bob Mars, a high school coach from Kennewick, Washington.[9]
Two teenagers, one sponsoring the other for induction into a local gang, shot and killed the coach as part of an initiation rite.
In Richmond, California, police believed the random shooting of a pizza delivery man was likely the work of a gang initiation, too. As he approached a door to deliver the pizza, unknown gunmen shot him from behind and killed him.
Serial Killing
The police in Juarez, Mexico, have been battling an even more horrifying monster as it relates to gang violence: serial killings. Used both as an initiation method and a way to settle unpaid drug debts, Mexican cartels have racked up an astounding death toll in the name of gang warfare.[10]
Many victims are found with their skulls crushed, having been run over by car tires. In October 2013, 20-year-old Juan Pablo Vazquez was arrested after being linked to 79 murders, all of which he committed himself in the name of a cartel.
The shock oil production cuts from May outlined by the OPEC+ on Sunday essentially means that eight key OPEC countries decided to join hands with Russia to reduce oil production, messaging that OPEC and OPEC+ are now back in control of the oil market.
No single oil producing country is acting as the Pied Piper here. The great beauty about it is that Saudi Arabia and seven other major OPEC countries have unexpectedly decided to support Russia’s efforts and unilaterally reduce production.
While the 8 OPEC countries are talking about a reduction of one million b/d from May to the end of the year, Russia will extend for the same period its voluntary adjustment that already started in March, by 500,000 barrels.
Now, add to this the production adjustments already decided by the OPEC+ previously, and the total additional voluntary production adjustments touch a whopping 1.6 million b/d.
What has led to this? Fundamentally, as many analysts had forewarned, the Western sanctions against Russian oil created distortions and anomalies in the oil market and upset the delicate ecosystem of supply and demand, which were compounded by the incredibly risky decision by the G7, at the behest of the US Treasury, to impose a price cap on Russia’s oil sales abroad.
On top of it, the Biden administration’s provocative moves to release oil regularly from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in attempts to micromanage the oil prices and keep them abnormally low in the interests of the American consumer as well as to keep the inflationary pressures under check turned out to be an affront to the oil-producing countries whose economies critically depend on income from oil exports.
The OPEC+ calls the production cuts “a precautionary measure aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market.” In the downstream of the OPEC+ decision, analysts expect the oil prices to rise in the short term and pressure on Western central banks to increase due to the possible spike in inflation.
What stands out in the OPEC+ decision is that Russia’s decision to reduce oil production by the end of the year has been unanimously supported by the main Arab producers. Independent but time-coordinated statements were made by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, Oman and Kazakhstan, while Russia confirmed its intention to extend until the end of the year its own production reduction by 500,000 barrels per day, which began in March.
Significantly, these statements have been made precisely by those largest oil producers in OPEC, who have a record of fully utilising their existing quota. Put differently, the reduction in production is going to be real, not just on paper.
Partly at least, the banking crisis in the US and Europe prompted the OPEC+ to intervene. Although Washington will downplay it, in March, Brent oil prices fell to $70 per barrel for the first time since 2021 amid the bankruptcy of several banks in the US and the near-death experience of Credit Suisse, one of the largest banks in Switzerland. The events sparked concern about the stability of the Western banking system and fear of a recession that would affect oil demand.
There is every likelihood that tensions may increase between the US and Saudi Arabia as higher oil prices will push inflation and make it even more difficult for the US Federal Reserve to find a balance between raising the key rate and maintaining financial and economic stability. Equally, the Biden administration must be furious that practical cooperation is still continuing between Russia and the OPEC countries, especially Saudi Arabia, notwithstanding the West’s price cap on Russian oil and Moscow’s decision to unilaterally cut production in March.
However, the Biden administration has only a limited range of options to respond to the OPEC+’s surprise move: one, go for another release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; two, pressure US producers to increase domestic oil output; three, back legislation that would allow the US to take the dramatic step of suing OPEC nations; or, four, curb the US’ export of gasoline and diesel.
To be sure, the OPEC+ production cut goes against the Western demand to increase oil output even as sanctions were imposed against Russian oil and gas exports. On the other hand, the disruption in oil supplies from Russia contributed to the rising inflation in the EU countries.
The US wanted the Gulf Arab states to step in and step up oil production. But the latter did not oblige because they felt that there wasn’t enough economic activity in the West and there were clear signs of recession contrary to expectation.
Thus, as a result of the sanctions against Russia, Europe is facing the complex situation of inflation and near-recession known as stagflation. In reality, the adaptive and agile OPEC + read the situation correctly and has shown that it is willing to act ahead of the curve. At a time when the world economy is struggling to grow at a healthy rate, the demand for oil would be relatively less, and it makes sense to cut oil production to maintain the price balance.
All that the Western leaders can complain about is that the OPEC+ cut in oil output has come at an inappropriate time. But the woes of Western economies cannot be laid at the door of OPEC+ as there are inherent problems which are now coming to the surface. For instance, the large scale protests in France against pension reform or the widespread strikes in Britain for higher wages show that there are deep structural problems in these economies, and the governments seem helpless in tackling them.
In geopolitical terms, the OPEC+ move came after a meeting between Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman in Riyadh on March 16 that focused on oil market cooperation. Therefore, it is widely seen as the tightening of the bond between Russia and Saudi Arabia. In fact, in May, as the largest members of OPEC join Russia in its unilateral reduction, the balance of quotas and the ratio of market shares between and amongst the participants in the OPEC + deal will return to the level set when it was concluded in April 2020.
The big question is, how Moscow might profit from the OPEC+ decision. The rise in crude oil prices particularly benefits Russia. Simply put, the production cuts will tighten up the oil market and thus help Russia to secure better prices for the crude oil it sells. Second, the new cuts also confirm that Russia is still an integral and important part of the group of oil producing countries, despite the western attempts to isolate it.
Third, the consequences of Sunday’s decision are all the greater because, unlike the previous cuts by the OPEC+ group at the height of the pandemic or last October, today, the momentum for global oil demand is up, not down — what with a strong recovery by China expected.
That is to say, the surprise OPEC+ reduction further consolidates the Saudi-Russian energy alliance, by aligning their production levels, thus placing them on equal footing. It is a slap in the face for Washington.
Make no mistake, this is another signal regarding a new era where the Saudis are not afraid of the US anymore, as the OPEC “leverage” is on Riyadh’s side. The Saudis are only doing what they need to do, and the White House has no say in the matter. Clearly, a recasting of the regional and global dynamics that has been set in motion lately is gathering momentum. The future of petrodollar seems increasingly uncertain.
Koulourakia (Greek Butter Twist)
2023 04 05 15 42
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 tablespoon water
2 to 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 to 3 teaspoons sesame seeds
Instructions
Cream butter and shortening in a large mixing bowl; gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed of electric mixer.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add vanilla extract; beat until blended.
Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing after each addition.
Chill dough for 1 to 2 hours.
Divide dough into fourths. Divide each fourth into 16 portions. Roll each portion into a 4-inch rope; fold each rope in half, and twist. Place twists 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Combine egg yolk and water; brush over twists. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sesame seeds.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown.
Immediately transfer to wire racks to cool.
Spyro ft Tiwa Savage – Who is your Guy? Remix (Official Video)
African pop music
Is the US practicing fearmongering by banning TikTok?
No they are practicing thievery, they want to steal it, that’s what they too, if I was in control of tik tok, I’d tell them to get stuffed, and pull out, just not go there, and let their kids know, in no uncertain terms, as to why. It looks like their government is run by a bunch of criminals, talk about a country being run by the mafia, this takes the cake,
Karydopita
2023 04 05 15 40
Ingredients
3 cups water
4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 orange or lemon, peel only
2 whole cloves
18 eggs, separated
5 tablespoons cognac
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces zwieback, finely crushed
1 pound walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
Combine the water, 2 1/2 cups of the sugar, orange or lemon peel and cloves in a saucepan and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the peel and cloves and cool.
Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks until light and lemon colored, and gradually add the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar.
In a separate bowl, mix the cognac, vanilla extract and baking soda and slowly add to the yolks and sugar.
Combine zwieback, walnuts and cinnamon, and gradually add to the batter, mixing on low speed.
Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly fold into the cake batter, then pour into a greased 15 1/2 x 11 x 2-inch baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes, or until a deep chestnut color.
Remove from the oven and set on a wire rack. Spoon the cooled syrup over the cake and allow it to cool in the pan.
Cut into traditional diamond shapes, according to desired size.
We are yet to mull and muse as to how China has succeeded in bringing peace to the two countries which the USA has always tried to drive a wedge in between.
After it agreed with Saudi Arabia in December 2022 to purchase its oil in Chinese yuan and not only in dollars any more, and while Russia has also been cooperating with Saudi Arabia with great success as regards the oil business and with Iran, too within the Shanghai Organization for Cooperation (SCO) together with China, China has managed to clinch a historic reconciliation of Iran and Saudi Arabia despite the unrelenting efforts by the USA to wreak havoc and cause continual conflicts among them, all in line with the notorious test and tried model by the Roman Empire — divide and rule; rather than ‘bring peace, unite and cooperate’.
The intrinsic logic of each and every empire of the political West seems to be such. Perhaps the wretched citizens of Yemen and those of Saudi Arabia as well might have a chance to sigh a breath of relief but the USA will surely not.
A superb economic and political turn-up for the history book in the Middle East could easily prove to be fatal for their imperial interests in which their dollar will be the first casualty to suffer losses but certainly not the only one.
After the negotiations in Beijing twenty-odd days ago, after they were being held in Iraq and Oman for two years, the three countries, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, declared that the deal between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Islamic Republic of Iran had been reached, which includes the agreement on the renewal of diplomatic relations among them; it presupposes the respect for the sovereignty of each country and the non-interference with their respective internal issues.
Thus the negotiations in the area of economy and security, investments and science and about sport and culture came part and parcel of this cooperation.
Briefly speaking, with the assistance of India and China, two regional powers and bitter rivals to a great extent, have announced publicly that they have set off on a new political journey of all-encompassing process of mending their relations instead of their further degradation in the ’name’ of said blood-soaked ’divide and rule’ principles of the international relations.
Thus it is blatantly obvious whom the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had in mind when they declared that this elimination of differences between Iran and Saudi Arabia will have a beneficial effect on the liberation of the countries from the overwhelming foreign interference; that the two countries have now taken their political destinies in their own proverbial hands and that their agreement coincides with the monumental trends of development.
The highest ranking diplomat of China, Wang Yi who was on a political visit to Moscow recently, decided that Russian-Chinese relations are reaching new dimensions on their pathway to build a multipolar world and on this occasion he pointed out that the Beijing Agreement between Riyadh and Teheran represents a breakthrough complete with a dialogue and peace which happened at the moment in which, there obviously is an alarmingly scanty amount of both around.
’Why do Iran and Saudi Arabia place trust in China’ is one of the headlines on the Chinese global TV networks, which point out the close relations between Beijing,
Teheran and Riyadh as opposed to those with Washington, the relations of whose with Saudi Arabia have become ever more tense in that they do not even have established diplomatic relations and they cannot enable any dialogue between them.
Accepting China as a mediator represents their respectful admission of the rising importance of China in the Middle East where many crises have emerged as a direct result of foreign interventions.
Chinese diplomatic concepts of peace and cooperation to one’s mutual benefit have gained an overwhelming support in the region. And even further afield than just in the region, says the Indian diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar ’The new era in world politics has dawned.
This is a historic event of paramount proportions, which by far surpasses a question of Saudi Arabia — Iran relations. It stands in silent testimony of a colossal shift in tectonic plates of geopolitical politics of the 21st century. The USA, writes M.K. Bhadrakumar, which has for eight decades been a dominant power in the politics of West Asia is nowhere to be seen. The U.S. has been done away with, to its embarrassment. The USA has 30 military bases in West Asia, and as many as five in Saudi Arabia only. But the USA has lost the magic wand of its leadership. China, says the Indian diplomat, has shown to the whole rest of the world: the Global South, all the way from the South America to Africa, how the democratized, multipolar world can in effect function in the foreseeable future by way of the superb diplomacy of a great power based on agreement and reconciliation; in one word it certainly is a refreshing as much as it is a revolutionary approach ’unite and cooperate’ rather than ’divide and conquer’.
Moreover, says M.K. Bhadrakumar, perhaps we might never find out what role Russia played behind the scenes but on the eve of the unannounced reconciliation in Beijing one day before, the leader of the Saudi Arabia diplomacy, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud was in Moscow. And one week earlier on the 6th of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin talked on the phone with the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who visited Beijing mid-February. After that, Wang Yi was in Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The three leading oil and gas producers are speeding up their search for payment mechanisms, which are to give a wide berth to the U.S. dollar. China is already in the midst of talks on such arrangements with Saudi Arabia and Iran. China and Russia are doing away with the dollar currency from their transactions — the Indian diplomat indicates the key aspect of this non Western cooperation, which is gaining momentum with great success.
It is abundantly clear that a rapid erosion of the dollar status as the world currency will not only mean the collapse of the U.S. economy but it is bound to cripple the ability of the USA to wage never-ending wars, which happen to be conveniently far away from their home turf, and impose its global hegemony along the way. Besides, the reconciliation of Saudi Arabia and Iran will give rise to their joining BRICS in the foreseeable future. One has to bear in mind that in one comprehensive study by Cambridge University, BRICS was defined as ’the coalition for the de-dollarization’, which the Riyadh — Teheran reconciliation aided by Beijing gives all the more credit and lends it ever more historical significance.
We are yet to mull and muse as to how China has succeeded in bringing peace to the two countries which the USA has always tried to drive a wedge in between and bring but feud and discord on the brink of a direct military conflict. And we are yet to learn hard political lessons from it.
Victony & Tempoe – Soweto (Official Video)
More African pop music.
A measure of reality
2023 04 08 20 14
Does the arrival of Ma Ying-jeou’s delegation to the mainland mean that the people of Taiwan prefer peaceful reunification?
There is no doubt that no one wants to see war happen. I believe that both people in mainland China and Taiwan would want to achieve reunification in a peaceful manner.
But it must be admitted that with the meddling of the United States, from textbooks that distort historical facts to Tsai Ing-wen’s sneaky visit the United States, many people in Taiwan have forgotten their origins under the influence of the political environment, remembering only that they are Taiwanese and not recognizing themselves as Chinese. And the voice advocating Taiwan’s independence is getting louder and louder.
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According to Tsai’s speech, the history of Taiwan begins in 1945, and the true origin of the so-called Republic of China in mainland China is not mentioned at all. With all kinds of deliberate guidance, even we foreigners take it for granted that Taiwan and China are two different countries.
Yet it is not so. Taiwan has been a territory of China since ancient times.
From records that can be traced back thousand years or the Cairo Declaration signed after WWII, all are evidence of facts that cannot be denied or distorted.
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Ma’s visit to mainland China is serving to remind people in Taiwan, especially the younger generation in Taiwan, of and understand again the common roots and history of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Ma’s visit included Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing, and Shanghai. Among these places, Xiangtan in Hunan is Ma’s ancestral hometown, Wuhan is the site of the Wuchang Uprising of the 1911 Revolution (The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China’s last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. ), Nanjing is the former seat of the Nationalist Government, and Chongqing was the capital of the Nationalist Government during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
Ma visited the Nanjing Massacre Victims Memorial Hall, the Wuchang Uprising Memorial Hall, and Zhang Zizhong Martyrs’ Cemetery. These places connect the people of mainland China and Taiwan with their common emotions and shared national and historical memories.
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What the “Taiwan independence” groups want most is to cut off the common feelings and memories of the people of Taiwan and mainland China.
In her speech last year, Tsai did not even mention the 1911 Revolution and Sun Yat-sen (Father of the nation in the Republic of China).
The so-called “Republic of China” seems to have sprung from a stone.
The visit of Ma Ying-jeou is a strong reminder that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the same China” and “we are all Chinese”, and can even be seen as a declaration.
In addition, the young Taiwan students he brought with him exchanged with mainland students in several universities, which is very conducive to enhancing mutual understanding and affection between young people across the Taiwan Strait.
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Media in Taiwan interviewed the youths who visited mainland China, and these young college students said they had re or in-depth understanding of the mainland and found that the mainland was not as scary as said in those propaganda, but equally rational and friendly.
They also learned more about the history of the war of resistance against Japan that had been deliberately erased in Taiwan, and found common roots and emotional resonance with mainland China.
Moreover, some of them also expressed that the mainland university students and them had a lot in common and they became friends during the exchange.
It can be said that the greatest significance of this visit is that it enables people in Taiwan to begin to notice what the real mainland China looks like and to begin to have access to the real history of being Chinese.
main qimg 2c36065de60625be844bdd8dd3549c98
While Ma Ying-jeou visited the mainland to lead young students to retrace their history, Tsai Ing-wen’s sneaky visit to the United States became a stark contrast.
The US insisted on allowing Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen to “transit” the US despite China’s stern representations and repeated warnings.
The US media kept hyping the matter, but called this sneaky and unwelcomed visit a normal “transit.
If it was a normal transit through the doorstep of the United States, then why did she enter the door as a guest, meet with Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives in a high-profile meeting, and have frequent contact with U.S. officials and members of Congress?
The US provides a platform for Tsai to make secessionist statements about “Taiwan independence.
The essence is that the United States and Taiwan are colluding with each other to enhance the substantive relationship under the guise of “transit”.
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The US is undoubtedly seriously undermining China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and moreover sending a serious wrong signal to the secessionists that want to make Taiwan independent from China.
The US, the world biggest troublemaker and peace-buster, only wants to create more trouble for China.
As for the lives of the people in Taiwan, it doesn’t care, as long as Taiwan continues to receive a steady stream of weapons from it.
Stupid people in Taiwan worship the United States as their daddy, while those smart ones in Taiwan long for peaceful reunification with the mainland China with the pursuit of common prosperity and development.
Mèla – Tulululu
Mourabiedes
2023 04 06 09 42
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups butter
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup coarsely grated or finely chopped almonds
3 1/2 cups flour
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
Heat oven to 275 degrees F.
Cream butter until light and fluffy.
Mix in the 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar and egg yolk, creaming well. Beat in almonds. Stir flour; measure and gradually add just enough flour to make a soft dough that you can shape with your hands. Pinch off pieces of dough the size of a walnut and roll between your hands. Shape into half moons or stylized S shapes.
Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until lightly browned.
Remove from oven; let cool in pan until lukewarm.
Sift confectioners’ sugar onto wax paper.
Carefully transfer the cookies from baking sheet to sugared paper. Sift more sugar over the top, coating them at least 1/4 inch with sugar. Let stand until cool; then store in a cookie jar or crock.
Makes about 30.
The Restrict Act Takes Away ALL OF YOUR RIGHTS – Not Kidding!
It should be called “The Restrict Your Freedom Act”.
Is China seemingly in disarray/controlled disarray? Is this how governments, even autocratic ones, fall into disfavor by losing/ expending the goodwill they’d accumulated unwisely? What’s really going on in China right now?
China is doing fine, far better than any of the Western developed nations.
Don’t believe the Western mainstream media garbage about China.
China isn’t autocratic, it’s a democracy. China has its own form of democracy which works well.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have closed. It is said that China may be enacting an Embargo against the USA prior to invading Taiwan, the same way the US Embargoed Japan before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Others say it is a Union labor issue.
Unions representing workers at the two ports are in talks for a new contract.
The ILWU Local 13 withheld workers from their shifts starting Thursday evening, according to the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping employers on the West Coast.
“The action by the Union has effectively shut down the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – the largest gateway for maritime trade in the United States,” the PMA said.
The union, however, released a statement making no mention of any formal work action.
The organization said Thursday several thousand members were in attendance at the organization’s regular monthly meeting, at which a new president was sworn in. It said on Friday many members were observing religious holidays with their families.
“On Friday, April 7, 2023, union members who observe religious holidays took the opportunity to celebrate with their families,” read a statement from ILWU. “Cargo operations are ongoing as longshore workers at the Ports remain on the job.”
Port officials and shippers, however, believe the absences are a deliberate, if unspoken, message from the union to put pressure on the talks.
The closures come as cargo volumes have already dropped from peak levels a year ago.
The union has been working without a new contract since July.
Trade experts say some shippers have already started diverting cargo traffic away from the two ports.
“A lot of the cargo has been shifted away from the West Coast ports, into the middle of our country and the East Coast,” said Nick Vyas, executive director of the Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Southern California. “So we have a seen a significant drop in volume at our West Coast ports, which is not a good sign.”
He noted that some 40% of the foreign goods arriving to the United States are processed through the two ports.
The Port of Los Angeles released a statement saying it is continuing to communicate with the ILWU and the PMA to support a return to normal operations.
“Resuming cargo operations at America’s busiest port complex is critical to maintaining confidence to our customers and supply chain stakeholders,” Port of Los Angeles officials said.
Port officials remain optimistic that operations will resume Saturday.
Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero released a statement: “Four of the Port’s container terminals are closed for the day, today, April 7. Terminal operators at the affected sites said they made the decision to close when workers did not report for their shifts this morning. We have no further information as to the situation, but it is expected that normal, regularly scheduled hours and operations will resume tomorrow.”
There’s some interesting applications regarding this. I have looked at it, and I can see benefits of it, but honestly it’s all cold, sterile, and “wooden” in content. Sort of like reading a refrigerator manual.
Question:
With the new ChatGPT - Wolfram combination, then what is Quora's raison d'être ?
Answer:
Even with the combination of ChatGPT and Wolfram, Quora can still have a strong raison d'être or reason for being. Quora is a community-driven platform where people can ask questions and receive answers from a wide range of individuals, including experts and professionals. While ChatGPT and Wolfram may provide excellent answers to many questions, there are still questions that require human input and expertise.
Moreover, Quora provides a social aspect to question-and-answer platforms, allowing users to engage with others and build a network of like-minded individuals. Quora's community-driven approach fosters discussions and debates that can lead to new insights and perspectives. Additionally, Quora's vast archive of questions and answers allows individuals to access valuable information on a wide range of topics.
Therefore, while the combination of ChatGPT and Wolfram may provide valuable information, Quora can still serve as a platform for individuals to engage with others and access a diverse range of perspectives and knowledge.
This post covers some access portal for you all to self explore.
I have two links for you.
The first is ChatGPT that is what everyone is talking about. You can visit it HERE.
The second if far more interesting. It’s called GEN-2. This one takes text, or a feeder image, and then generates a movie from it. Absolutely astounding! You can visit it HERE.
Astounding stuff. I’d love to hear what you all think of GEN-2.
Choppy times, but things are accelerating towards change like a “bat out of Hell”.
The USA is in full-on “war mode”. It’s all downhill from here. Worrisome.
But, seriously, China plays a tough game, and the participants on the side of the USA are one big clown-show.
But do not worry.
MM lays out the future
Laying the groundwork for war
These Bills to punish and isolate China in the event of hostilities between US and China are only the first raft of measures against China. They are a prelude to all manner of Isolation Sanctions and Sequestration of China USD reserves and assets overseas, including the assets of Chinese individuals, defined as they please. The wave of McCarthyism sweeping the US against things Chinese can only intensify with the bipartisan support for containing China. Can the breakout of War be far behind?
Today, the House Financial Services Committee advanced several bipartisan bills during its first markup of the 118th Congress to combat the generational threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) economic aggression. This comes after the Committee held its first hearing of the Congress on combatting the economic threat from China.
The following measures were agreed to and subsequently reported to the House of Representatives:
H.R. 554, the “Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act of 2023,”sponsored by Rep. French Hill (AR-02), will disincentivize Chinese aggression towards Taiwan by publishing the assets of top Chinese leaders, as well as cutting them and their family members off from financial services, if Beijing acts against Taiwan.
H.R. 1076, the “Preventing the Financing of Illegal Synthetic Drugs Act,”sponsored by Rep. Monica De La Cruz (TX-15), will combat the flow of illicit Chinese fentanyl into American communities through a study on illicit financing in connection with the trafficking of synthetic drugs.
H.R. 540, the “Taiwan Non-Discrimination Act of 2023,” sponsored by Rep. Young Kim (CA-40), will require the U.S. to advocate for Taiwan’s membership at the International Monetary Fund.
H.R. 510, the “Chinese Currency Accountability Act of 2023,” sponsored by Rep. Warren Davidson (OH-08), will prevent the CCP from coopting critical international institutions like the International Monetary Fund by requiring the Treasury Secretary to oppose an increase in the weight of China’s renminbi in the basket of currencies determining the value of Special Drawing Rights.
H.R. 839, the “China Exchange Rate Transparency Act of 2023,” sponsored by Rep. Dan Meuser (PA-09), will protect global market participants from the CCP’s exploitative practices by requiring the U.S. Director at the International Monetary Fund to advocate for greater transparency in China’s disclosure of its exchange rate policies.
H.R. 803, the “PROTECT Taiwan Act,” sponsored by Rep. FrankLucas (OK-03), will help isolate the CCP from the international financial system by directing the Federal Reserve, the Secretary of Treasury, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to exclude representatives from the People’s Republic of China from proceedings of various international financial groups and organizations in the event of an invasion of Taiwan.
H.R. 555, the “Securing America’s Vaccines for Emergencies (SAVE) Act of 2023,” sponsored by Rep. Hill,will help end U.S. over-reliance on adversarial governments for medical supplies during an emergency by bolstering and diversifying existing supply chains through the Defense Production Act.
H.R. 1156, the “China Financial Threat Mitigation Act of 2023,” sponsored by Rep. Abigail Spanberger (VA-07), will promote American financial resiliency by requiring the Treasury Secretary to report on global economic risks emanating from the Chinese financial sector.
A type of portable electromagnetic riot gun developed by China recently went through a firing test and displayed traits superior to traditional firearms, including low noise, little muzzle flash and low recoil, with experts saying on Monday that the technology marks a development trend for future weapons.
The gun uses nine coils to accelerate projectiles, which are stored in a magazine behind the coils, Lei Fengqiao, an employee at Chongqing Jianshe Industry (Group) Co Ltd under the state-owned China South Industries Group Co Ltd, said in a program on China Central Television (CCTV) on Sunday.
Unlike traditional firearms that fire round bullets, the electromagnetic gun fires projectiles shaped like a coin, as the gun is designed for riot control purposes rather than causing lethal damage, Lei said.
Coin-shaped projectiles will less likely cause penetration damage, have a larger spread, which makes the gun more suppressive, and are easy to manufacture at an inexpensive price, he said.
The munitions are also easy to carry and do not use gunpowder, which makes them easy to store and transport, CCTV said.
A built-in lithium battery provides power to the gun. A fully charged cell allows the gun to fire hundreds of rounds consecutively before a fast recharge, and temperature has little effect on it, CCTV reported.
The grip is set at the middle of the gun to balance the weight, while at the front of the gun are three buttons that can switch between different firing modes, change power output, and turn on and off, Lei said.
A small screen on the gun shows its status, including battery usage, munition usage, temperature and firing mode. It has an automatic mode, a semi-automatic mode and a shotgun mode, the CCTV report shows.
A rail on the top of the gun allows it to be equipped with scopes and calibration devices of the operator’s choice to assist in aiming, Lei said.
Surpassing the rate of fire of traditional rifles, which is about 700 to 800 rounds per minute, the electromagnetic gun’s top rate of fire can reach several thousand rounds per minute.
The weapon attracted public attention after it made its debut at the Airshow China 2022 in Zhuhai, South China’s Guangdong Province.
In a firing test, the electromagnetic gun easily destroyed wooden planks, beer bottles and car windows, had low noise and little muzzle flash, gave off no smoke or bullet shells, and had low recoil, CCTV reported.
Lei said that the electromagnetic launch technology is characterized by high stealth, which is the direction of development for future weapons.
In addition to riot guns, electromagnetic launch technology can also be applied to other weapons such as lethal guns, from handheld guns to large-caliber artillery, a Beijing-based military expert told the Global Times on Monday, requesting anonymity.
China has reportedly been testing a warship-mounted electromagnetic railgun. Another possible application is for air defense, due to its high rate of fire, the expert said.
The Chinese military general and strategist Sun Tzu, who lived around 2,500 years ago, argued that the ability to wage war is of vital importance to the state. According to him, it’s a matter of life and death, and cannot be neglected. In his manual The Art of War, Sun Tzu states that the superior way of winning a war is winning by not fighting.
But when this path, for some reason, is not accessible, then we must confront the situation with the utmost care. We must know what strategies to use in the right conditions, and which battles to enter and which to avoid. Being unskilled in the art of war can have devastating consequences. Going into battle without a plan, letting our emotions get the best of us, not taking the welfare and humanity of the army into account, or attacking a stronger opponent that we simply cannot defeat, are among the mistakes that will lead to our doom.
Hence, according to Sun Tzu we must use our intelligence to fight a war, study our enemy closely, take into account the circumstances before we attack, not overextend and exhaust ourselves, and even throw ‘honor’ out of the window by using tricks and diversions to win if necessary, as the Soviets did (quite brutally) by using suicide dogs against Nazi tanks; not for glory or fame, but for effectiveness and victory.
In a previous video about Sun Tzu, we’ve globally explored his ideas on warfare from a viewpoint of ‘winning without fighting’. This video is the first part of a series that dives deeper into Sun Tzu’s wisdom for fighting smart in war, and how we can use this to approach the battles of everyday life. The third chapter of Sun Tzu’s book focuses on choosing the right strategy, which is a good place to start our journey. Hence, this first part is based on the third chapter. Also, the elaborations in this video are partly based on the author’s interpretations and reasoning.
Using the right strategy
During his career, John Perkins stood before the Shah of Iran, the president of Indonesia, and the royal house of Saudi Arabia, offering them large sums of money if they would agree to the terms that he laid out in front of them. But if they didn’t agree, then retaliation would follow. John Perkins was an economic hitman, who helped to shape a global capitalist system that’s based on the exploitation of resources through bribery, assassination, and even war.
In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, he describes the tactics that his organization used to conquer its opponents, which were generally leaders of countries. First, they would make them an offer they can’t refuse. This could be a sum of money in exchange for cheap labor or a deal with a company to pay off the country’s debt in exchange for oil. If they refused, then they would try to overthrow or assassinate them. This, according to Perkins, happened to Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, who didn’t want to change his plans to reorganize the hydrocarbon sector, which threatened the interests of the United States. In 1981 Roldós died in a plane crash.
In some cases, these assassination attempts failed. An example of this is Saddam Hussein, who, said Perkins, refused to implement the same oil policy as the Saudis did. In 2003, a combined force of troops invaded Iraq. In the same year, Saddam Hussein was captured. After his trial, he was executed. In no way this video intends to condone the actions described by Perkins. It’s merely a pitch-black example to illustrate how this strategy has been successfully implemented many times: unfortunately for questionable reasons and with terrible consequences. However, the strategy that the economic hitmen use resembles the tiered system that Sun Tzu proposed in the third chapter of his book, which aims to prevent violent conflict if possible.
Sun Tzu distinguished different forms of warfare. The highest form is to attack strategy, the second-highest form is to attack alliances, the next is to attack armies, and attacking cities is the last resort. In the ethical sense, we want to win without causing too many casualties because it’s the most humanitarian thing to do. Winning without fighting causes virtually no casualties, but bombing cities will result in the death of many innocent civilians.
An example of the devastating effects that choosing the last resort can have is the atomic bombings on the Japanese cities Nagasaki and Hiroshima during the Second World War. This event ended the war quickly, but it wasn’t a victory to be festive about, as these bombings resulted in a death toll of hundreds of thousands of people. With a total death toll of around seventy-five million people as a consequence of the Second World War, we can’t speak of any victory; it was a humanitarian catastrophe with mostly losers. This is something that Sun Tzu wants us to prevent.
In a pragmatic sense, we can also make a case for fighting smart by preventing not only destruction but also unnecessary effort and spending of resources. Sun Tzu states:
The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided. The preparation of mantlets, movable shelters, and various implements of war, will take up three whole months; and the piling up of mounds over against the walls will take three months more.
So, if we can, it’s always better to try fighting with efficient and non-destructive methods. The first one is to attack strategy. Attacking strategy means attacking the enemy’s plans; or, in some way, obstructing them. By doing this we solve the conflict at the root; which is the scheme from which a possible threat arises. The beauty of this method is that it doesn’t generally involve bloodshed.
Imagine, for example, a couple of coworkers are planning to reorganize your department, with the consequence that your position within the company becomes obsolete. You can sue your company as a countermove, but chances are that you’ll lose the case, and you’ll suffer great financial losses in the process. Instead, it’s more efficient to obstruct their plans, for example by convincing the management that their plans are bad, and by presenting counter plans that involve you. Or you can try to sabotage their plans in one way or another.
When this doesn’t cut it, Sun Tzu urges us to attack alliances. For example, if the obstruction of your coworkers’ plans fails, you can then try to weaken the alliances by turning people against each other. This can be done by gossiping, creating alliances yourself, and disclosing information that shows your opponents in a bad light. Admittingly, these methods aren’t the most elegant ways of achieving one’s goal. But, again, they generally don’t involve bloodshed, although they could provoke violence nonetheless.
Knowing when to fight
When none of the previous methods work, it may be a lost cause. Sure, we can try to attack the company as a whole. But we must choose our battles well. The strength of an army is limited, as is the case with ourselves and our resources. Sun Tzu lies the importance of calculations at the base of all of his strategies. Is there a chance of winning? Or is it better to avoid battle?
It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy’s one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two. If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.
If you have a reasonable chance of winning, fighting could be a viable option. But then it’s essential to remember that our resources and energy are finite. To put it pragmatically: what’s the ‘net profit’ as a result of fighting this battle? Will it improve our situation or will it drain us and leave us worse than before we entered it? Sun Tzu argued against fighting long, exhausting battles, as they do not only deplete one’s resources but also destroy the army’s morale. “There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare,” he stated.
Sun Tzu justly argues that it’s better to take a country intact and to capture a regiment, detachment, or company without harming or destroying it. With such thinking, we could also approach the battles of everyday life. If we evaluate all proposed steps in detail, will the benefits outweigh the losses or the other way around? If the latter is the case, and we’re still eager to fight, we’re probably being led by emotion rather than reason and logic. According to Sun Tzu, being led by emotion can have disastrous effects when it comes to decision-making. I quote:
The general, unable to control his irritation, will launch his men to the assault like swarming ants, with the result that one-third of his men are slain, while the town still remains untaken. Such are the disastrous effects of a siege.
At the end of the day, life is full of battles, and it’s best to prevent destructive confrontations if that’s possible.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always an option.
But this doesn’t mean that the degree of destructiveness cannot be mitigated. Sun Tzu teaches us that there are many shades of grey between peace and violence.
He shows us the alternatives to the equivalent of what he calls ‘siege warfare’.
If we can’t solve the problems by diplomacy, can we win by sabotaging the enemy’s plans?
Can we destroy alliances?
Can we defeat the armies and spare innocent civilians?
Sun Tzu urges us to choose our battles carefully.
This requires calculations as well as sufficient knowledge about ourselves, the enemy, and the circumstances we’re up against.
Defeating the enemy quickly and efficiently is preferable. But getting entangled in long, exhausting conflicts must be avoided.
And in some cases, when the odds are so clearly stacked against us, there’s no reasonable course of action but to give up and leave.
Thank you for watching.
Chicken Edovo
A delicious Philippine entree!
chicken adobo 5
Ingredients
1 whole chicken
4 or 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced into rings
1 tablespoon oil
3/4 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce over chicken
Salt and pepper
4 or 5 bay leaves
Instructions
Rinse chicken. Cut up into small pieces.
Brown onion rings and garlic in oil, then add chicken pieces and brown.
Mix remaining ingredients and pour over the chicken.
Bring to boil and cook covered until chicken is tender and done.
Taste juice. Add more vinegar or soy sauce to your taste.
Serve chicken and juice over rice.
82-Year-Old Man Covers DROWNING POOLS “Bodies” on Americas Got Talent!
This guy is fucking living life. Man! I hope that I still can rage like him at 83!
This software reveals true color of ‘Summit for Democracy’: Global Times editorial
By Global Times
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In the just concluded so-called Summit for Democracy, US President Joe Biden, as the host, declared that a coalition will be formed to combat governments “who misuse surveillance technologies for repression.” He also used an executive order that prohibits the US government’s use of commercial spyware as a prominent example of the US’ leadership in strengthening “democracy,” portraying the US as the “defender” of global cyberspace.
However, when Washington’s facade is still fresh and new, the New York Times on Sunday published an article about the US government’s secret use of spyware from the Israeli firm NSO Group, which once again completely exposes the US’ true nature as a fake defender of global cyberspace.
NSO, mentioned in the New York Times, is the same company that created the spyware Pegasus, known as “perhaps the most powerful spyware ever created.” The Pegasus scandal once caused a global sensation. The spyware has a daunting ability to collect information about location, photos and passwords without the users’ permission. It has spied on at least 50,000 phone numbers from 50 countries, including those of hundreds of politicians and government officials. This triggered a chain reaction and even a political storm. The incident was called “one of the biggest spy scandals of our time” by some media.
Early last year, a New York Times investigation revealed that the FBI had purchased Pegasus, after which FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted that the FBI had indeed purchased the spyware, but only for “research and development.” In the latest investigation by the New York Times on Sunday, the White House, after placing NSO on a Commerce Department blacklist in 2021, used a front company to sign a contract to purchase Landmark, another software from NSO. “Under this contract, according to two people, there have been thousands of queries in at least one country, Mexico,” wrote the report.
In fact, specific spying behaviors from the US as a veritable “empire of mass surveillance” are no longer considered “news.” As early as 2013, the PRISM scandal revealed that Mexico’s then-president was under US surveillance. Perhaps Mexicans can only sigh that they are “so far from God, so close to the US.” On the contrary, regarding Pegasus and its company NSO, the US government has once again shown the double face of raising standards for others high while abandoning its bottom line easily. The world needs to be more alert to this.
After the Pegasus scandal was exposed by multiple media outlets and widely condemned in July 2021, the US government blacklisted NSO in November of that year, claiming that it engaged in activities that are “contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the US.”
However, according to a New York Times report, the US government had secretly deployed the hacking tool domestically for many years and given it to other countries before the ban. Even after the ban was issued, the US government continued to sign contracts with the company despite the scandal, and the contract remains valid to this day.
Washington’s hypocritical and sinister side is also reflected in the fact that after NSO was targeted by the US and fell into difficulties, other partners were “scared away,” and then the US defense contractor giant L3Harris Technologies Inc “coincidentally” appeared and began acquisition negotiations. According to reports, L3Harris Technologies has had close communication with US intelligence agencies and the US Department of Commerce and has made some progress. Perhaps at this point, the real reason why the US Department of Commerce sanctioned NSO has become apparent. Even the Israeli side couldn’t help but feel angry at the US’ hypocrisy.
Many media outlets, including the New York Times, have reported that the “Five Eyes Alliance” is considered by NSO as its largest potential market, and it is highly likely that they have already cooperated. As China has become the main target of the “Five Eyes Alliance” in recent years, we have reason to suspect that it will use Pegasus to spy on China. Given the US’ consistent style, we can only speculate on the worst-case scenario regarding its bottom line.
Of course, this does not prevent the US from putting on an enthusiastic performance at the “Summit for Democracy,” nor does it prevent many Americans from constantly hyping the so-called Chinese hackers issue and shifting attention by slandering other countries. However, from the PRISM scandal to Bvp47 and Dirty COW to Irritant Horn and MUSCULAR project, the “moral” banner raised by Washington is riddled with holes. The image that Washington has left in the eyes of the world is already that of a “false preacher” who shouts slogans louder and pulls the bottom line lower.
U.S. calls for joint G-7 action to prevent China’s economic bullying – Nikkei Asia
How would the G7 countries respond? French company TotalEnergies just sold LNG to China in RMB. A revolt, a rebellion, and from a major ally. With Russia, Brazil and very soon Saudi Arabia as well as other Gulf States selling their oil and gas in RMB, we will see more of similar reports.With Aramco's refinery investments in China, delivering upwards of 700,000 barrels a day, it means that China will be selling finished products to ASEAN and surrounding countries needing energy to develop their economies (may even include American lapdogs). All of that will, of course, be in RMB. As petro-dollar gets eaten up by petro-yuan, so goes dollar-hegemony. At some point, the US will be forced by its loss of dollar-hegemony to act responsibly. No longer will it be able to continue with its profligate printing and inflating. No longer will it be able to ask the rest of the world to suffer the consequences of its QEs. No longer will it be able to create unlimited funds to fuel wars and feed its MIC. No longer will it be able to sanction anyone at will. That is how an empire falls, and that is the global change unseen in a century.I actually predicted this in a Quora article when Trump started the US-China Trade War in 2018. I'm no prophet. All I did was stop believing in lies. Read the comments too. Some of my replies are brutal. I really haven't done much on Quora, maybe starting again after finishing my trilogy, which is taking very long. Here is a cleaner copy on my blog page.I won't end this without another prediction. This may surprise some people because you can't depend on pundits to tell you any real insight.
The fall of the empire will cause great changes for Israel and Palestine. A lot of the move to the east by Arabian countries is caused by an unspoken sliver of pain and humiliation stuck in the heart of most Arabs, There are 450 million Arabs surrounding less than 10 million Israelis, of which over 20% are Arabs.
The walls that Israel built to imprison the Palestinians will become prison walls for the future Israel if they do not see the writing on the wall.
The Jews will survive as they have survived for millenia.
The state of Israel has come and gone in the past, and if the modern state of Israel continues on its current path, no one will weep a single tear when it gets replaced by a just and peaceful entity, probably under another name. And they can kiss their shekels goodbye.PM
Owners Let Their Norwegian Forest Cat Roam Freely Outside, And He Looks Majestic
0 10
In March 2018, Camilla from Norway fell head over heels in love with an 8-week-old kitten she saw online. It was a Norwegian Forest cat looking for his forever home. In the photo that captivated Camilla, the little rascal was simply irresistible, tilting his head and staring at the woman from the screen with the biggest, most innocent eyes she had ever seen.
“I was completely sold,” Camilla told Bored Panda. “A few moments later, [there was no question about it]. Me and my boyfriend Sondre were going to become cat owners. In May, we brought home the sweetest little ball of fur. He made us so happy.”
Bubbles and the Shitrockers (feat. Alex Lifeson) – Who’s Got Yer Belly
Moscow Diary: The Capital of the Multipolar World
This is about Russia-China - and beyond.
After nearly 4 decades as a foreign correspondent all over the planet, I am not exactly impressed by anything anymore.
But my four weeks in Moscow that felt like decades - in the eye of the hurricane - were something on a whole new level.
I did manage to talk to some of the Chinese sherpas in Xi's delegation.
Preferred to keep it private.
The diary was originally published on Strategic Culture - totally censored all across NATOstan.
And yet ZeroHedge picks up a lot of my columns - without mentioning the source - so now tons of Americans are reading it.
Talk about a Sun Tzu media move.
All the best to all of you,
Pepe
Link HERE
Escobar: The Capital Of The Multipolar World – A Moscow Diary
In Moscow you feel no crisis. No effects of sanctions. No unemployment. No homeless people in the streets. Minimal inflation.
How sharp was good ol’ Lenin, prime modernist, when he mused, “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”. This global nomad now addressing you has enjoyed the privilege of spending four astonishing weeks in Moscow at the heart of an historical crossroads – culminating with the Putin-Xi geopolitical game-changing summit at the Kremlin.
To quote Xi, “changes that haven’t been seen in 100 years” do have a knack of affecting us all in more ways than one.
James Joyce, another modernity icon, wrote that we spend our lives meeting average and/or extraordinary people, on and on and on, but in the end we’re always meeting ourselves. I have had the privilege of meeting an array of extraordinary people in Moscow, guided by trusted friends or by auspicious coincidence: in the end your soul tells you they enrich you and the overarching historical moment in ways you can’t even begin to fathom.
Here are some of them. The grandson of Boris Pasternak, a gifted young man who teaches Ancient Greek at Moscow State University. A historian with unmatched knowledge of Russian history and culture. The Tajik working class huddling together in a chaikhana with the proper ambience of Dushanbe.
Chechens and Tuvans in awe doing the loop in the Big Central Line. A lovely messenger sent by friends extremely careful about security matters to discuss issues of common interest. Exceptionally accomplished musicians performing underground in Mayakovskaya. A stunning Siberian princess vibrant with unbounded energy, taking that motto previously applied to the energy industry – Power of Siberia – to a whole new level.
A dear friend took me to Sunday service at the Devyati Muchenikov Kizicheskikh church, the favorite of Peter the Great: the quintessential purity of Eastern Orthodoxy. Afterwards the priests invited us for lunch in their communal table, displaying not only their natural wisdom but also an uproarious sense of humor.
At a classic Russian apartment crammed with 10,000 books and with a view to the Ministry of Defense – plenty of jokes included – Father Michael, in charge if Orthodox Christianity relations with the Kremlin, sang the Russian imperial anthem after an indelible night of religious and cultural discussions.
I had the honor to meet some of those who were particularly targeted by the imperial machine of lies. Maria Butina – vilified by the proverbial “spy who came in from the cold” shtick – now a deputy at the Duma. Viktor Bout – which pop culture metastasized into the “Lord of War”, complete with Nic Cage movie: I was speechless when he told me he was reading me in maximum security prison in the USA, via pen drives sent by his friends (he had no internet access). The indefatigable, iron-willed Mira Terada – tortured when she was in a U.S. prison, now heading a foundation protecting children caught in hard times.
I spent much treasured quality time and engaged in invaluable discussions with Alexander Dugin – the crucial Russian of these post-everything times, a man of pure inner beauty, exposed to unimaginable suffering after the terrorist assassination of Darya Dugina, and still able to muster a depth and reach when it comes to drawing connections across the philosophy, history and history of civilizations spectrum that is virtually unmatched in the West.
On the offensive against Russophobia
And then there were the diplomatic, academic and business meetings. From the head of international investor relations of Norilsk Nickel to Rosneft executives, not to mention the EAEU’s Sergey Glazyev himself, side by side with his top economic adviser Dmitry Mityaev, I was given a crash course on the current A to Z of Russian economy – including serious problems to be addressed.
At the Valdai Club, what really mattered were the meetings on the sidelines, much more than the actual panels: that’s when Iranians, Pakistanis, Turks, Syrians, Kurds, Palestinians, Chinese tell you what is really in their hearts and minds.
The official launch of the International Movement of Russophiles was a special highlight of these four weeks. A special message written by President Putin was read by Foreign Minister Lavrov, who then delivered his own speech. Later, at the House of Receptions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, four of us were received by Lavrov at a private audience. Future cultural projects were discussed. Lavrov was extremely relaxed, displaying his matchless sense of humor.
This is a cultural as much as a political movement, designed to fight Russophobia and to tell the Russian story, in all its immensely rich aspects, especially to the Global South.
I am a founding member and my name is on the charter. In my nearly four decades as a foreign correspondent, I have never been part of any political/cultural movement anywhere in the world; nomad independents are a fierce breed. But this is extremely serious: the current, irredeemably mediocre self-described “elites” of the collective West want no less than cancel Russia all across the spectrum. No pasarán.
Spirituality, compassion, mercy
Decades happening in only four weeks imply precious time needed to put it all in perspective.
The initial gut feeling the day I arrived, after a seven-hour walk under snow flurries, was confirmed: this is the capital of the multipolar world. I saw it among the West Asians at the Valdai. I saw it talking to visiting Iranians, Turks and Chinese. I saw it when over 40 African delegations took over the whole area around the Duma – the day Xi arrived in town. I saw it throughout the reception across the Global South to what Xi and Putin are proposing to the overwhelming majority of the planet.
In Moscow you feel no crisis. No effects of sanctions. No unemployment. No homeless people in the streets. Minimal inflation. Import substitution in all areas, especially agriculture, has been a resounding success. Supermarkets have everything – and more – compared to the West. There’s an abundance of first-rate restaurants. You can buy a Bentley or a Loro Pianna cashmere coat you can’t even find in Italy. We laughed about it chatting with managers at the TSUM department store. At the BiblioGlobus bookstore, one of them told me, “We are the Resistance.”
By the way, I had the honor to deliver a talk on the war in Ukraine at the coolest bookshop in town, Bunker, mediated by my dear friend, immensely knowledgeable Dima Babich. A huge responsibility. Especially because Vladimir L. was in the audience. He’s Ukrainian, and spent 8 years, up to 2022, telling it like it really was to Russian radio, until he managed to leave – after being held at gunpoint – using an internal Ukrainian passport. Later we went to a Czech beer hall where he detailed his extraordinary story.
In Moscow, their toxic ghosts are always lurking in the background. Yet one cannot but feel sorry for the psycho Straussian neocons and neoliberal-cons who now barely qualify as Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski’s puny orphans.
In the late 1990s, Brzezinski pontificated that, “Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical center because its very existence as an independent state helps transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.”
With or without a demilitarized and denazified Ukraine, Russia has already changed the narrative. This is not about becoming a Eurasian empire again. This is about leading the long, complex process of Eurasia integration – already in effect – in parallel to supporting true, sovereign independence across the Global South.
I left Moscow – the Third Rome – towards Constantinople – the Second Rome – one day before Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev gave a devastating interview to Rossiyskaya Gazeta once again outlining all the essentialities inherent to the NATO vs. Russia war.
This is what particularly struck me: “Our centuries-old culture is based on spirituality, compassion and mercy. Russia is a historical defender of sovereignty and statehood of any peoples who turned to it for help. She saved the U.S. itself at least twice, during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. But I believe that this time it is impractical to help the United States maintain its integrity.”
In my last night, before hitting a Georgian restaurant, I was guided by the perfect companion off Pyatnitskaya to a promenade along the Moscow River, beautiful rococo buildings gloriously lighted, the scent of Spring – finally – in the air. It’s one of those “Wild Strawberry” moments out of Bergman’s masterpiece that hits the bottom of our soul. Like mastering the Tao in practice. Or the perfect meditative insight at the top of the Himalayas, the Pamirs or the Hindu Kush.
So the conclusion is inevitable. I’ll be back. Soon.
As US armchair politicians and analysts are hyping up a possible war, true American warriors are calling for peace. Everyone needs to calm down about war with China, top US general Mark Milley said on Friday in an interview with Defense One. On Monday, Taipei Times published a front-page story featuring Milley’s rhetoric.
According to Defense One, the China heat is on following this year’s Chinese balloon saga. In the past few weeks, members of Congress in hearings aimed a list of concerns about China – everything from nuclear weapons to computer chips, “invading” Taiwan, and allying with Russia – at Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “Milley has taken to telling lawmakers that war with China – and Russia – is not imminent or inevitable. It’s part of an effort to lower the heat,” Defense One reported, citing Milley and adding that Milley stressed a more realistic and less emotional approach is needed when dealing with China-US ties.
Milley clearly recognizes the predicament the US faces amid US politicians and media’s excessive hype of tensions with China. To some extent, he was saying that something has gone wrong in the US’ China policy, and the problem is mainly on the US side.
As a career soldier, Milley realizes when the US displays overly hawkish hostility against China, it goes far beyond the actual needs of American national interests. Thus, he made his point – the US military should not be dragged into a war with China for hysterical reasons, in other words, for the constant hype of unreasonable tensions, Shen Yi, a professor at Fudan University, told the Global Times.
Taiwan regional leader Tsai Ing-wen is on a visit to Central America with a planned stop-by in California and a scheduled meeting with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. US officers, think tanks, and media have been sparing no effort to stir up troubles about the Taiwan question long before the trip. They either constantly make speculations on the timetable of a possible cross-Straits war, or simulate war games on the possible American cost of such a conflict.
When American elites who have never fought in a war are obsessed with talking out loud about a military showdown, Milley remains sober. He is well aware that it is not journalists nor politicians who will have to fight on the front lines. And he knows it is not in the US’ interest to actually fight a war against China. For a career military personnel, it is more important to boost deterrence than actually joining a hot war.
More importantly, it is completely unrealistic for the US to confront both China and Russia militarily simultaneously. Milley is aware of the strength of American military power; thus, he knows that Washington should not provoke Beijing and Moscow at the same time. Otherwise, the US will simply wreck its capability to seek absolute military hegemony worldwide, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times.
Milley’s argument is objective and calculative. After calling for a cooling down of tensions, he said that he prefers the “speak softly, carry a big stick” tactic – lowering the rhetoric a little bit while making sure the US has an incredibly powerful military that is capable. And he agrees with calls for the US to send arms to Taiwan island as quickly as possible.
It means that despite the fact that the US still has a clear military advantage, such an advantage is no longer overwhelming. Hence Milley believes a military means is not an option before it has a sufficient advantage in the armed forces.
That’s the reason for ceaseless US arms sales to the Taiwan island – the US is not preparing to fight China; it is preparing Taiwan island to fight the Chinese mainland. The US won’t willingly sacrifice itself to help Taiwan secessionist forces, but it is willing to fight a proxy war, using the Taiwan island as a consumable or a pawn.
The US still remains the most powerful country on the globe, but its toxic political environment has been eroding its strength since the end of the Cold War. The toxic environment is what drives Milley’s concerns on whether the US’ might can be long-lasting.
China’s development and the US’ decline are not directly related. And the current era is no longer one in which one country can play a dominant role with purely military power. Benign competition can help both China and the US develop. If China becomes strong enough one day, it will be grateful to both its friends and strong competitors, including the US, Song said.
The US is too anxious and hysterical, because it has lost its way and is on the wrong path.
Bratwurst
2023 04 03 13 49
Ingredients
1 pound link bratwurst
2 green bell peppers, cut into strips
2 medium onions, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon basil
Instructions
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.
Cut the bratwurst into 1-inch pieces and brown well in the skillet.
Add the peppers and onions and sauté until cooked, stirring frequently.
Within the past few hours today, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has agreed to a cut of one million barrels a day in oil production. This comes just after Russia announced a cut of its own by 500,000 barrels per day.
These cuts will now drive UP the price of oil and, by extension, gasoline and Diesel fuel.
Since the illegitimate Biden regime here in the US has drained much of our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the regime is now UNABLE to counter this loss of daily production.
UPDATE 6:00 PM EDT —
The White House has reportedly responded to OPEC+’s decision to cut crude production by 1 million barrels/day by saying that “output cuts aren’t advisable right now,” adding that The White House is “focused on prices for American consumers.”
Recall too, Biden threatened the Saudis with “consequences” over last October’s 2 million barrel oil cut but then he took no action.
Let’s see if this new OPEC cut elicits any further response.
Hal Turner Remark:This is a squeeze play against us. They know our idiot in chief has already depleted our strategic oil reserves to artificially lower prices so and they know his options are now very limited. He either continues to deplete those reserves from an already dangerous level or prices are going up.
Best CHINESE SCIENTISTS Are Leaving The United States For China
https://youtu.be/JU5S22pbJgI
GT Voice: China is best safe haven; global investors shouldn’t miss out because of politics
By Global Times
For months, China’s swift economy recovery has been making headlines around the world, often portrayed as the only “bright spot” across a slowing global economy. But what does such a recovery look like? What does it mean for global investors? There was no clear, full picture, and there were some doubts, especially in foreign media.
But, a growing number of recent signs suggest that the pace of the recovery in the world’s second-largest economy is faster than many have expected. In March, the purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a gauge of factory activity, beat some economists’ forecasts and reached 51.9, well within expansion territory. What’s more, the PMI reading for the non-manufacturing sector jumped to 58.2.
And things may be just getting started. Following the two sessions, where China set an annual GDP growth target of about 5 percent this year, Chinese officials at all levels have moved swiftly to further speed up the economic recovery, with a series of policy measures. On Friday, Zhu Zhongming, a vice minister of finance, said China will step up fiscal support for the economy, including tax and fee reductions for businesses. The extended and optimized tax and fee cuts are expected to reduce more than 480 billion yuan ($69.9 billion) in costs for market players.
What’s more, various central government departments and local governments have also launched what appears to be a nationwide campaign to improvement business climate for businesses. Just over the past several days, provincial governments from Northeast China’s Liaoning Province to South China’s Hainan Province held special meetings for the effort.
All of this points to an optimistic picture for China’s economic recovery. Amid the growing signs of rapid recovery, the World Bank, in a report on Friday, raised its forecast for China’s growth by 0.6 percentage point to 5.1 percent in 2023. Some context will help better grasp the scale of China’s recovery this year. For the Asia Pacific, growth excluding that of China will slow to 4.9 percent this year, down 0.9 percentage point from 2022. For the world economy, growth will average 2.2 percent throughout the rest of the decade, according to the World Bank. So, from every aspect, China’s growth will be the bright spot for the world economy – and an ideal market for global businesses seeking growth.
And that’s not all. While China is on a stable trajectory toward recovery, advanced economies like the US and the eurozone are facing both significant slowdowns and the risk of financial and banking crises. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and some other banks in the US and the failure of Credit Suisse in Switzerland exposed the profound risks in the Western banking system. While Western officials have repeatedly claimed that a broader crisis is not imminent, investors are understandably jittery and in desperate need for viable options to cushion the risks in advanced economies. And where they could find such options? One word: China.
There is no shortage of fearmongering headlines pushed by the Western media reports about China’s economy. Their assertion is often based on hearsay or outright lies. They claimed that China is increasingly “hostile” to foreign businesses and many foreign businesses are abandoning the Chinese market. But they ignored the steadily increases in foreign investment into China, even during the toughest period of the epidemic. In 2022, foreign direct investment into China grew 6.3 percent to 1.23 trillion yuan. That doesn’t exactly look like a “mass business exodus” from China, does it?
Also, there are the ever growing calls for “decoupling” or “reducing reliance” from US and other Western officials, asserting that it is unsafe for foreign businesses to invest in China. But for any fair-minded person, it should be crystal clear which country is making it unsafe for cross-border investments. In a desperate attempt to preserve its shrinking global dominance, the US is picking fights, economic or otherwise, around the world. It is adopting protectionist policies at home to bolster its domestic industries. Externally, it is imposing unilateral sanctions on any country it deems to be unfriendly. Worse yet, it is now exporting risks of financial and banking crises to the world.
Many multinationals are fully aware of what is actually happening on the ground. And if there was any doubt about China’s continuously expanding market access and improving business climate for global businesses, face-to-face meetings with Chinese officials at two major forums – China Development Forum and the Boao Forum for Asia – should offer sufficient reassurance. For businesses around the world that seek win-win cooperation, don’t miss out on China just because of geopolitical ramblings in the US.
Old South Silken Peanut Soup
2023 04 03 13 51
Ingredients
Soup
4 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
2 celery stalks with leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
5 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock which is not traditional)
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup heavy cream
Garnish
Dribbles of heavy cream
Finely-minced celery leaves
Instructions
Sauté onion and celery in the butter until soft, but not brown. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds.
Stir in the stock a little at a time, whisking, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 15 minutes.
Puree, solids first, then whisk in peanut butter and cream until the soup is smooth.
When ready to serve, reheat (don’t let boil), then ladle into small bowls.
Dribble 1/2 teaspoon of cream in a pretty pattern, then sprinkle with minced celery leaves and finely crushed peanuts.
Serve immediately.
Serve hot as a first course.
Survivor of last week’s Tornados talks about his “Preps” and what went wrong
I found this story while surfing the web and thought it would be very relevant and helpful to my readers. It’s from a guy who survived the Tornados in Little Rock, Arkansas this week. Quick read . . .
My City Being Hit By A Tornado Taught A lot About The Limits Of My PREPSOk, so we live in Little Rock.An entire swath of the city from basically the southwest toward the river just looks like a bomb went off.Been without power since the Tornado struck our neighborhood, luckily for my family, our home was spared any significant damage. Though it was one of the scariest things I've ever been through. There is nothing like holding your wife and daughter in a pitch black bathroom while it sounds like a freight train is barreling through your entire world.With that said we've been running off preps at the moment and I have learned a lot about things.1) Bad things happen FAST. It was just a "normal afternoon" and lucky for us we were all home, but within the span of hardly anytime we went from tornado sirens, to all in the sheltered part of our home, to what sounded like the world was being torn apart outside, to no power, no cell service, no nothing within minutes. Having plans of how to get in touch or meet up should we have all been separated are non existent really and I need to make one and improve on that.2)Ham radio was a lifesaver. Literally. Remember cell service went down instantly here. A tower was crumped like a pretzel and no one could call out or in. I was listening and talking on the 2M repeater here in town right before the storm after the warning went off with storm spotters. After the tornado moved on I quickly began checking on neighbors. Ingress and egress to the neighborhood was blocked by downed trees. Within minutes I was able to get a group of hams from close by and their friends and other neighbors with chainsaws to make quick work of cutting and moving them. This allowed for emergency services to get in quickly and rescue an elderly resident from her home who may have been having a heart attack. Without this kind of ability to quickly coordinate, void of grid comms, I don't know if that would have been so efficient. More people need to at the least their Technician license, and be active on simplex and their local repeaters.3) You need more gas. I need more gas. I keep two 5 gallon NATO jerry cans USUALLY full. When I fill up our truck I will fill them up also, then have gotten into the bad habit of using that gas and not filling them up immediately. Bad mistake. I had to make a run, after the pandemonium, to a gas station with power. Not smart. This was a failure on my part. Never again will I be without gas on hand for my generator. Also adding two more jerry cans. Keep oil on hand too for your generator and the oil changed. Luckily I done so very recently.4) Luckily for us the weather is quite pleasant, so our small generator need only run our fridge, freezer, etc. But we are heavily reliant on gas for our cooking and water. Should the gas lines be down (if they need repair) these service would not work. Need more public gas independent methods of doing this things. I have a small camp stove but with limited propane this isn't great. Adding keeping LP on hand and a camp shower and solar shower option.5) There are VERY FEW PEOPLE PREPARED. It definitely made me aware of how after a few days without supplies people will be coming FOR YOUR SHIT. There is only a handful of people in my neighborhood with generators. We are being generous and allowing people to charge phones, laptops, etc. But at night, when all the lights were out and there was no cell service, It certainly made me aware that my whirring generator and the smell from my neighbors grill cooking steaks, would be a call for starving and desperate in times of need. Definitely makes one consider the bug in / bug out argument. I don't have a definitive response for that at the moment, just making notice. These leftist idiots sayings stupid shit like "why does anyone NEED an AR15?" Well that's why. Your shit will be at the least harder to take if you are well armed and able to defend against MULTIPLE attackers.6) Candles Candles Candles. Flashlights are good but you need more candles. Buy a big ass pack of tea lights or a few. Buy a case. You need more than you think. Again flashlights are great, definitely headlamps are VERY helpful.7) Should this event have happened in the bitter cold of winter we can heat our home with wood, and usually have plenty, had it been the 100 degree summer, this would really suck. A small window AC unit is probably a good investment to at least be able to keep one room comfortable. Buying one.We now have cell service back, though power is still out. It is not estimated to be back on until very late this evening, thought he lineman working our area said that was itself a very optimistic window.So far, no loss of life that I know of, which is surprising when you actually see the damage this tornado caused.Godspeed. Stay prepared. Shit goes crazy in a snap. It's never the thing you see coming that gets you.
China EximBank, Saudi National Bank achieve first loan cooperation in yuan
By Global Times
The Export-Import Bank of China (China EximBank), a major policy bank in China, announced on Tuesday that it has achieved the first loan cooperation with Saudi National Bank, the largest bank in Saudi Arabia, in yuan, facilitating financial cooperation under the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The move shows the rising role of the yuan on the international stage, expanding from trade settlement to loans, an expert told the Global Times.
The funds will be preferentially used to meet the demand of China-Saudi Arabia trade projects, China EximBank said on its official WeChat account.
The cooperation is a concrete manifestation of implementation of the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement signed in person by the heads of the two states in December last year, said the bank.
As the first case of cooperation between China EximBank and financial institutions in Saudi Arabia, it will help facilitate financing and trade among countries and regions along the routes of the BRI, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results, China EximBank added.
China and Saudi Arabia have made much progress in creating synergy between their strategies and conducting bilateral cooperation in various fields in recent years.
The Middle East country remained the single biggest oil supplier to China in 2022. Bilateral trade reached $116 billion last year, up 33.1 percent on a yearly basis.
Imports from the Middle East country stood at $78 billion, up 37 percent year-on-year, according to China’s customs data.
Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute of the Wuhan University of Science and Technology, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the international role of the yuan is growing, expanding from trade settlements and cross-border investment to loans.
In 2022, yuan settlements of cross-border goods trade stood at 7.92 trillion yuan ($1.15 trillion), an increase of 37.3 percent year-on-year, while cross-border yuan settlements of direct investment stood at 6.76 trillion yuan, up 16.6 percent, data from China’s Ministry of Commerce showed in January.
“The loan cooperation between China EximBank and Saudi National Bank in the yuan is a good template for deals with other countries, especially in the countries and regions along the BRI routes,” Dong noted.
The yuan’s growing momentum in overseas markets is unstoppable with the nation’s further opening-up, Dong said, adding that its influence is obviously picking up in the Middle East region, where some countries are faced with unilateral sanctions by the West.
Iraq’s central bank said in February that it plans to allow trade from China to be settled directly in the yuan for the first time, in an attempt to improve access to foreign currency, according to Reuters.
“It is the first time imports would be financed from China in the yuan, as Iraqi imports from China have been financed in (US) dollars only,” said Mudhir Salih, the government’s economic adviser, according to a Reuters report.
Separately, an Iranian official said Iran and China have recently talked about increasing the share of their national currencies in two-way trade, given that the yuan accounts for a considerable part of bilateral trade, and de-dollarization is on the government agenda, according to Iran newspaper Financial Tribune.
Other countries such as Russia and Vietnam have also opted to use the yuan in trade settlements, an indication that the currency’s internationalization not only suits China’s needs but also those of more countries.
“It will be an inevitable trend for China to step up cooperation with its trade partners in the yuan as the latter will refuse to accept the US’ economic coercion,” said Dong.
Chinese college developed 4th-generation chip materials, invalidating European and US restrictions.
ChatGPT prompts and result
I followed your suggestion and asked for a Global Times rewrite:
China and the United States: A Comparative Analysis of Their Balance Sheets
In recent years, China and the United States have emerged as two of the world's largest economic powers, with significant influence on global financial markets. As such, it is essential to take a closer look at their respective balance sheets to understand their economic strengths and weaknesses. In this analysis, we will examine the balance sheets of China and the United States, and compare their government, corporate, and household finances.
Government Finances:
In terms of government finances, both China and the United States have a significant amount of debt. China's national debt as a percentage of GDP stands at around 60%, while the United States' national debt is at around 107% of GDP. However, it is worth noting that China has a higher level of foreign reserves, which are around $3 trillion, compared to the United States' reserves of $121 billion. This indicates that China has a higher level of financial security in the event of a financial crisis.
Corporate Finances:
When it comes to corporate finances, China has a higher level of corporate debt than the United States. This can be attributed to the significant amount of investment made in the country's infrastructure and real estate sector in recent years. However, it is important to note that China's corporate debt is largely held by state-owned enterprises, which could pose a potential risk to the economy in the event of an economic downturn. On the other hand, the United States has a higher level of equity financing, with a more significant proportion of corporate financing coming from the stock market. This suggests that the United States' corporate sector may be more resilient in the face of economic challenges.
Household Finances:
In terms of household finances, China has a higher level of household savings than the United States. This can be attributed to the cultural differences between the two countries, where Chinese households tend to save a higher proportion of their income compared to American households. However, it is important to note that China's household savings are largely held in low-yielding bank accounts, which may not provide adequate returns over time. On the other hand, American households have a higher level of equity investments, which have historically provided higher returns over the long-term.
Overall, it is evident that both China and the United States have unique strengths and weaknesses in their respective balance sheets. While China has a higher level of foreign reserves and household savings, it also has a higher level of corporate debt held by state-owned enterprises. In contrast, the United States has a higher level of equity financing and a more significant proportion of corporate financing coming from the stock market. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each economy, policymakers in both countries can make informed decisions to promote economic growth and stability.
In conclusion, it is clear that both China and the United States have significant economic influence on the global stage. By examining their respective balance sheets, we can gain a better understanding of their economic strengths and weaknesses. As policymakers in the United States continue to navigate economic challenges, it is essential that they take into account the lessons learned from China's economic model to achieve long-term stability and growth.
White House ADMITS Countries worldwide Refusing U.S. Dollar
White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre was asked what the Biden regime was doing about countries switching away from US Dollars and using their own currency as settlement of foreign trade. Her response was stunning . . . .
"Switching to national currencies is a violation of the rights of American citizens."
The White House then threatened with sanctions those countries that refuse the dollar in mutual settlements.
It’s already trending on social media:
So there you have it. Countries around the world have, IN FACT, either stated their intention to cease accepting the US Dollar, or have already begun refusing the US Dollar.
The White House has now tacitly acknowledged it.
This is now a slow-moving train wreck for the United States. Our federal government has abused so many countries with our “economic sanctions” and has done it for so long, that countries around the world have begun rejecting the US dollar as a means of payment for international trade.
If countries no longer accept the US Dollar, then the US Government has no means by which to impose economic sanctions. The US Government becomes toothless against all those foreign nations.
On top of the economic sanctions abuse, that same US federal government has over-spent by so much, and run-up so much debt, that the world is rapidly losing faith that the US dollar will have __any__ value at all.
What this means for you and me here in the USA, is that hyper-inflation is already on its way.
Here’s why:
For almost 100 years, the US Dollar has been __THE__ currency for the world. It has been the only reliable currency for everyone.
No matter what country chose to trade with any OTHER country, both countries knew that settling the trade in US dollars preserved the value of their trade and was a rock-solid measure of value.
In order to be able to smoothly carry out those foreign trades, central banks all over the world, kept a supply a US Dollars in their central banks, so trade could be settled.
As of right now, at least six point four TRILLION U.S. Dollars, are resting in the central banks around the world.
As more and more countries cease using the dollar, foreign banks will no longer need to keep those dollars in their central banks.
Those dollars will begin to come home to the USA.
As those dollars come home, the value of the US dollar, against foreign currencies, will begin to drop. (Because nobody will want the Dollars)
Now, we here in the USA don’t manufacture much of anything anymore. Thanks to the corporate imbeciles who pushed us into becoming a “service economy” much of our manufacturing was shipped out to foreign countries.
Then, thanks to the other imbeciles who pushed “Free Trade” we removed Tariffs from foreign goods imported into our country. The idea was sold to us by the “Free Trade” shysters who claimed that if the US dropped tariffs, then all other countries would drop tariffs and that would mean American-made products would be cheaper overseas, thereby increasing demand, thereby increasing American jobs.
THAT WAS A FRAUD.
The people pushing “Free Trade” had no intention at all of selling American-made products to more foreign countries. What they ACTUALLY wanted was to ship American JOBS to foreign countries, use the cheap foreign labor, then sell those same products back here in the USA for the same high prices and without Tariffs! That allowed the manufacturers to pocket the increased profits from using cheap foreign labor but still sell the same good here in the US for the same high price.
In the end, it was only American JOBS that got exported, not American products.
So we now see the result of the “double-whammy.” Hit #1 was when we changed to a “service economy”. Hit #2 was when we bought into the “Free Trade” lie which allowed corporate Boards of Directors to move manufacturing jobs OUT of the USA to pocket the profits from cheap foreign labor.
Which brings us back to the value of the US Dollar. Since we don’t manufacture much here anymore, and have to buy MOST of the things we use from foreign manufacturers’, as the value of the dollar plummets, everything we need to buy will become FAR more expensive; several hundred percent more expensive!!!
This is what YOUR members of the US House of Representatives, and YOUR members of the US Senate have done. They have abused so many countries with the threat or actual application of economic sanctions, that those countries are now abandoning the US dollar AND, they’ve so over-spent that people worldwide now see the US Dollar as being UNRELIABLE and heading toward being worthless.
YOUR member of Congress caused this.
YOUR member of the Senate caused this.
When YOU cannot afford food and YOUR family is going hungry . . . or when YOU cannot buy the typical normal things that every family needs . . . .remember that when you see your members of Congress and the Senate on the street.
When you see them, hold them accountable right then and there.
China uses “Dual-chip Architecture” to counterattack USA, China doesn’t need to buy U.S. chips!
A little story
Hi <redacted>,
My feedback on your 10 questions was that I thought they would need to be reframed to a less complicated language.
A little of my own history, specifically because I recognized some years ago the war propaganda against China, I asked the Saker at the now frozen site if I could write a regular column on China. That site was in existence specifically to fight the empire's war on Russia and as recent history unfolded, we saw the very same war on China. It has been there for a long time but now only some years ago did it reach a prominence. But I was outside the focus of the Saker's site and had to be careful and could not be too enthusiastic on China. That was simply the norms of the site, and not anyone's shortcomings but lead to me to design the weekly articles as a magazine style and not too threatening to then existent propagandized minds.
I knew we had to go broader, as the initial war on Russia was only a part of the development of the world and the war on China was equally and even actually more important. This could not be done on the then existent Saker site, and this is why I opened globalsouth.co - for a broader view on our world and the process of multipolarization and a fair economic structure globally. China is a massive part of that and a leader.
Initially the China content was to say the least not welcome and I was beaten to a pulp. This is what I learned:
Debunking takes too much time away from productive activities. Your article quoted here I would handle simply as follows: “This is a falun gong newspaper and that specific article repeats regularly, sometimes quoting organs are being taken from falun gong, and in other cases quoting organs being taken from the supposed ‘Uyghur concentration camps’ in Xinjiang. And then I would add links like: – What is falun gong, -What is happening in Xinjiang and other such appropriate or something that I had pre-developed. Should the commentator come back with more gripes, without reading the background material, I could not be less interested because it is a waste of time to get involved in this granular level of bickering, trying to inform those that do not want to be informed.
A clear understanding that I cannot, even on such a big site as the now frozen Saker site, do a great deal to change minds. And this lead to …
A surprise finding. On those articles I started following the elephants that went walk-about, every week. This lovely and emotional story engaged people and changed minds and hearts. People would start asking me to please keep updating on the elephants. People would start comparing how their country would have handled something like that. And as the elephants walked, the China story grew. Who would have thunk?
At the end of the range of articles, the positive comments outweighted the negative comments materially.
I took the direct feedback from the previous week’s articles, to design the content for the next week on the smaller magazine article mostly drawn from Godfree’s newsletter (and I am so grateful for that!) and a bigger article. That worked and now, if I do a China article, there is no negativity. I get email asking me to handle certain issues and it has changed to a net positive. It is as if people, at least in our grouping, now are open to want to know, and not fight. The minds have opened.
This personally designed process lead to major articles on say Governance or Economy or Technology, or Propaganda, and these were eventually tolerated on that site. But it took time. I had to swallow and tolerate comments such as "The Mad Han on the Saker Site probably eats baby organs for breakfast".
We now have a problem in our fraternal sites. Seemingly some Russian commentators are creating polarization in the Russian/Chinese relationship. I just handled one of those and surprisingly I had some Russians write me to say ... High Time that someone said something!
These commentators are following the western line.
And took it back to their sites. So far, I have not made enemies among the fraternal sites even with professional and respectful critique of this sore point. Again, I won't change minds, but I find that many are now much more careful on how they phrase their issues. We gotta be thankful for small mercies yes.
So, to end, one has to decide what suits your own style. In reality, I am not the savior of the west, their alt media, and their cockamamie ideas and propaganda about China. The simplest question now is: OK, you don't believe the propaganda about Russia, so, don't you think the story about China is equally propagandized and contrived in order to war against China?
I personally am best placed to inform those that are already interested and willing to work at it, and in such a way build a network effect. So far, I have not even one infographic developed, but I do have an extensive library for things like Free Tibet, or China is our Enemy, Tiananmen Square, the development of western propaganda, or such topical issues.
So, this is my own story. A blend of encouraging those that are interested but know nothing, ruthlessly pruning those who want to bicker, giving people the information to go and do the debunking themselves and as such save myself time, and telling the positive story about China.
Again, if you want to develop something larger, I will of course help with dissimination, but so far, I have to follow what works for me and was developed on a site that was not fully friendly to this pivot and did not really believe that it needs attention. Yikes, walking on egg shells.
I hope I did not waste your time in relating this history. In my heart, I am with you but real hard experience let me know that one has to labor and toil in your own garden almost peer-to-peer. A large anti-propaganda and debunking campaign would have to be as large as the initial propaganda campaign to make even a dent.
<redacted>
Trailer Park Boys I am the liquor ultimate edit
Highly Detailed Illustrations By Ilya Milstein
1 69
Ilya Milstein is a Milan-born, Melbourne-raised and New-York based illustrator that works in a pretty traditional way.
«I’m drafting all my work with blue pencil, then hand-drawing them with black ink on paper before coloring them in computer», he says.
The Melancholy of Dreams: Illustrations by Felicia Chiao
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Felicia Chiao is an artist from California who sketches the life of a certain bald man. The little man is melancholic but sweet, and his existence is dull and sad, but his sadness is light and even cozy. Chiao’s illustrations suggest that she depicts the typical everyday life of each of us – drawn out like an old man’s daydreams.
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Opinion: ‘Most U.S. banks are technically near insolvency, and hundreds are already fully insolvent,’ Roubini says
By
Nouriel Roubini
In January 2022, when yields on U.S. 10-year Treasury bonds TMUBMUSD10Y, 3.503% were still roughly 1% and those on German Bunds were -0.5%, I warned that inflation would be bad for both stocks and bonds.
Higher inflation would lead to higher bond yields, which in turn would hurt stocks as the discount factor for dividends rose. But, at the same time, higher yields on “safe” bonds would imply a fall in their price, too, owing to the inverse relationship between yields and bond prices.
This basic principle — known as “duration risk” — seems to have been lost on many bankers, fixed-income investors, and bank regulators. As rising inflation in 2022 led to higher bond yields, 10-year Treasurys lost more value (-20%) than the S&P 500SPX, +1.44% (-15%), and anyone with long-duration fixed-income assets denominated in U.S. dollars DX00, -0.13% or euros USDEUR, -0.27% was left holding the bag.
The consequences for these investors have been severe. By the end of 2022, U.S. banks’ unrealized losses on securities had reached $620 billion, about 28% of their total capital ($2.2 trillion).
Making matters worse, higher interest rates have reduced the market value of banks’ other assets as well. If you make a 10-year bank loan when long-term interest rates are 1%, and those rates then rise to 3.5%, the true value of that loan (what someone else in the market would pay you for it) will fall. Accounting for this implies that U.S. banks’ unrealized losses actually amount to $1.75 trillion, or 80% of their capital.
The “unrealized” nature of these losses is merely an artifact of the current regulatory regime, which allows banks to value securities and loans at their face value rather than at their true market value.
In fact, judging by the quality of their capital, most U.S. banks are technically near insolvency, and hundreds are already fully insolvent.
To be sure, rising inflation reduces the true value of banks’ liabilities (deposits) by increasing their “deposit franchise,” an asset that is not on their balance sheet. Since banks still pay near 0% on most of their deposits, even though overnight rates have risen to 4% or more, this asset’s value rises when interest rates are higher. Indeed, some estimates suggest that rising interest rates have increased U.S. banks’ total deposit-franchise value by about $1.75 trillion.
If depositors flee, the deposit franchise evaporates, and the unrealized losses on securities become realized. Bankruptcy then becomes unavoidable.
But this asset exists only if deposits remain with banks as rates rise, and we now know from Silicon Valley Bank and the experience of other U.S. regional banks that such stickiness is far from assured. If depositors flee, the deposit franchise evaporates, and the unrealized losses on securities become realized as banks sell them to meet withdrawal demands. Bankruptcy then becomes unavoidable.
Moreover, the “deposit-franchise” argument assumes that most depositors are dumb and will keep their money in accounts bearing near 0% interest when they could be earning 4% or more in totally safe money-market funds that invest in short-term Treasurys. But, again, we now know that depositors are not so complacent. The current, apparently persistent flight of uninsured — and even insured — deposits is probably being driven as much by depositors’ pursuit of higher returns as by their concerns about the safety of their deposits.
Investing Insights with Global Context
In short, after being a non-factor for the past 15 years — ever since policy and short-term interest rates fell to near-zero following the 2008 global financial crisis — the interest-rate sensitivity of deposits has returned to the fore. Banks assumed a highly foreseeable duration risk because they wanted to fatten their net-interest margins. They seized on the fact that while capital charges on government-bond and mortgage-backed securities were zero, the losses on such assets did not have to be marked to market. To add insult to injury, regulators did not even subject banks to stress tests to see how they would fare in a scenario of sharply rising interest rates.
The economy is falling into a ‘debt trap.’
Now this house of cards is collapsing. The credit crunch caused by today’s banking stress will create a harder landing for the U.S. economy, owing to the key role that regional banks play in financing small- and medium-size enterprises and households.
Central banks therefore face not just a dilemma but a trilemma. Owing to recent negative aggregate supply shocks — including the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine — achieving price stability through interest-rate hikes was bound to raise the risk of a hard landing (a recession and higher unemployment). But, as I have been arguing for over a year, this vexing tradeoff also features the additional risk of severe financial instability.
Borrowers are facing rising rates — and thus much higher capital costs — on new borrowing and on existing liabilities that have matured and need to be rolled over. But the increase in long-term rates is also leading to massive losses for creditors holding long-duration assets. As a result, the economy is falling into a “debt trap,” with high public deficits and debt causing “fiscal dominance” over monetary policy, and high private debts causing “financial dominance” over monetary and regulatory authorities.
As I have long warned, central banks confronting this trilemma will likely wimp out (by curtailing monetary-policy normalization) to avoid a self-reinforcing economic and financial meltdown, and the stage will be set for a de-anchoring of inflation expectations over time. Central banks must not delude themselves into thinking they can still achieve both price and financial stability through some kind of separation principle (raising rates to fight inflation while also using liquidity support to maintain financial stability). In a debt trap, higher policy rates will fuel systemic debt crises that liquidity support will be insufficient to resolve.
Central banks also must not assume that the coming credit crunch will kill inflation by reining in aggregate demand. After all, the negative aggregate supply shocks are persisting, and labor markets remain too tight. A severe recession is the only thing that can temper price and wage inflation, but it will make the debt crisis more severe, and that in turn will feed back into an even deeper economic downturn. Since liquidity support cannot prevent this systemic doom loop, everyone should be preparing for the coming stagflationary debt crisis.
Trailer Park Boys Space Weed
Report: Israel Passes U.S. Military Technology to China
"From personal knowledge, I know that the IDF has had a very long and deep relationship with the PLA, a lot of it being under the radar. They took off their uniform, put on a different hat, and visited each other (doing a lot of things behind closed doors) when it was not kosher to do so."
Secret U.S. missile and electro-optics technology was transferred to China recently by Israel, prompting anger from the U.S. and causing a senior Israeli defense official to resign.
The head of defense exports for the Israeli Defense Ministry resigned after a U.S. investigation concluded that technology, including a miniature refrigeration system manufactured by Ricor and used for missiles and in electro-optic equipment, was sent to China, according to the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
Another Israeli news site, Aretz Sheva, reports the U.S. is concerned the technology could ultimately find its way to Iran, which last year sought to buy military equipment from China for its nuclear program.
Ricor, on its company website, identifies a number of defense programs using its miniature cryo-coolers, including UAVs, airborne enhanced vision systems, missile warning systems, hand-held thermal imagers and thermal weapons sights.
The Maariv report identified the Israeli defense official as Meir Shalit, and said he apologized to U.S. officials on a recent visit.
Israel has a long record of getting U.S. military technology to China.
In the early 1990s then-CIA Director James Woolsey told a Senate Government Affairs Committee that Israel had been selling U.S. secrets to China for about a decade. More than 12 years ago the U.S. demanded Israel cancel a contract to supply China with Python III missiles, which included technology developed by the U.S. for its Sidewinder missiles, The Associated Press reported in 2002.
You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man (2005) HD
Biden ADMITS: Using Indictment(s) Against Trump “To make sure he does not become President Again”
Biden all but confirmed that his team is coordinating these Trump indictments to “Demonstrate he will not take power” and “making sure . . . he does not become the next President again.”
The world according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia is in a constant state of update, as tens of thousands of contributors work to ensure the site’s content is correct.
But now an innovation on the site has confirmed a long-held suspicion: that Wikipedia is a prime target for spin-doctoring.
A new identification program on the site reveals that some of the most prolific contributors to Wikipedia are the CIA, the British Labour Party and the Vatican – and they are not just updating their own entries.
The Wikiscanner site shows the CIA has edited entries on many issues relating to the United States Government, including presidential biographies and descriptions of military operations.
It has also edited topics as diverse as Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and the singer Richard Marx.
Seamus Byrne is the editor of online technology site Gizmodo Australia.
“Wikipedia is basically an open encyclopedia online that basically anyone can edit, anyone can add entries to and anyone can change anything they read on there,” he said.
But he says while anyone can put up content, users do keep track of entries to ensure they’re accurate and balanced.
“It’s quite a large community of users that are really devoted to Wikipedia, and something they do spend a lot of time monitoring is when changes are made,” he said.
“I guess so far it hasn’t been a case of monitoring the source, but they do try to keep an eye on any bias that may appear within any articles.”
And the Wikiscanner has revealed some interesting sources of that bias. It rummages through entries and edits posted on Wikipedia to find where they originate.
And among the usual list of companies and celebrities spinning their online image are some unusual mentions, including the British Labour Party, the Church of Scientology and the CIA.
Mr Byrne says he is not surprised.
“You’ve always got the feeling that they’ve been doing it and it just confirms that idea because there’s a lot of both vanity editing but more serious editing that goes on,” he said.
Checking sources
Gerard Goggin is an expert on the use of the internet in politics at Sydney University, and he says the influence of organisations such as the CIA on Wikipedia is cause for alarm.
“This underscores that we need to be careful with all the sources we quote,” he said.
Despite the CIA’s input, Dr Goggin remains a fan of Wikipedia.
“What is really crucial here is that people are aware of how Wikipedia comes to be, how entries are created and what the limitations of it are,” he said.
“One of its advantages is that any change to the entries can be tracked and you can actually reference those. People need to be aware of that kind of thing because Wikipedia is not the be-all and end-all.”
Mr Byrne says proof that the CIA is editing on Wikipedia will fuel internet conspiracy theories.
He says Wikipedia is just one place where government agencies are watching people.
“Obviously there’s the quite large – and people in online circles certainly know about it – Echelon Project,” he said.
“It’s a series of surveillance systems around the world that actually monitor phone, data, all kinds of traffic that goes on, looking for keywords related to things like terrorism and all kinds of troublesome issues and they pull that out and try to sift through it to find any connections that could be made to point to a real problem.”
Indonesian Chicken Breasts
You can make this with whole chicken breasts or with boneless ones. The advantage of the boneless is that they are lower in fat and easy to slice and work well on a serving platter. The advantage of the whole ones is that they have more flavor.
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Ingredients
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons best quality curry powder
1/4 cup shredded coconut
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
1 medium red bell pepper, cut in half
Instructions
Make a marinade from the first 5 ingredients. Pour it over the chicken and refrigerate for several hours, turning it occasionally to make sure every part of the chicken is coated.
Heat the grill and remove the chicken from the marinade.
Grill the chicken and the bell pepper for about 15 minutes, using the leftover marinade as you do so.
To serve, cut chicken and the pepper diagonally into 1-inch slices.
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Indonesian Pork Skewers
2023 04 04 15 43
Ingredients
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup prepared mustard
1/4 cup light molasses
2 tablespoons ginger preserves or orange marmalade
1/2 medium pineapple, halved lengthwise, cored and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 medium red sweet pepper, cut into strips
Instructions
Combine the vinegar, mustard, molasses, ginger preserves and ginger in a small mixing bowl.
Alternately thread the pork cubes, pineapple slices and pepper strips on 12 (6-inch) metal skewers, leaving about 1/4 inch between pieces.
Brush with the molasses mixture.
Grill the kabobs on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium-hot coals about 12 minutes or until no pink remains and juices run clear, turning and brushing with molasses mixture after 6 minutes.
Heat the remaining molasses mixture and pass with the kabobs.
‘Medicine God’ in Central China found guilty, but faces no punishment for illegal trading of epilepsy medication
By Global Times
.
In less than a year after China approved domestically-developed anti-epilepsy drug Clobazam, a father in Central China’s Henan Province whose daughter is epileptic finally received a verdict from a local court over his case for privately buying the medicine from overseas and trading it online before it was legally available in the Chinese market.
The father, surnamed Hu, was found guilty of illegal sale of goods but will not face any criminal punishment, according to the judgement of a court in the Zhongmu county on Thursday.
Hu reportedly began buying Clobazam from overseas via the internet and sold to other families with epileptic children in 2020.
Synthesized in the 1960s with the primary goal of providing greater efficacy with fewer benzodiazepine-related side effects, Clobazam has been approved in more than 100 countries and regions to treat epilepsy and is regarded as the last resort to tackle a few specific types of epilepsy that affect minors.
But the medicine was listed as a second category psychotropic drug in China, meaning that it is potentially addictive and must be strictly controlled. Under this circumstance, a number of Chinese patients had to purchase the medication from overseas via private agencies or foreign websites.
In July 2021, Hu was arrested together with other four mothers with epileptic children on suspicion of trafficking, transporting and trading drugs. The prosecutors decided not to charge the four mothers, but filed a lawsuit against Hu, according to media reports.
Hu stood trial for the first time in March 2022. He was released on pending in April 2022. When the second trial in the case opened on Thursday, the prosecutor noted that Hu had been engaged in illegal purchase and sale of a controlled substance.
Liu Chang, Hu’s attorney, stressed to the court that, in essence, Hu’s behavior was a good faith effort to try and save and help each other, which conforms with the definition of China’s regulations of the behavior of production, import and sale of medicines with self-rescue and mutual assistance for non-profit purposes.
Liu said that the judgment in this case reiterated the Supreme People’s Court’s rules for identifying narcotic drugs and psychotropic drugs, that is, narcotic drugs have dual attributes and should be judged in light of where they come from and how they are used.
For psychotropic medicines like Clobazam that are indeed used for medical treatment, the court adopted the defendant’s position and resolutely refused to recognize it as a drug, reflecting humanity of the judiciary, Liu told media.
After the trial, the court explained to media that Hu had made profit worth about 500,000 yuan by selling Clobazam. This has disrupted the order of the drug market, and therefore he stood guilty. This sentence would also help prevent others from imitating his behavior. However, considering that the medicines Hu bought and sold are used to treat epileptic patients and did not lead to a serious social impact, no penalty was imposed, the court said.
Clobazam gained public attention in China in November 2021 as the arrest of Hu and other four mothers leading to thousands of parents pleaded on social media platforms for legal access to the then domestically unapproved medicine that could provide a lifeline for their children.
The National Health Commission (NHC) replied in December 2022, saying that it is researching the medical needs of patients and coordinating with other government departments to organize bulk procurements and imports of Clobazam.
In March 2022, the NHC released a list of 50 medical institutions that would take the lead in importing and using Clobazam.
A generic version of Clobazam, produced by Yichang Humanwell Pharmaceutical in Central China’s Hubei Province, was awarded the country’s first market approval for the medication in September 2022. It is priced at 84 yuan per package that contains 28 tablets of 10 milligrams each, which is reportedly “the world’s lowest” price.
Clobazam is among the various medicines that had been made newly available in China as the country in recent years enhanced efforts in medicine accessibility after the issue of difficult access to and high prices of some rare medicines in China caught public attention in 2017 with the release of a film tiled Dying to Survive.
The film is based on the story of Lu Yong who imported affordable generic anti-cancer medicines from India and sold them online to help chronic myeloid leukemia patients in China. Lu was dubbed ”the Medicine God” by Chinese netizens due to his efforts in providing inexpensive medicine to Chinese mainland leukemia patients.
Along with the efforts of Chinese governments, in the past five years, a total of 618 medicines have been included into the nation’s medical insurance system, according to media reports.
Chinese democracy resembles Procter & Gamble more than Pericles of Athens.
Hundreds of times every day an arm of government asks people their opinion, solicits solutions to their revealed problems and test-markets the most promising. VC Robin Daverman explains:
China is a giant trial portfolio with millions of trials everywhere: innovations in everything from healthcare to poverty reduction, education, energy, trade, and transportation are being trialed in different communities. Every one of China’s 662 cities is experimenting: Shanghai with free trade zones, Guizhou with poverty reduction, twenty-three cities with education reforms, Northeastern provinces with SOE reform, pilot schools, pilot cities, pilot hospitals, pilot markets, pilot everything. Mayors and governors, the Primary Investigators, share their ‘lab results’ at the Central Party School and publish them in State-owned media, their ‘scientific journals.’
Significant policies usually begin as ‘clinical trials’ in small towns, where they generate test data. If the stats look right, they’ll add test sites and do long-term follow ups. They test and tweak for 10-30 years, then ask the 3,000-member People’s Congress to review the data and authorize national trials in three provinces. If those trials are successful, the State Council (China’s Brains Trust) polishes the plan and returns it to Congress for a final vote. It’s very transparent, and if your data is better than mine, your bill gets passed, and mine doesn’t. Congressional votes are nearly unanimous because reams of data back the legislation.
This allows China to accomplish a great deal in a short time because your winning solution will be quickly propagated throughout the country. You’ll be a front-page hero, invited to high-level meetings in Beijing and promoted. As you can imagine, the competition to solve problems is intense.
Local governments have a great deal of freedom to try their own things as long as the local people support them. Various villages and small towns have tested everything from bare-knuckled liberalism to straight Communism.
2023 04 08 15 42
Critics who label China’s Congress a ‘rubber stamp’ miss the point of that institution: to vote based on data, not rhetoric or promises. Congresspeople visit mature Trial Spots, survey local opinion, audit statistics, calculate budgetary impacts, and debate national scalability and political viability. Though few trials even reach the provincial level – where they can affect one-hundred million people – even failures contribute to the trove of data that shapes legislation.
Trial Spots, and the data they generate, are one of China’s most remarkable political strengths. They allow legislation to be rolled out confidently and rapidly and, largely thanks to them, most Chinese say the country is run for their benefit rather than for particular groups. Harvard’s Tony Saich, who conducts his own surveys says, “Ninety percent of people are happy with their government–and getting steadily more optimistic”.
Today, I am going to review some of my earlier graphs concerning when the peak-transition time occurs. These estimations were compiled back in 2020; three years ago. I think that they have held up pretty well.
We start with this one.
When the “big war” will occur…
This is from Strauss and Howe. Here is the full historical turnings, plotted on a nice graph against each other…
@strauss howe
And now, this is the zoom-in to the quarter that pertains to our period in time. As you can see, Strauss and Howe predicted the global war to occur sometime around 2025 – 27. Which is what the United States government is planning for.
That’s two to four years from now.
fourth turning wwiii 2025
This is the MM prediction…
Makes sense, though, I have to admit, that perhaps things are running early this turning. The 2020 bioweapon on China, and the 2022 Ukraine war is suggestive of an earlier start. (Around 1936 if you transpose over the graph above.)
This is my intel.
First compiled and made in 2018.
And then posted again in 2021.
It’s now 2023, and I’m sticking with it.
CLIMAX this year.
SHTF 1
As far as I can figure, I’ve pretty accurate.
USD collapse starting in 2023. All resolved by 2028.
Climax of all-out crazy in 2023.
USA domestic unrest starting in 2022 through 2028.
In 2024, the federal government will change radically.
USA society full collapse in 2024 though 2026.
Hot war 2023 through 2026. (Maybe one year earlier if you include Russia/Ukraine)
Notes
Some things that I am noticing…
Everything seems to be proceeding earlier than the 1930s-1940s model. Perhaps there were events that were not reported on to the general public, or perhaps modern technologies has advanced the schedule somewhat.
Fighting is on time. But the predictions suggest a three year long period of fighting. Which makes use in the second year of hot war conflict.
The discharge of the USD as a global currency is on time, but seems to be really accelerated than I predicted.
I see no evidence that the US government will change.
And societal American (Western) collapse is still years away???
What are your thoughts?
Bill in Canada to CRIMINALIZE “Offensive Remarks” about Transgender Freaks; $25,000 Fine!
World Hal Turner 05 April 2023
Canada tranny Bill large
The government of Ottawa, CANADA is considering a Bill to make it criminal to utter “Offensive Remarks” about (Mentally-ill) Trans-gendered freaks, with fine up to $25,000 per offense!
In order to be clear about this, the government of Canada is “protecting” mentally delusional people, who ignore actual physical, biological, reality, and telling everyone else THEY must accept the mental delusion or face a fine.
There is no such thing as “Trans-gender.” It is a physical and biological impossibility.
Humans have DNA and Chromosomes which exist in every cell of our bodies. Each and every cell has DNA coding as to whether the cell belongs to a male or female.
Trans-gendered ignore that physical reality and claim their sex is something OTHER THAN what their DNA and chromosomes are. This is a mental delusion. It is a mental sickness. It is not reality.
Some of these so-called “Trans-gendered” take hormones and have surgery to mutilate their outward appearance from their actual biological sex, to what APPEARS to be the other sex.
These artificial hormone-taking, and surgically mutilated people do not, and cannot, change their DNA and their chromosomes. So while their artificial efforts to deny reality may make them APPEAR OUTWARDLY as the other sex, every cell in their body remains the sex they were born with.
The entire “Trans-Gender” movement is nothing more than severe mental illness. Denial of reality.
From another point of view, one can safely argue that Trans-gender people are literally at war, with God Himself. Their claim to be a different sex, is their statement that THEY are right, and God is wrong.
Worse, these people are so self-centered, so selfish, and so spoiled, they DEMAND everyone else agree with them, accept them, and not even speak any truth regarding them.
Mentally-ill, spoiled brat people are not the stuff of which legislation should be based.
Shame on Ottawa.
Pepperoni and Peppers
Doesn’t this sound absolutely yummy?
Skillet Cheesy Pepperoni Pizza Chicken 2
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups thin green bell pepper strips
1 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3/4 pound pepperoni, sliced thin
1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes, cut up
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooked pasta or rice (optional)
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Instructions
In large skillet, sauté green bell pepper and onion in butter until crisp-tender.
Stir in pepperoni; cook for 2 minutes.
Add tomatoes and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Serve over pasta with cheese.
Serves 4.
For microwave oven, cook pepper and onion in butter for 5 minutes. Add pepperoni, tomatoes and salt. Cook 3 minutes or until hot.
“The Crisis Is About To Get MUCH Worse..” | Jeffrey Sachs
March 2023: Biggest Loss of U.S. Bank Deposits in History
The American people are pulling money out of banks at a rate which, during March, saw the biggest drop in Bank Deposits in U.S. History!
The image above from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (BOG) shows the sudden and dramatic change in Bank Deposits; it’s staggering.
For the month of March, 2023, banks inside the USA saw $389 BILLION Dollars taken out by US citizens and companies!
Even at the height of the “Great Financial Crisis” of the year 2008, not a single monthly decline in 2008 exceeded $100 billion. Since the recent high, total deposits in the US are now down a record $1 trillion.
So where is the money going?
Well, it certainly isn’t going to pay down debt. Americans debt remains at the highest levels it has seen in decades.
Auto loan and credit card interest rates just hit a new record high. Average interest rates:
– Credit Card: 24.5%
– Used Cars: 14.0%
– New Cars: 9.0%
Meanwhile, we have record levels of debt:
– Total Household Debt: $16.5 trillion
– Auto Loans: $1.6 trillion
– Credit Card Debt: $986 billion
The worst part? Student loans just hit a record $1.6 trillion. Interest on student loans has been suspended since 2020, but it set to resume this year. The debt crisis is real.
WHERE’S IT GOING?
So if the cash is coming out of banks, but not paying down debt, where is the money going?
Americans are “prepping.” They are buying the things they think they might need if everything goes to hell in a handbasket.
Sure, they’re buying shelf-stable foods that stay good for a long time: Pasta, Rice, Beans, canned tuna and canned meats, jarred sauces, and the like. But they are also buying interesting things: Generators to power their homes during an outage. Solar power systems for off-grid power or power during outages. TOOLS! Americans are buying tools like there’s no tomorrow; from simple sets of screwdrivers, wrenches and sockets, hammers, and manual saws, to power tools like saws, drills, nail guns, and the like.
Interestingly, Americans are also buying spare OIL for their vehicles, space oil filters, air filters, and even fuel filters for those who own diesel powered vehicles. Believe it or not, Americans are also buying spare brake pads for their vehicles in numbers far above the “typical” amount.
Quietly, a big item now being sold far and wide: Home safes. Not the cheap kind with digital keypads that might get wiped out by an electro-magnetic pulse. Real safes; with dial combination locks and keys. The fireproof and burglar proof kind that sell for several hundred dollars (or more) each. So clearly, Americans are keeping some of the cash at home, just in case.
It as though Americans see a complete collapse of society coming, and they want to make certain they have what they will need during the six months to a year they think it might take to put basic things back together again – or at least keep the basics operating for awhile.
Ominously, Americans are also buying what it takes to PROTECT themselves if everything goes to hell: GUNS and AMMUNITION. Lots of it. Sales of handguns, shotguns, and rifles are through the roof! In fact, sales of Ammunition are so brisk, it’s hard to find common items like 9mm .357 and .40 caliber bullets for handguns, and very hard to find 12 Gauge shotgun shells. Rifle ammo is still in good supply, but stores are starting to see drawdowns on inventory of .308 and 7.62 rifle ammo.
Strangely, the money isn’t coming out in bank “Runs” but rather coming out slowly and very consistently.
To try to stem the outflow of money, Banks are now offering significantly higher interest rates as shown below.
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Some Bank Officers say that if the trend from March continues through May, “a slew of banks will be forced to go under.” Banks, they say “simply cannot afford to have this level of withdrawals happening so consistently.”
Prankster Replaces Pet Names With New Labels In Local Pet Store
funny prank1
In his simple but funny prank, comedian Jeff Wysaski changed the signs labelling some of the critters at the pet store to reflect who they REALLY are.
Israel is “ready” to attack Iran and can do so even without support from the United States, Israeli media quoted IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi as saying on Wednesday.
“We are ready to act against Iran. The Israeli army has the ability to strike both in distant countries and near home,” i24NEWS quoted Halevi as telling the IDF’s army radio.
He said that the IDF will enhance its capabilities for a pre-emptive strike on Iran, and that such a strike would be “overwhelming” despite the geographical distance.
“We know how to act alone. We are a sovereign nation that reserves the right to make its own decisions. It would be good to have the United States on our side, but it is not an obligation,” he added.
These comments come amid growing tensions between Iran and Israel, with Iran accusing Israel of killing two of its military personnel in Syria last week and vowing to retaliate.
Israel accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a claim that Iran denies. Israel has previously warned that if diplomatic efforts fail to curb Iran’s nuclear program, it would resort to military action.
NEW YORK TIMES: “Ukraine War Plans Leak Prompts Pentagon Investigation”
Classified war documents detailing secret American and NATO plans for building up the Ukrainian military ahead of a planned offensive against Russia were posted this week on the Internet and social media channels, senior Biden administration officials said.
The Pentagon is investigating who may have been behind the leak of the documents . . . (Original Story HERE)
Several of the Documents referred-to by the New York Times are — and have been — on the Hal Turner Radio Show web site HERE
Mobile Nuclear Missile Launchers Moved to Finland Border
pon Finland’s entry into NATO, the Russian government promptly began moving nuclear missiles on launcher trucks to the Russian border with Finland, near Vyborg, Russia. Video, below, shows the arrival of the nuclear launcher trucks and missiles.
The scalable map below shows the location of Vyborg Russia in relation to Finland, so readers can gauge just how close to the new NATO Member, missiles have now been placed:
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Hal Turner Opinion: Somehow, I get the feeling that Finland was a LOT safer and in far less danger WITHOUT being a NATO member. Now, it seems to me, Finland has placed itself into Russia’s nuclear crosshairs. Pity. Bad decision to join NATO.
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Catographer Nils Jacobi Captures Whimsical Cat Portrait
Photographer Nils Jacobi, also known as the “catographer”, has captured the hearts of cat lovers everywhere with his expanding collection of adorable cat photographs. Through his lens, Jacobi offers a diverse and comprehensive view of our beloved furballs, highlighting the unique character and personalities of each individual cat.
Both the US and NATO repeatedly claim they are not “participants” in the Ukraine/Russia conflict. Documents classified as “SECRET”- shown below- tell a very different story. These documents also reveal PLANS TO INVADE RUSSIA ITSELF!
This content is for Hal Turner Subscribers only .
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US military experts “concerned” about effectiveness of Wagner PMCs
The Department of Defense (DoD) conducted an in-depth analysis of the activities of Russia’s Wagner Private Military Contractors (PMCs) and came to the conclusion that NO similar structure in the USA, Great Britain, or France is comparable.
Insiders in the DoD are concerned about the Wagner PMCs, because they are the most organized and combat-ready PMCs in the world, surpassing even the American Blackwater PMCs, the British Aegis Defense Service PMCs, and the French Salamandre PMCs.
Among other things, the mentioned Western PMCs have never encountered operations and tasks that the Wagner PMCs successfully perform.
Thanks to the highest level of training and equipment, the Russians operate at a level previously unattainable for private military companies.
An unnamed Pentagon official involved in these types of operations in Afghanistan said:
"Their effectiveness is absolutely stunning. If we had used similar strategies in Afghanistan, we would not have caused the chaos that we have left in the Middle East.“
According to the estimates of many experts, the Wagner fighters perform a number of tasks of increased complexity and increased risk. These are not only traditional tasks of all PMCs, such as the protection of diplomatic missions and civil operations. In general, these are the most complex combat operations in their implementation: ground attacks, control of artillery, air forces, and the use of air defense systems.
The fighters of Wagner carry out reconnaissance tasks, information gathering and data analysis, which were later used to make strategic decisions during the missions.
Earlier, the Dutch journalist Sonia van den Ende said that “Wagner” can become the main weapon of anti-globalism in the modern world and can eliminate the domination of oligarchic elite groups of the West, which is ruinous for the entire human civilization.
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Pushing the United States out of the Middle East…
Read this next article. It really deep dives into the ground-breaking changes in the Middle East…
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Iran–Saudi Deal: Not a Diplomatic Normalisation, But An ‘Architecture’
As this bellum (war) rolled across the region, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and others -- all formerly rich states -- were turned into economic dust-bowls of poverty.
The agreement reached by Saudi Arabia and Iran (and guaranteed by China) is not primarily about restoring diplomatic relations. Notably, the two teams were led by their heads of state security. Rather, the Accord is about building a new security architecture for the Region.
This potentially is revolutionary.
Ever since Yitzhak Rabin in the early 1990s decided to invert “Israel’s” original security paradigm of ‘The Periphery’ (non-Arab states) versus “Israel’s” Arab Neighbourhood (in order to lay the ground-work for Rabin’s aspiration for some Palestinian understanding), the region has been turned into a desert of a contrived Anti-Security Architecture.
To achieve the objectives of seeking peace with the Arab sphere, the Israeli leadership — needing a cause around which Israelis and the US Congress could rally — demonised Iran.
From that point on, Iran has been said (for some decades) to be at the very cusp of achieving a nuclear weapon (though it has never happened).
The consequence has been devasting: Iran curled into a prickly porcupine, with Ahmadinejad growling warningly to those who might come close to keep their distance.
The US and “Israel” then turned the inherent intellectual and cultural polarisation arising from the Iranian Revolution from a major social occurrence, into a casus bellum.
The mantra was that for “Israel” and its Arab allies to feel safe, Iran and its revolutionary mindset must be destroyed — or at least mentally ‘re-wired’ towards western ways.
(Any parallel with today’s western calls for Russia to be broken up, up and to be subject to a mindset rehab is not coincidental.)
In consequence, as this bellum (war) rolled across the region, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and others — all formerly rich states — were turned into economic dust-bowls of poverty.
But then the geo-strategic ‘plates’ moved: It was obvious that US interest in the region was flagging badly — and it was equally clear that China and Russia were coming into their own, with a much more attractive formula than that of Washington: Instead of demanding absolute fealty and subordination, China insisted on respect for sovereignty and autonomy in respect other states’ internal affairs.
So, there was the ‘pull’ exerted on the two rival Islamic states by the rise of the new global powers (China-Russia); but the other part to the equation was that the Saudi leadership had become jaundiced by the US demeaning them as vassals.
Even Trump insulted the Kingdom when he said the latter ‘could not last a week’ without US protection.
And then when the Aramco facilities (Abqaiq) were attacked by missiles, where was their US protection?
Zero.
It was not there.
Two other elements were necessary for this agreement to have come into being: One was patient old-fashioned mediation (the process had begun in Beijing, some six years ago, during King Salman’s visit), but with President Xi giving the mediation his personal attention (a trait of diplomacy long-forgotten in the West).
And the second was that Iran had been emerging from its long sojourn of introspection — thanks in no small part to its engagement by Russia and China, and from the ‘window’ opened by the possibility for it to join the SCO and BRICS. Iran was being offered ‘depth’ — strategic and economic depth.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia has been slowly, but incrementally, distancing itself from the proposition first launched with Abdul Aziz ibn Saud in the early twentieth century by St. John Philby — that radical Wahhabism was the secret weapon by which the kingdom could secure its dominance over the Islamic world.
A notion subsequently adopted with alacrity by western Intelligence services to service of weakening and containing Iran.
Simply, MbS slowly had been de-weaponizing Wahhabism.
The moment, therefore, was propitious.
And China seized it.
The most telling aspect was that the talks lasted over three days (6 -10 March), and that nothing leaked.
The outcome struck Washington and “Tel Aviv”, as if by a thunderbolt.
Of course, we do not know the secret side agreements, but for sure, Saudi Arabia will have sought – and got – assurances that Iran will not pursue a nuclear weapon; that it will not threaten the kingdom’s vital infrastructure, or seek to de-stabilise the Kingdom; and that Saudi Arabia and Iran jointly will work to bring the Yemen war to an end.
Similarly, it is a certitude that Iran will have sought from Saudi Arabia that it cease funding external media stations seeking to broadcast their regime-change messages into Iran, and supporting movements such as the People’s Mojahedin Organization (MEK), certain Kurdish groups based in Iraq, and militants operating out of Baluchistan into Iran.
What does the architecture portend?
Well, too much to list briefly, but as a thought exercise, imagine the consequences in Lebanon were Saudi and Iran jointly to resolve to end the miseries of the Lebanese people; the near-starvation in Syria, or the collapsed state of Iraq …
Imagine the economic consequences for Asia of a joint Iranian–Saudi/Gulf–Russian determination to effect a new energy policy in which they both act to shape commodity prices and also to give commodities a different pricing and selling structure.
And what of America and “Israel”? Well, Mark Dubowitz of the neo-con Foundation for the Defence of Democracies think-tank put it succinctly:
“[It is] a lose, lose, lose for American interests. It demonstrates that the Saudis don’t trust Washington to have their back, that Iran sees an opportunity to peel away American allies to end its international isolation, and it establishes China as the majordomo of Middle Eastern power politics”.
Simply put, Netanyahu’s dream of an Arab alliance coming together to support Israeli military action against Iran is over.
This is significant, as Netanyahu well knows that Washington would never support military action against Iran, absent substantive, active Arab support behind it.
That’s over, too.
The 1980 Carter Doctrine that determined that the US would allow no rival to rise in the Middle East is over too.
China-Russia and Eurasia is rising.
This Accord comes at an awkward time for Netanyahu. Iran was pencilled in to be the diversion for “Israel’s” spiking internal trauma.
Now he has to confront the crisis with nothing more than the crisis itself.
Iran and Saudi Arabia: a Chinese win-win
The single Iranian-Saudi handshake buried trillions of dollars of western divide-and-rule investments across West Asia, and has global leaders rushing to Beijing for global solutions.
The idea that History has an endpoint, as promoted by clueless neoconservatives in the unipolar 1990s, is flawed, as it is in an endless process of renewal. The recent official meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Beijing marks a territory that was previously deemed unthinkable and which has undoubtedly caused grief for the War Inc. machine.
This single handshake signifies the burial of trillions of dollars that were spent on dividing and ruling West Asia for over four decades. Additionally, the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the fabricated reality of the new millennium, featured as prime collateral damage in Beijing.
Beijing’s optics as the capital of peace have been imprinted throughout the Global South, as evidenced by a subsequent sideshow where a couple of European leaders, a president, and a Eurocrat, arrived as supplicants to Xi Jinping, asking him to join the NATO line on the war in Ukraine.
They were politely dismissed.
Still, the optics were sealed: Beijing had presented a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine that was branded “irrational” by the Washington beltway neocons. The Europeans – hostages of a proxy war imposed by Washington – at least understood that anyone remotely interested in peace needs to go through the ritual of bowing to the new boss in Beijing.
The irrelevance of the JCPOA
Tehran-Riyadh relations, of course, will have a long, rocky way ahead – from activating previous cooperation deals signed in 1998 and 2001 to respecting, in practice, their mutual sovereignty and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Everything is far from solved – from the Saudi-led war on Yemen to the frontal clash of Persian Gulf Arab monarchies with Hezbollah and other resistance movements in the Levant. Yet that handshake is the first step leading, for instance, to the Saudi foreign minister’s upcoming trip to Damascus to formally invite President Bashar al-Assad to the Arab League summit in Riyadh next month.
It’s crucial to stress that this Chinese diplomatic coup started way back with Moscow brokering negotiations in Baghdad and Oman; that was a natural development of Russia stepping in to help Iran save Syria from a crossover NATO-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) coalition of vultures.
Then the baton was passed to Beijing, in total diplomatic sync.
The drive to permanently bury GWOT and the myriad, nasty ramifications of the US war of terror was an essential part of the calculation; but even more pressing was the necessity to demonstrate how the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, had become irrelevant.
Both Russia and China have experienced, inside and out, how the US always manages to torpedo a return to the JCPOA, as it was conceived and signed in 2015.
Their task became to convince Riyadh and GCC states that Tehran has no interest in weaponizing nuclear power – and will remain a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Then it was up to Chinese diplomatic finesse to make it quite clear that the Persian Gulf monarchies’ fear of revolutionary Shi’ism is now as counter-productive as Tehran’s dread of being harassed and/or encircled by Salafi-jihadis. It’s as if Beijing had coined a motto: drop these hazy ideologies, and let’s do business.
And business it is, and will be: better yet, mediated by Beijing and implicitly guaranteed by both nuclear superpowers Russia and China.
Hop on the de-dollarization train
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) may exhibit some Soprano-like traits, but he’s no fool: he instantly saw how this Chinese offer morphed beautifully into his domestic modernization plans.
A Gulf source in Moscow, familiar with MbS’ rise and consolidation of power, details the crown prince’s drive to appeal to the younger Saudi generation who idolize him…
Let girls drive their SUVs, go dancing, let their hair down, work hard, and be part of the “new” Saudi Arabia of Vision 2030: a global tourism and services hub, a sort of Dubai on steroids.
And, crucially, this will also be a Eurasia-integrated Saudi Arabia; future, inevitable member of both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS+ – just like Iran, which will also be sitting at the same communal tables.
From Beijing’s point of view, this is all about its ambitious, multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A key BRI connectivity corridor runs from Central Asia to Iran and then beyond, to the Caucasus and/or Turkey. Another one – in search of investment opportunities – runs through the Arabian Sea, the Sea of Oman, and the Persian Gulf, part of the Maritime Silk Road.
Beijing wants to develop BRI projects in both corridors: call it “peaceful modernization” applied to sustainable development. The Chinese always remember how the Ancient Silk Roads plied Persia and parts of Arabia: in this case, we have History Repeating Itself.
A geopolitical revolution
And then comes the Holy Grail: energy. Iran is a prime gas supplier to China, a matter of national security, inextricably linked to their $400 billion-plus strategic partnership deal. And Saudi Arabia is a prime oil supplier. Closer Sino-Saudi relations and interaction in key multipolar organizations such as the SCO and BRICS+ advance the fateful day when the petroyuan will be definitely enshrined.
The high-speed de-dollarization train has already left the station.
ASEAN is already actively discussing how to bypass the dollar to privilege settlements in local currencies – something unthinkable even a few months ago. The US dollar has already been thrown into a death by a thousand cuts spiral.
And that will be the day when the game reaches a whole new unpredictable level.
The destructive agenda of the neocon leaders in charge of US foreign policy should never be underestimated.
They exploited the 9/11 “new Pearl Harbor” pretext to launch a crusade against the lands of Islam in 2001, followed by a NATO proxy war against Russia in 2014.
Their ultimate ambition is to wage war against China before 2025.
However, they are now facing a swift geopolitical and geoeconomic revolt of the World’s Heartland – from Russia and China to West Asia, and extrapolating to South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and selected latitudes in Latin America.
The turning point came on 26 February, 2022, when Washington’s neocons – in a glaring display of their shallow intellects – decided to freeze and/or steal the reserves of the only nation on the planet equipped with all the commodities that really matter, and with the necessary nous to unleash a momentous shift to a monetary system not anchored in fiat money.
That was the fateful day when the cabal, identified by journalist Seymour Hersh as responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, actually blew the whistle for the high-speed de-dollarization train to leave the station, led by Russia, China, and now – welcome on board – Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Philadelphia Scrapple
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Ingredients
1 quart water
1 cup white cornmeal
1 pound pork liver sausage, crumbled or finely chopped
3 onions, diced
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper, to taste
Instructions
Bring water to boil. Let boil after adding each ingredient in order, then cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring frequently.
Pour into loaf pan and cool.
Slice and fry. If 1 pint milk and 1 pint water are used as the liquid, the scrapple will brown more easily.
Is Netanyahoo (Again) Looking For War?
Israel’s occupation of Palestine is moving towards another hot conflict.
More Palestinians had gathered in the mosque, responding to calls by Waqf to pray inside overnight. At one of the mosque entrances, police officers could be seen escorting dozens of Palestinians out of the compound. Residents and shoppers milled around, watching social media videos on their phones showing the renewed clashes that had happened just meters away.Early on Wednesday, Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, firing stun grenades at Palestinians who hurled stones and firecrackers in a burst of violence during a sensitive holiday season. Palestinian militants in Gaza responded with rocket fire on southern Israel, prompting repeated Israeli airstrikes.
The violence had calmed by early Wednesday morning, but in the evening, Palestinian militants fired two more rockets from Gaza, with one falling short inside Gaza and the other falling near the security fence separating Gaza from Israel, the Israeli military said. There were no reports of casualties.
The mosque sits in a hilltop compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and conflicting claims over it have spilled into violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. Al-Aqsa is the third-holiest site in Islam and stands in a spot known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism.
Muslims currently celebrate their Ramadan holy month while Jews began their week-long Passover holiday. Last week some ultra-orthodox rabbis had asked prime minister Netanyahoo to allow them to abuse Al-Aqsa:
Fifteen rabbis have asked the Israeli government on Thursday to ascend the Temple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif next Wednesday, when the Jewish holiday of Passover begins, a move that could exacerbate tensions in Jerusalem during the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan.The rabbis have put a request to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday to ascend to the Temple Mount and for Jews to be allowed to offer the Passover, the way it was practiced in biblical times.
Over the years, a majority of rabbis has ruled that Jews are not allowed to ascend the Temple Mount site, since purification rituals cannot be performed in times when the temple is destroyed. Most rabbis also object to reviving biblical sacrifices of lambs or goats. Still, far-right religious activists have registered a clear trend in recent years of an increase in the number of Jews ascending the Temple Mount compound.
It is dubious that the place where Al-Aqsa is standing is the one where the mythical Jewish temple once stood. Despite intense decades long searches no archeological evidence has been found to prove that.
The Waqf, the authority that administrates the al-Haram al-Sharif, had called for Muslim believers to stay there over night to prevent the sacrilege against the Mosque. In response to the first raid on the mosque earlier this week some rockets had been fired from Gaza to which the Israeli military responded with bombings.
Dozens of rockets were fired from southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon with 25 intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system over northern Israel, the military said. At least three people were injured and several buildings were damaged.The Israel Defense Forces said 34 rockets had been fired toward the border with five landing inside Israel, and most of the rest downed by Iron Dome. The impact sites of four others were not yet clear.
Such a massive barrage would this the largest number of rockets fired from Lebanon since the 2006 war, during which thousands of rockets were launched at Israel. In August 2021, Hezbollah fired 19 rockets at northern Israel.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and a Hezbollah source told the Al-Arabiya network that it was not behind the rocket fire, apparently blaming Palestinian groups based in the area. However, it was unlikely they would do so without at least the tacit approval of the Iran-backed terror group that controls southern Lebanon.
This was indeed a message from Hizbullah.
Amal Saad @amalsaad_lb – 14:08 UTC · Apr 6, 2023The unprecedented barrage of rockets fired at Israel today, allegedly by Palestinian factions in Lebanon, was an indirect message from Hizbullah. Nasrallah had warned as recently as January 2023 that Al-Aqsa was a red line that would lead to an “explosion of the whole region” 1/2
Hizbullah is trying to stretch the rules of deterrence with a new equation: violating al-Aqsa will trigger responses not just from Gaza but also from Lebanon. Hizbullah is responding by proxy with grey zone warfare to preserve the rules of engagement and avert an escalation. 2/2
It is not yet clear that a escalation can be prevented. Currently the Israeli security cabinet is meeting. United Nations peacekeepers (UNIFIL) in south Lebanon have allegedly received orders to enter their bomb shelters. UNIFIl called the called the situation “extremely serious”.
Netanyahoo and his ultra-right coalition partners might be interested in launching a new war to divert from their attempts to change the secular state of Israel into a religious led one. Large color-revolution like protests have been held against that and Netanyahoo’s project of putting (secular) supreme court judgments under (religious led) parliament revision is currently on hold.
A ‘nice little war’ might be a welcome distraction and a way to silently revive the matter. But the 2006 war against Hizbullah, which Israel lost, showed that nice little wars can easily turn against their instigators.
Posted by b on April 6, 2023 at 15:42 UTC | Permalink
Australia to pour $13 billion into manufacturing to ensure nation ‘makes things here again’
Note: Re- industrialisation policy without addressing tax issue, high labor cost for low productivity work force, super high domestic and international transport cost, and other costly factor of production such as land, rent, power, water , and all type of local, state, and federal taxes, levies and fees already a policy failure even before it begin.
The west is run by people with no common sense, no basic knowledge, and know no consequences... By tearing up China belts and roads agreement signed by Victoria government 3 years ago, Australia is never to lower it cost of International transportation, and hence, no condition to become a manufacturing based country.
Article…
Australia has launched a A$15 billion (S$13.3 billion) scheme to promote manufacturing and new technologies to address longstanding concerns that the country “doesn’t make things any more” and is too reliant on exporting its abundant resources.
The new scheme, called the National Reconstruction Fund, was a signature policy of the ruling Labor Party, which was elected last May on a promise to boost investment in manufacturing and the uptake of technology.
The move follows growing concerns about the country’s vulnerability to supply chain shocks as well as its economic over-reliance on China, which in 2022 accounted for 27 per cent of Australia’s total trade and 30 per cent of exports.
Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic said the scheme was one of the largest peacetime investments in Australian manufacturing. It will provide loans, investments and guarantees to projects in the field of renewables and low-emissions technology, agriculture, medical science, transport and defence.
“We are trying to rebuild and revitalise manufacturing at a time when we’ve been dependent on concentrated or broken supply chains,” he told Sky News last week. “We’ve got the geopolitical environment we’re operating in where we do need to reduce those dependencies.”
The scheme aims to address concerns about the make-up of Australia’s economy, which receives massive revenue from exporting raw items such as natural resources and agricultural produce, much of which is processed abroad. A report in 2020 found that Australia had the least self-sufficient manufacturing sector of any country in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes 38 developed economies
A separate study of 133 countries by Harvard University in 2020 found that Australia had the 91st most complex economy. The top five countries in the list – which measured a country’s ability to produce a diversified and sophisticated set of products – were Japan, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea and Singapore.
The United States is “playing with fire” and engaged in a hot “hybrid war” with Russia, having already graduated from the Cold War stage, a Russian government minister has claimed, even going so far as to blame the U.S. for rising nuclear tensions.
The new Cold War is already over, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said, accusing the United States of “playing with fire” by pushing the world towards nuclear war that he insists Russians wish to avoid.
The comments come just hours after Russia announced it had deployed nuclear-capable missiles to the borders of NATO in Belarus, and refitted Belarussian jets with the equipment to carry and drop nuclear bombs. Moscow made a tacit accusation that the United States was to blame for this, saying Russia was doing no more than America already did, in stationing nuclear weapons in the territory of European allies.
While blame is generally laid at Russia’s door for invading Ukraine, the minister insisted it was in fact the U.S. that was pushing the world towards nuclear war and that Russia was the peaceful party trying to avoid such an exchange. Expressing this, Ryabkov postulated: “…there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it must not be unleashed.”
“The way our American opponents are recklessly, provocatively, and in many respects absolutely carelessly, moving up the escalation ladder, the way they are blinded by their absolutely absurd certainty about their ability to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, makes one doubt their mental faculties and their common sense.”
The U.S. is “playing with fire” and was risking making “fatal mistakes”, Ryabkov said, saying the Russian Federation “will be ready to take all measures and to use all means at our disposal” if there were attempts to encroach on their sovereignty.
When I was a young boy, I was a member of the “Boy Scouts”. We would attend weekly meetings at the homes of “Den Mothers”, do various projects for badges (that we would sew onto our clothing), and attend special events, often involving a bonfire and lots of hotdogs and soda.
One of the favorite things that I loved to do was to take a hot dog and cook it deep in the depths of the fire until it was too blacked to handle. Then, I would take it out and slather ketchup, mustard, onions (raw), tomatoes, and relish onto the dog in the hotdog bun.
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Of course, everyone loved marshmallows, and the potato chips. And there was always other snacks such as some baked beans. Often the beans would be cooked in the can by simply placing the can of beans on the fire itself.
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I know that today, the top potato-chips are Lays brand. But when I was growing up, it was Wise Potato-chips. They are crunchier, and saltier than Lays. Often, the Den mothers would place the chips in a big basin for all us kids to grab and place on our plates.
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I loved to eat it with a nice dip. I found out later that it was always “home made” from a box of creme-cheese, and salad mix packets. I have really loved those days. The food flowed easily and the times were wonderful.
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There was always a very nicely done potato salad. In fact, I find it difficult to imagine a campfire party without potato salad, and baked grilled (de-silked) corn. A well made potato salad always uses a nice spicy mustard, don’t you know.
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As I got older, we still had these campfire get-togethers. Only now, we called them “Keggers” and we focused on the beer, and the music rather than the eating. It was a loss, that at the time we did not notice. But today, in hindsight, it was a serious omission.
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Now, here I am in China. Food everywhere, and it is normal to drink (serious hard alcohol) and eat.
And I see the importance of filling your belly before you go on an all night binge. Whether it is a night with pretty girls and KTV, or whether it’s just you and the guys going to play some snooker, or Majiong.
Do not neglect the important aspects of your life.
Like a fine hotdog.
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Spring is arriving.
Make the most of it.
You have friends, and a pack of hotdogs is cheap. You can outfit an entire party for a low price. All it take is a minor bit of organization, and a campfire.
Reserve a spot.
Make arrangements for a center base party location, and place a few tents for people to rest or nap if they want to. Plenty of alcohol and soft drinks. Lots of food. Music. Some ball to toss.
Have fun.
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Meat Loaf Wellington
meatloaf wellington
Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 pound ground veal
1/2 pound ground pork
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups cracker crumbs with 1 tablespoon water
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup warm water
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
4 bacon strips
2 packages crescent roll dough
1 egg white, lightly beaten
Flour
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix ground beef, veal and pork together by hand in a large bowl.
Add Worcestershire sauce, eggs, cracker crumbs, ketchup, water and soup mix.
Mix by hand and shape into a loaf in a shallow baking dish.
Drape the loaf with bacon strips.
Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until done. Cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
Separate 2 packages of crescent roll dough into 6 rectangles. Reserve the remaining 2 for decorating. Overlap the triangles on a large floured surface to make a large rectangle. Gently press together the seams and perforations. Place over meat loaf and mold to fit.
Trim off excess dough. Use remaining rectangles to make a design for the top; cookie cutters may be used. Brush dough with egg white and return loaf to the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden.
Israeli-made cluster mortar shells were found in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Israel has been caught red-handed supplying deadly cluster munitions to Ukraine for use against Russian forces.
Despite the fact that Israel SAYS it does not supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, it turns out that the Israel Defense Forces have transferred a large batch of 120-mm mortar ammunition to Ukraine.
Apart from the fact that such ammunition has a high destructive power, it turned out that the ammunition in question is M971, which is a cluster munition that not only causes serious destruction, but also poses an additional threat of landmines. This is not the first time the Israeli side has supplied such munitions to Ukraine.
In the footage published by the Ukrainian military, viewers can see that these are indeed M971 munitions. Their exact quantity transferred to Ukraine is not disclosed, but there could be tens of thousands of shells.
The Israeli 120 mm M971 mortar ammunition is equipped with 24 submunitions, which are scattered in open terrain and explode when dropped on the ground. The ammunition is actively used to defeat manpower and armored vehicles.
Deliveries of such munitions to Ukraine indicate that Israel is directly participating in the aggression against Russia.
The US has recently once again strengthened restrictions on sales of American chips to China, however Chinese chips are not sitting idly by. Recently a seven nanometer chip was officially launched for sale taking the opportunity to seize the domestic Market which put pressure on American competitors.
It is reported that a domestic GPU chip company in China has officially released the graphics cards launched last year. The price is about 500 Yuan cheaper ($73) than AMD and NVIDIA’s graphics cards of the same grade and the performance has reached the level of the latter two’s mid to high-end chips the floating-point performance of this graphics card is slightly stronger than AMD’s RTX 3060 graphics card since the release of GPU chips in China has attracted much attention overseas, reviewers quickly bought them after the release.
After testing by relevant overseas reviewers the actual test reached 13.9 teraflops which is indeed slightly stronger than RTX 3060, the domestic graphics card uses the self-developed 7nm GPU core as the first GPU core it is quite good to be able to reach such a level, after all the leading American chip company Intel has been developing GPU chips for many years but it has been difficult to keep up with invidious level, the fact that domestic GPU chips can reach such a level has shocked Nvidia, the leader in GPU chips.
This is why Nvidia quickly launched the customized GPU chip a800 after the United States restricted the sale of high-end GPU chips to China last year.
Analysts predict that the revenues of Intel and Nvidia will decline by 40 percent and 22 percent respectively in the first quarter.
At this time if the United States further restricts these chip companies from selling chips to China, they will only suffer further losses. In fact Chinese Chips have replaced imported chips with domestic chips as much as possible the volume of chips imported by China in the first two months of this year fell by 26.5 percent which is much larger than the 15 decline in chip Imports in 2022.
For GPU chips domestic GPU chips have reached Nvidia’s mid to high end level so they can replace most of Nvidia’s chips if Nvidia does not even sell custom chips such as the a800 to China what competitiveness does Nvidia still have in the Chinese market?
For those uninitiated in this field, NVIDA is the champion of GPU chips who has better advantage over AMD.
Remember one thing. China is not India. Chinese IQ horsepower is way higher than Indians who are nowhere on the world stage.
China is even ahead of the US – however tad bit that be.
US Citizen: USA=University of Clown Sh*t
Trans female former student, 28, armed with two assault rifles and a handgun, kills three nine-year-old kids and three staff members at Nashville private Christian school after writing manifesto and drawing maps of church campus
The shooting took place on Monday at The Covenant School in Nashville
Shooter has been named as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who lives nearby
Six people – including three children – are dead after a transgender female shooter opened fire at a private school in Nashville, killing three nine-year-old children and three staff members.
The shooter was 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who at one time attended the school.
Police said she identified as transgender, and online profiles show Audrey used ‘he/him’ pronouns.
At around 10.13am, she opened fire at The Covenant School, shooting and killing nine-year-old Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.
Scruggs was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, the pastor at the affiliated presbyterian church.
Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, and custodian Mike Hill, 61, were also killed.
Why did ancient Egypt stop worshipping cats?
Technically, ancient Egyptians remain frozen in time as the people who preceded modern Egyptians. Ancient Egypt came into decline when Greeks and Romans took over, especially in 30 BC, when Egypt became a Roman province. With the spread of Christianity in the 3rd and 4th centuries, the practice of revering animals was abolished along with all pagan rituals. Modern Egyptians are adherents of Islam for the most part with a Christian minority, the Copts. Neither group worships animals.
Ancient Egyptians did not worship cats as cats per se so to ask why they stopped worshipping them is a moot point. The matter is much more complex. The ancient Egyptians worshipped a goddess named Bast. Cats represented the divine Bast or Bastet, the goddess who assumed the image of a lion or panther initially then a cat-headed woman or a cat by the 2nd millennium BC. The reverence paid to cats as representatives of the goddess Bast can be compared to the respect paid to the cow in the Hindu religion as a representative of the nurturing mother earth.
Hence, cats were respected because they incarnated the qualities ascribed to Bast: ferocity, nurturing, motherhood, sensuality, pleasure, magic, warmth of the sun. The proud, haughty felines deigned to enter into a pact with humans, aiding them in return for shelter and food. Cats are intrepid stalkers, who not only rid the granaries of mice and rats but go hunting with humans as well. They also attack dangerous pests like reptiles and scorpions. Mother cats lovingly nurse and protect their kittens. As they produce copious litters, cats are associated with pregnancy.
Detail of a painting from the tomb of Nebamun, c. 1350 BC, showing him standing on a reed boat hunting birds. At left, his cat has grabbed three birds. Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images:
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Cats love to bask in the sun. The orange and red colour of cats was associated with the glow of the sun.
Cats are valued for being playful, amusing companions, very affectionate when they choose to be so, lavishing furry caresses as they rub against their humans. They purr in musical cadences, hence the association of Bast with music. Not only did Bast show her motherly instincts by protecting the baby Horus, she was associated with sensual pleasure and revellery. Her festival was held yearly in the city of Bubastis, named in her honour. Herodotus (c. 450 BC), who attended such a celebration, described the unbridled merry making, where women outnumbered the men and the party goers indulged in feasting, drinking, dancing and unbridled sexuality. Participating in this joyous orgy guaranteed the attendees good luck throughout the coming year.
The cat figures as a warrior in the journey of the soul in the afterlife as slayer of the serpent of chaos and darkness, Apep, enemy of the sun god Ra. The snake-demon had to be killed every night so that Ra could return every morning to light the world with his brightness. It has been pointed out that the type of cat portrayed in such a scene is probably a serval, a type of wild cat.
According to the Texts of the Pyramids, Bast stood on the boat of Sun god Ra alongside Thoth and Hathor to thwart the attacks of the giant serpent of chaos, Apep, who wanted to devour Ra. Note that according to the versions of this story, it is sometimes Ra who turns into a cat during the fight against Apep, without Bast being present. Papyrus from Book of the Dead of royal scribe Hunefer, ca. 1300 BC, detail. Jon Bodsworth (photographer). [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons:
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Another reason for the popularity of the cat was a fashionable attempt to imitate the royals and the upper classes. Cats were pampered in the homes of the rich and famous, bedecked in gold and jewellery, so even the lower classes made much of these furry companions.
A copy of wall painting found on The Tomb of Nakht , 18th dynasty, showing a cat eating fish under a chair where a woman sits. Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images:
Several goddesses were represented with feline features, such as the lion-headed Sekhmet, Mut, Tefnut, Shesemtet, Wadjet, Mafdet, Pakhet and others, who appear with a sun disc on the head.
When a cat died, the family went into great mourning, shaving off their eyebrows. According to Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st c. BC), an Egyptian mob lynched a Roman who had killed a cat. Cats were also embalmed and placed in tombs. However, the desire to have a mummified cat to please Bast led to the practice of raising cats for the sole purpose of killing and embalming them to sell as offerings.
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US threatened to invade International Criminal Court
Cats, Bastet and the Worship of Feline Gods
By Yekaterina Barbash
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Cats are among the most iconic animals in ancient Egyptian art and culture. The Egyptians encountered lions, panthers and jungle cats in the wild. Smaller cats lived among humans from early on, hunting vermin in homes and granaries. Through close observation, the Egyptians came to admire felines for their complex, dual nature. Felines combine grace, fecundity and gentle care with aggression, swiftness and danger. Gods ascribed with these qualities were often represented with feline features. But Egyptians did not worship felines. Rather, they believed these ‘feline’ deities shared certain character traits with the animals.
Bastet is probably the best-known feline goddess from Egypt. Initially depicted as a lioness, Bastet assumed the image of a cat or a feline-headed woman in the 2nd millennium BCE. Although she combined both nurturing and violent qualities, her shielding and motherly aspects typically were emphasized. Countless representations of a seated cat, cat-headed goddess or cat with kittens include dedicatory inscriptions addressed to Bastet. By offering such inscribed images, donors expressed their wishes for health and children or, more generally, life and protection.
Such revelations were important to an exhibition I organized at the Brooklyn Museum, called Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt. The idea for this show began while I was exploring our storerooms. A gilded wooden statuette of a goddess with a leonine head and the body of a woman peered at me from a shelf and stopped me in my tracks. I was intrigued by its beauty and elegance and by the unusual combination of her features. She has been in Brooklyn since 1937 but remained off view because of her poor condition.
This goddess with a feline head and leonine ears wears a tripartite wig. Judging by the remains of a peg on top of the head, a separately made sun-disk once adorned her, holding the bronze uraeus in place. She sits on a floral base with both her feet and buttocks touching the floor and knees drawn up to the torso. Her feet appear tightly bound together, connecting her to the underworld as if on a mummy. Her arms are bent at the elbows, with the right hand clenched in a fist while the left palm extends beside her left knee. The black painted base, reminiscent of a papyrus umbel, has an opening on the stem-end. Unexpectedly, a small cat mummy was originally enclosed in the hollow interior of the figure. But why was it there? To whom was it offered?
Although the Brooklyn statuette incorporates features familiar from Egyptian art, the compilation of these features makes it very unusual and, at first consideration, mysterious. For example, our goddess’ crouching or squatting position is used in two-dimensional representations of gods that appear in temples or tombs and on mortuary papyri. However, in three dimensions lion-headed female divinities are usually standing, striding or seated on a throne. Next, the umbel base of our figure recalls papyrus scepters frequently held by feline divinities and papyrus-form columns with cats on top dedicated to Bastet. Still, floral-shaped bases are unusual for wooden figures of gods of this size (just over a foot in height), and rarely appear as an animal mummy container. Such bases are more common in smaller bronzes and amulets or in large stone sculpture. Finally, containers for cat mummies do not typically take the form of a crouching feline goddess. Instead, animal mummy containers in the shape of a lion-headed woman generally represented the goddess seated on a throne and inscribed as Wadjet. And the Wadjet container, usually was for ichneumons (mongeese), not cats.
Despite the unusual features, certain details are clues to the identity of our statuette. Many powerful goddesses were represented with her features, although they are notoriously difficult to identify without an inscription. Bastet, Sakhmet, Mut, Tefnut, Shesemtet, Pakhet, Mafdet, Wadjet and others all appeared as a lioness or lion-headed woman with a sun disk on her head. Each one was named a daughter of the Sun God and the Eye of the Sun. Egyptians associated cats with the sun for a number of reasons. They saw the red and yellow fur of cats and lions as the colors of the sun itself. Cats love warmth and basking in the sun. And most importantly, much like the self-contradictory nature of felines, the sun possesses a dual nature as a warming source of life or a scorching danger in the desert. Thus, many dangerous and protective daughters of the sun god were endowed with a leonine nature.
In Egyptian mythology, the terrifying and nurturing aspects of feline goddesses are most commonly represented by the Sekhmet and Bastet, with other daughters of the Sun worthy of this title. For instance, Hathor-Tefnut is described in the Myth of the Eye of the Sun in Philae as the one who “rages like Sekhmet and is friendly like Bastet.” All these goddesses should be seen as one fierce, feline, female force that carried the power of the sun’s fire to destroy, burn and scratch all who stood in her way, but turned into a motherly divinity when pacified.
The mummy found inside the Brooklyn figurine – indeed a cat mummy – offers a clue to the figurine’s function. Cats are one of the more numerous animals to be mummified by the ancient Egyptians. Each mummified animal was linked to a specific god and offered to that god in hopes of favor or a sign of gratitude. Egyptians dedicated cat mummies to the nurturing and dangerous goddess Bastet. Bubastis, the Delta city that was the center of worship of this goddess, is the origin of masses of cat mummies. Most of these were placed in rectangular or cat-shaped coffins or wrapped in linen and painted to resemble a cat. Mystery solved, as much as any ancient Egyptian puzzle can be: the Brooklyn Museum’s figurine served as a particularly fancy cat mummy container, probably an attempt to conjure extra favor from Bastet.
Funniest Raccoon Memes by Nocturnal Trash Posts
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Who doesn’t like a good raccoon meme? Who doesn’t like a good raccoon? Wait, who doesn’t like a good raccoon anything? Trash pandas are awesome and no, there can’t be any other way. And speaking of raccoon memes, there is a dedicated Instagram page that celebrates raccoonhood with existential, funny, and straight up nonsensical memes.
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, March 21, 2023. Xi on Tuesday held talks with Putin in Moscow. Putin held a solemn welcome ceremony for Xi Jinping at the St. George’s Hall. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow. They had sincere, friendly and fruitful talks on the bilateral ties and major regional and international issues of mutual interest, and reached new, important common understandings in many fields.
The two sides agreed to follow the principles of good-neighborliness, friendship and win-win cooperation in advancing exchanges and cooperation in various fields and deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era.
In the refreshing weather of March in Moscow, Xi arrived at the Kremlin in a motorcade. He was welcomed by the Kremlin’s horse guards and greeted by the Kremlin Commandant at the alighting point.
Putin held a solemn welcome ceremony for Xi at the St. George’s Hall. Accompanied by the majestic welcome music, Xi and Putin walked in big strides on a red carpet from the opposite ends of the hall to meet each other in the center. They had a firm handshake and took photos together. The military band played the national anthems of China and Russia.
The two presidents held small-group talks first and then large-group talks.
Xi pointed out that China and Russia are each other’s biggest neighbor and that consolidating and developing long-term good-neighborly relations with Russia is consistent with historical logic and a strategic choice of China, which will not be changed by any turn of events.
Since his first state visit to Russia 10 years ago, China and Russia have enjoyed mutual respect, mutual trust and mutual benefit, Xi said, adding that relations between the two countries have grown from strength to strength, showing the features of being more comprehensive, more practical, and more strategic.
Xi said that during this visit, he saw many ordinary Russians in the street waving their hands at the Chinese motorcade in a demonstration of goodwill. He sees clearly that China-Russia relations have strong public support.
No matter how the international landscape may change, China will stay committed to advancing the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era, he said, adding this state visit to Russia is a journey of friendship, cooperation and peace. China is ready to work with Russia to build on past achievements, enrich the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era, bring more benefits to the two peoples and make greater contribution to human progress.
Xi noted that changes unseen in a century are evolving faster and the international balance of power is undergoing a profound shift. As permanent members of the UN Security Council and major countries in the world, China and Russia have natural responsibilities to make joint efforts to steer and promote global governance in a direction that meets the expectations of the international community and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
The two sides should support each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests, and jointly resist the interference in internal affairs by external forces, he said, calling on the two sides to enhance communication and coordination on international affairs, especially in the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS and other multilateral frameworks, practice true multilateralism, oppose hegemonism and power politics, contribute to global post-COVID economic recovery, advance the trend toward a multi-polar world, and promote the reform and improvement of the global governance system.
Xi and Putin heard reports by the leading officials of the relevant government departments of the two countries on cooperation in various fields.
Thanks to joint efforts, China and Russia have enjoyed deepening political mutual trust, convergence of interests, and understanding between the peoples, Xi said, adding that their cooperation in such areas as the economy and trade, investment, energy, people-to-people and cultural exchanges and at the subnational levels have made continued progress. There are a growing number of areas and an even stronger consensus for cooperation.
China is in the first year of fully implementing the guiding principles set forth by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and it will foster a new development paradigm at a faster pace, promote high-quality development, and advance Chinese modernization in all respects, he said.
Noting China-Russia cooperation enjoys significant potential and space and is strategic, reliable and stable, Xi said that the two sides need to strengthen overall coordination, boost trade in traditional areas, such as energy, resources, and electromechanical products, continuously enhance the resilience of industrial and supply chains, expand cooperation in such areas as information technology, the digital economy, agriculture and trade in services. They should step up cooperation in areas of innovation and facilitate cross-border logistics and transportation, he added.
The two sides should cement the cornerstone of people-to-people exchanges, he said, calling for efforts to encourage more interactions between sister provinces/states and between sister cities, ensure the success of the Years of Sports Exchange, and facilitate the personnel movement between the two countries.
Putin once again extended Russia’s warm congratulations on Xi’s reelection as President of China by unanimous vote and the formation of a new government in China. He said that Russia-China relations are developing very well, and that good progress has been made in all fields of bilateral cooperation.
Noting exchanges and cooperation are active between the governments, legislative bodies, at different levels and in different areas, Putin said that amid a complex environment, such as the spread of COVID, Russia-China trade bucked the trend and realized growth.
He expressed hope that the two sides will make full use of their existing channels of exchange and work for new progress in practical cooperation in various fields, including the economy and trade, investment, energy, space and cross-border transportation and logistics, and bring people-to-people and cultural exchanges in sports and tourism and at subnational levels to new heights.
Russia firmly supports China in upholding its legitimate interests on issues related to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, Putin said, adding Russia congratulates China on helping to successfully bring about historic outcomes from the talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran in Beijing, which fully demonstrates China’s important status and positive influence as a major country in the world.
Russia appreciates China for consistently upholding an objective and impartial position on international affairs, supports the Global Security Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative China has put forward, and stands ready to further enhance international coordination with China, he said.
Xi and Putin believe the exchange between the two sides during the visit is in-depth, rich and comprehensive and has injected new impetus into the development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era.
They directed the competent departments of the two countries to follow through on the common understandings reached at the presidential level, enhance communication and work more closely with each other to deliver new and greater progress in China-Russia practical cooperation and boost development and rejuvenation in both countries.
They agreed to stay in close touch through various means to jointly guide the sound and steady growth of China-Russia relations.
After the talks, Xi and Putin jointly signed a Joint Statement of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for the New Era and a Joint Statement of the President of the People’s Republic of China and the President of the Russian Federation on Pre-2030 Development Plan on Priorities in China-Russia Economic Cooperation.
During the visit, the two sides also signed bilateral cooperation documents in such areas as agriculture, forestry, basic scientific and technological research, market regulation, and the media.
How did people from ancient China dress? What kind of clothes did they wear and how do you know that it is Chinese clothes?
Ancient China, known as a state of propriety and decorum, has long been hailed as the “Kingdom of Costume” with its exquisite clothes.
2023 03 28 19 28
In the minds of ancient Chinese, in addition to keeping a warm and beautifying appearance, clothing was also an effective measure to establish social order, distinguish nobility from inferiority, grant rewards, and exert punishments, serving as a yardstick of court rituals.
A form of dress code was first constitutionally established at the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty(1046-771BC). In order to show dignity and majesty, the king and ministers would wear different colors of robes in sacrificing ceremonies, weddings, and funerals.
Also, wearing fur clothing was strictly in line with rank. Hunters who gained precious furs had to contribute them to the ruler, for they were prohibited from selling or using furs without permission.
People aged above 70 were allowed to wear silk and eat meat. Such regulations allowed seniors to enjoy such precious items in their twilight years, rewarding them for their lifelong contributions to society. This was the origin of the Chinese tradition of respecting the elder.
Costume is more of a diverse term that encompasses different clothing styles in various dynasties. All dynasties had rules and orders that stipulated the textures, colors, patterns, and styles of clothes in detail.
After the unification of China in the Qin (221-207BC) and Han (202BC-9AD) dynasties, the style of costumes was gradually standardized.
Generally speaking, the formal dress had wide sleeves extending to the knees out of proportion, presenting a solemn style. Everyone could quickly tell the social status and rank of people from what they wore daily. The upper class wore clothes with wide sleeves, while servants had short clothes with narrow sleeves (such a style of clothing was for ease of movement and labor).
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Common types of commoners’ costumes in ancient China’s Han Dynasty
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Common types of dress for nobles costumes in ancient China’s Han Dynasty
The color of the official robes was a significant indicator to distinguish hierarchy. Adopting colors to classify official ranks was initially shaped in the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and officially established in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the system of official robes inherited the tradition of the Sui. During Emperor Gaozong’s reign, official ranks were indicated by clothing color. Decrees made stipulations about clothing colors and ornaments. Since then, all the following dynasties have observed the color system of the Tang, using four colors, including purple, scarlet, green, and blue, to classify the hierarchy.
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An ancient painting of one of Tang’s emperors: Emperor Gaozong. During Tang Dynasty, yellow is only for the emperor. And another people cannot dress in this color.
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The pottery cultural relic from Tang Dynasty exhibited at Xi’an museum. The pottery people dressed in green, which is ruled as the color for low-level officials in Tang Dynasty.
The manifestation of appearance has evolved over its long history, dazzling and colorful, elegant and simple. Different tastes epitomized the pursuit of beauty and people’s ideal life in a specific era.
China Announces Naval Enforcement in Taiwan Strait – ships to be stopped, boarded, inspected. US Says “No”
China’s Fujian maritime safety administration launched a three-day special joint patrol and inspection operation in the central and northern parts of the Taiwan Strait that includes moves to board ships, it said on its WeChat account.
The move comes amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan, with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosting Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, becoming the most senior U.S. figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on U.S. soil in decades.
The maritime safety authority in the southeastern Chinese province said on Wednesday the operation included “on-site inspections” on direct cargo ships and construction vessels on both sides of the Taiwan Strait “to ensure the safety of vessel navigation and ensure the safe and orderly operation of key projects on water.”
Taiwan’s Transport Ministry’s Maritime and Ports Bureau said in a statement late Wednesday said it has lodged a strong protest with China about the move.
It said it has notified relevant shipping operators that if they encounter such requests from China they should refuse them and immediately notify Taiwan’s coast guard to render assistance.
“If the mainland side insists on taking one-sided actions, it will create obstacles to normal exchanges between the two sides. We will be forced to take corresponding measures,” it added, without giving details.
Areas covered by the operation include the Pingtan Taiwan direct container route, the “small three links” passenger route, the Taiwan Strait vessel customary route, the densely navigable areas of commercial and fishing vessels, and areas with frequent illegal sand mining activities.
The “small three links” passenger route refers to boat routes between Taiwan’s Kinmen and Matsu islands which sit opposite China and Chinese cities.
Once again, US meddling in the affairs of foreign nations is at the root of this latest international trouble. Taiwan’s President, met yesterday with U.S. Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. That set off alarm bells in Beijing and China’s Ministry of Defense laid out what’s what.
The Chinese Ministry of Defense stated:
The US government must cease all official contact with Taiwan and the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party;
The US authorities must stop interfering in China’s internal affairs on Taiwan;
The US should stop developing ties with Taiwan and emasculate the “one China” principle;
The Chinese army will maintain a high degree of combat readiness to protect national sovereignty in the Taiwan Strait.
So there we have it. The gauntlet has been thrown down by China. The U.S. is officially, publicly, told to stop.
Of course, the U.S. will not stop because it arrogantly believes it is the pre-eminent power of this planet and no one else can tell the US what to do.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is a recipe for a fight. Soon.
Bacon Cheeseburger Meat Loaf
Meat loaf is boring no more, especially when it has the flavors of a bacon cheeseburger.
cheesy bacon cheeseburger meatloaf
Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
4 slices crisply cooked bacon, chopped
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1 egg
1 teaspoon McCormick® Mustard, Ground
1 teaspoon McCormick® Onion Powder
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Black Pepper, Ground
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup ketchup
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix ground beef, bacon, 1 cup of the cheese, bread crumbs, egg and seasonings in large bowl.
Shape into a loaf on shallow baking pan. Pour ketchup over top.
Bake 45 minutes.
Sprinkle meat loaf with remaining 1/2 cup cheese; bake 10 to 15 minutes longer or until meat loaf is cooked through.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Prep: 15 min | Cook: 1 hr | Serves: 8
Substitution Tip: Prepare as directed, using 1 teaspoon McCormick® Garlic Salt in place of the garlic powder and salt.
The US sabotaged the NS pipelines, thus is scared of NU investigation. The US biological labs made the covid, the US then used the virus as a biological weapon to have sneakily attacked Wuhan China in Sept 2019. Thus the US is untrasparent. Why?
It is a military empire. The largest one in history.
When viewed from this perception, instead of the ludicrous idea that it is a democracy, everything becomes crystal clear. Not only can American actions and behaviors be clearly understood, but future actions can be predicted with ease. Making adversarial nations quite capable of thwarting American belligerence.
“What’s Coming IS WORSE THAN A WW3, THIS IS SERIOUS!”
https://youtu.be/ZUzR0wYMfTI
CONFIRMED: Russia Building Troops In Syria to “EXPEL U.S. Army”
The Russian government has begun an “unprecedented” build-up of military might inside Syria with the plan to “expel the U.S. Army” from the country.
The Russians are inside Syria with the permission of the Syrian government. U.S. Troops are in Syria WITHOUT such permission.
The U.S. entered Syria on the grounds that the terrorist group “ISIS” was taking over vast swaths of the country, stealing the oil to fund itself, and was growing and spreading into other countries.
But when the US entered, they did very little to stop ISIS. Instead, the US began backing a group calling itself “the Free Syrian Army (FSA)” which was openly trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Things went very badly for Assad, and his government was losing against ISIS and against the FSA, so Assad went to Moscow to ask for military help.
Russia agreed to help and sent the Russian Army.
Within months, the Russians absolutely smashed ISIS — and the FSA. Assad’s government was able to re-establish control over vast portions of the country.
But the US never left the country and, to this very day, maintain control over huge sections of northeast Syria . . . where the oil is.
A couple years ago, Russia provided video surveillance footage showing the US allowing tanker trucks to come into Syrian oil areas, fill-up, and then go into Turkey or Iraq. Once there, the oil was partially refined, re-labeled, and sold on the oil market. But no one says where all that money ever went!
It later came out that the US, along with Israel, and Turkey, were grabbing upwards of thirty million dollars a MONTH in Syrian oil, and selling it. Where the money went, no one knows.
This theft of Syrian oil caused Russia to tell the US, Israel, and Turkey to halt the theft of oil. No one listened. SO Russia BOMBED certain oil facilities in northeastern Syria to physically prevent the ongoing theft of oil. This turned out to be a short hiccup in the theft. The damaged facilities were repaired, and the oil flowed again.
This has now gone on for years.
Now, Russia is moving large numbers of troops, armor, artillery, and planes into northeast Syria, to face the US Army.
Word coming from the area is explicitly clear: Russia is planning to EXPEL the US from Syria.
Unlike Ukraine, where all the nations of NATO have been supplying weaponry to that government so as to fight Russia, there is no such arrangement within Syria because Syria and Russia are allies. So if there’s a face-off between Russia and the US inside Syria, NATO will not be able to do very much.
We are now faced with the very real possibility that Russia will tell the US “get out of Syria by this date, or be put out by force.” What happens next is anyone’s guess, but war is on the table. Direct war – between the US and Russia.
The United States is active alongside NATO and fighting Russia inside of Ukraine. And Russia is winning.
2023 04 03 12 36
It’s a very odd time that we are all living in right now.
Relax, and have a great day. Here’s some fun videos with some serious videos. If you want to “deep dive” in them, go for it. But most of the videos are only a few minutes long, except for the two hour one at the end.
Like I said, “deep dive” if you can hold your breath. LOL.
Sponge – I Am Anastasia
Fried Grits
This makes a great side dish. Try it the next time you want something different.
2023 04 04 06 42
Ingredients
4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 cup ALBERS® Quick Grits
Instructions
Bring water and salt to a boil in medium saucepan; slowly stir in grits. Cover; reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 6 minutes.
Pour grits into 9 x 5-inch or 8 x 4-inch loaf pan; refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.
Remove from pan and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices.
Grease large skillet.
Fry slices over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until lightly browned.
Yield: 6 servings
Why The World Is Dumping The American Dollar | Vantage with Palki Sharma
McDonalds CLOSES CORPORATE HQ to announce layoffs; Staggering Economic Downturn
McDonald’s is temporarily closing its U.S. offices this week as it prepares to inform corporate employees about its layoffs as part of a broader company restructuring.
In an internal email last week to U.S. employees and some international staff, McDonald’s asked them to work from home from Monday through Wednesday so it can deliver staffing decisions virtually, the report said. It is unclear how many employees will be laid off.
“During the week of April 3, we will communicate key decisions related to roles and staffing levels across the organization,” the Chicago-based company said in the message.
McDonald’s also asked employees to cancel all in-person meetings with vendors and other outside parties at its headquarters.
Hal Turner Remarks
One person I spoke with about this said “That sounds to me like they don’t want anyone going postal after they are fired, so shut it down for three day’s and fire them safely at HOME via Email!”
He may have a point!
McDonald’s is the largest fast-food chain in the world. It’s Founder, Ray Kroc, was once asked what he thought the company might end up selling 50 years from then. He replied “I don’t know what we’ll be selling, but we’ll be selling MORE OF IT than anyone else.”
He turned out to be right. McDonald’s is the single most successful restaurant chain on planet earth.
The fact that THIS company is now going into layoffs is a staggering indicator of just how serious the economic downturn under Joe Biden actually is.
Congratulations to you Biden voters, you managed to screw up the country worse than anything since Herbert Hoover, and you’re not done yet.
Let me ask you Biden voters something: Did you need to take special training to be this stupid, or does it come naturally?
Well, I guess we can get through this; after all, I hear Joe Biden is the next James Bond. Here’s a trailer for laughs:
Louisiana Sues Biden For Censoring Americans’ Free Speech
This is actually very good work. Kudos to this attorney general defending American rights.
Chicken, Broccoli and Mushroom Pie
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
2023 04 01 08 32
Ingredients
Cheese Crust
1 cup lightly packed shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup butter, melted
Filling
1 (6 ounce) boneless skinless chicken breast
Salt
Ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup whipping cream
Pinch ground nutmeg
2 cups chopped, cooked broccoli
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
1 cup lightly packed shredded Swiss cheese (4 ounces)
Instructions
Cheese Crust: Using pastry blender, combine cheese, flour, salt, dry mustard and melted butter. Press dough evenly into bottom and up sides of a 10-inch pie plate.
Filling: Sprinkle chicken breast lightly with salt and pepper.
Bake in a 375 degrees oven for 25 minutes or until done.
Allow to cool.
Cut into cubes; set aside. (You should have about 1 1/4 cups cubed chicken.)
Melt butter in a skillet. Over medium heat, sauté onion and mushrooms in butter for 2 to 3 minutes, or until tender.
Stir in flour. Add cream, 1 teaspoon salt, nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Simmer for 1 minute. (Mixture doesn’t thicken.)
Add broccoli, eggs and chicken cubes; blend well.
Stir in Romano cheese. Set aside.
Line crust with shredded Swiss cheese.
Pour broccoli-chicken mixture into cheese lined crust.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F; bake for 20 minutes or until set.
Neil Oliver: All the neo-Liberal stooges are running scared now and for good reason.
You all MUST watch this one.
I am 81 plus years old and can't believe how dumb I have been all my life. You are not alone Oliver.
Well spoken AGAIN Neil. I'm 71 years and I, too, feel betrayed. I fear for my children's and grandchildren's futures and I blame myself for being too gullible.
Same here Neil, I'm a 77 years old American and started my "awake and aware" around 2017, 5 years ago. That was a hard turn to the conservative right for me. I now live in the SW England with my Welsh wife. Yours is a much needed breath of air on the island.
You are not alone in your feelings of embarrassment, when you realise that the system has been broken all your life! I am 67 and know now that most of what I held as true was in fact a deception.
Thanks Neil at 61 I have not too much interest in anything on TV or in film currently for reasons you bring up. I’m very selective now.
I am now in my 70s and hoped to have a peaceful, enjoyable retirement with optimism for my children’s future. And now this rot has set in and I can’t rest until I see these destructive forces defeated. Keep up the fight Neil.
For someone whi has been awake for over 50 years and i am 74 I am so so happy to see the light emerging.
HERE WE GO: IRAN ALERTS CITIZENS TO “LEAVE AZERBAIJAN IMMEDIATELY”
The government of Iran has issued a BULLETIN to any Iranian citizens living or working in the country of Azerbaijan, to “Leave Azerbaijan Immediately!”
For over a week, Iran has been moving armored units, artillery, and military troops to its lengthy border with Azerbaijan. They began doing this after Azerbaijan started moving troops toward Armenia’s “Lachin Corridor” in a plan to grab the entire southern section of Armenia. Such a land grab would cut-off Iran from Armenia and the Iranians have publicly and repeatedly warned they “will not allow a change to the borders.”
In addition to Iran citizens being told to leave, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has instructed Iranian-Backed Groups including Hezbollah to call on their Members to “Immediately Leave” the Azerbaijani Capital of Baku.
Baku is well within reach of Iranian precision strike missiles, and Iran has more than sufficient missiles to utterly flatten the entire city of Baku.
The fact that Iran has massed troops, artillery, and other military hardware, and is now telling tis citizens (and proxies) to leave, is a good indication that another conflict is about to kick off.
In the middle of all this is . . . . Israel.
Earlier last week, Israel announced that Azerbaijan opened its first Embassy in Israel:
Of course Israel and Iran have been at each other for quite some time. Israel has lately been launching air strikes against Iranian forces inside Syria, killing many Iranians and blowing up significant military hardware moved into Syria by Iran.
Moreover, Iran has been supplying Russia with Shaheed Drones (a.k.a. “Doritos”) for use in Ukraine.
Apparently, someone thinks that starting another war, this one between Iran and Azerbaijan, will force the Iranians to stop supplying Russia in Ukraine, and force Russia to begin deploying troops to assist Armenia, to Russia’s south, thereby diverting Russian military assets from Ukraine as well.
More interestingly, if Iran becomes occupied with a war against Azerbaijan, that would soften-up Iran for an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear projects within the borders of Iran itself, which then kicks-off war between Iran and Israel.
This stuff is all connected: Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran . . . it’s all connected. Prepare for step two of what seems to be leading to World War 3.
U.S. Dollar in MAJOR Trouble; BITTREX Crypto Halting all U.S. Business on April 30
In yet another sign that the U.S. Dollar is in massive international trouble, BITTREX Crypto Exchange has notified all its U.S. customers they have until April 30 to withdraw their crypto, as BITTREX is ceasing all U.S. operations.
In a notice emailed to all BITTREX clients in the U.S., the company said:
Today is a bittersweet day. This month we turned nine years old; and while I am excited and proud that we’ve come this far, I am also very sad. Today, Bittrex is beginning the process of winding down its U.S. operations. Don’t worry – all customer funds are safe and available to withdraw; however, it’s just not economically viable for us to continue to operate in the current U.S. regulatory and economic environment. Back in 2013, when the three of us built Bittrex, it was about technology. Taking nascent crypto technology and making it better with our vast experience of enterprise software and security knowledge. We built technology that was ahead of everyone at the time. Full-service API. Near instant atomic transactions. Wallet infrastructure, handling more wallets than anyone. Offline cold wallet solutions. We’ve never lost funds or been hacked. It was technology, simple and elegant. We said we would be the most secure and fairest trading platform out there while treating our customers fairly. No hidden deals. No special treatment. We never took shortcuts. Nine years later, the crypto ecosystem is very different. Regulatory requirements are often unclear and enforced without appropriate discussion or input, resulting in an uneven competitive landscape. In the end, we made great strides toward accomplishing our goal of maturing the crypto space. However, operating in the U.S. is no longer feasible and Bill, Rami and I will focus on helping Bittrex Global succeed outside the U.S. As I mentioned above, all customer funds are safe, here and ready for your retrieval (for users with KYC requirements met). We will permit trading until April 14, 2023, and you should withdraw all your funds by April 30, 2023. A timeline of important dates as well as an FAQ are located here to provide further information. I’ve truly enjoyed being a part of this revolution and will continue to be involved in this space. Thanks to all the Bittrex users over the years that made us who we are.See ya around the blockchain, Richie
Hal Turner Analysis and Opinion
Twice in their emailed message to customers, BITTREX mentioned the U.S. not being “economically viable.”
Interesting thing to say about what is presently the largest consumer marketplace on planet earth. Unless . . . . . . the US Dollar is going to fail . . . . . .
Sure, the regulatory issues within the U.S. are factual, messy, and unclear. In their citation of those facts, they seem spot-on.
But the whole “economically viable” thing is what strikes me as odd.
Given other information about potential Bank Holiday WEEK later in April, this termination of U.S. business dealings inside the U.S. seems to fit what looks to me as being an emerging pattern of ousting the USA as the world’s reserve currency, and doing so in a sudden, dramatic, and irreversible manner.
Something is very wrong with the financial information coming out lately. It’s starting to look as though people and businesses all over the world are making arrangement OTHER THAN the U.S. Dollar.
Adult Onesie With Cozy Kangaroo Pouch Lets You Carry Your Cat Wherever You Go
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From the people who brought you the cat carrying hoodie, there’s now a super-comfy onesie. Worry no more about a Christmas gift for your cat-loving, hermit friend: the Mewgaroo onesie is the purrfect fit.
Russia is alerting the world that NATO is going to send what they call “Peacekeeping troops” into the Ukraine war. Russian Federation Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev made clear “Any peacekeepers on the front lines in Ukraine without our consent must be eliminated.”
The deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council said that NATO peacekeepers are “wolves in sheepskin” and Russia’s enemies.
In his Telegram social media account, Medvedev stated that the representatives of the military bloc are “wolves in sheepskin”, which offer their “peacekeeping services” in order to, to side with Kyiv and bring the situation at the front to the point of no return.
“Crowds are not just rotten grunts who jumped out of the reels from their cravings and impudence. They keep everyone else for the cavalry … fools. And, smiling cynically, they offer their “peacekeeping” services, – Medvedev said.
In this context, Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s aide reminded the United States of their operations to introduce a US contingent of troops to Korea, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa, indicating, that their presence in Ukraine will again lead to a “tragedy”.
Medvedev threatened NATO and Europe with a stream of “trunes” (i.e. caskets) indicating that Russia would consider the Alliance’s peacekeeping contingent in Ukraine as its legitimate goal for which the Russian army would fire.
"Such peacekeepers" are our direct enemies. Wolves in sheepskin. They will be a legitimate goal for our Armed Forces if they are placed on the front line without Russia's consent to weapons in their hands and are directly threatening us. And then these "peacekeepers" must be ruthlessly destroyed" he said.
KREMLIN SPOKESMAN
The idea to send “some type of peacekeeping troops” to Ukraine, if such discussion is indeed serious, is potentially extremely dangerous, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday, commenting on the words of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor, who disclosed such discussions within the EU.
“This is a statement that is very important to note. If we are talking about some serious ‘verbalizations,’ then this, of course, is an extremely dangerous discussion,” the spokesman said.
Peskov noted that, in international practice, such forces are usually being deployed under consent of both sides.
“In this case, this is potentially a very dangerous topic,” he reiterated.
Earlier, Orban opined that the threat of a new World War is quite real, adding that “this is not an exaggeration.” According to the Hungarian Prime Minister, the EU continues to discuss dispatching of “peacekeeping troops of some kind” to Ukraine, which may result in a direct clash with Russia.
UN Warns: Risk of nuclear weapons use ‘higher than any time’ since Cold War
The UN warned Friday that the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is higher than at any time since the Cold War as Russia plans to deploy its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Russia announced on March 25 that it had reached an agreement with Belarus to station its non-strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus, a close ally of Moscow.
“The war in Ukraine represents the most acute example of that risk,” UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu told the Security Council.
“For the sake of all our security, I echo the Secretary-General’s call for the Russian Federation and the United States to return to full implementation of the New START Treaty and commence negotiations on its successor.”
In February, Russia suspended its participation in New START Treaty, the last remaining nuclear weapons treaty between Washington and Moscow.
The US stopped exchanging data on its nuclear forces in response to Russia’s suspension of it participation in the treaty.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia defended his country’s recent move and said that “there’s a general logic of our former Western partners here. The logic is that Russia is responsible for all of the ills of today’s world. We’re not surprised by that”.
China’s deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang opposed any nuclear war saying that a nuclear war “cannot be won” and “can never be fought.”
Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya warned that Kremlin was “ready to threaten the world with nuclear apocalypse.”
Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Nebenzya, at the UN Security Council replied “Against the backdrop of NATO’s openly declared desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, it is obvious that such actions require us to take all the necessary response steps, including in the military sphere, to ensure the security of the Allied states of Russia and Belarus.
It is in this direction that the measures announced by the President of Russia, which so frightened the Zelensky regime and its Western sponsors, go. Or did you seriously expect that we would not properly respond to your provocative and aggressive actions?”
Russia has adopted a new foreign policy strategy in which the West is declared an “existential” threat to Russia.
Developing . . .
UPDATE 10:10 AM EDT —
Russia’s new foreign policy strategy adopted by President Vladimir Putin on Friday identified China and India as main allies on the world stage.
The new 42-page document singled out ties with China and India, stressing the importance of “the deepening of ties and coordination with friendly sovereign global centers of power and development located on the Eurasian continent.”
UPDATE 10:28 AM EDT —
I have just this minute CONFIRMED that, according to Russian public nuclear doctrine, “a threat to the existence of the state” is grounds for the use of nuclear weapons. Russia has now officially declared the West to be such a threat to the existence of Russia.
UPDATE 1:33 PM EDT —
“Moscow considers Washington’s course as the main source of risks for its own and international security, for peace and the just development of mankind as a whole,” the document says.
“The new concept of foreign policy provides for the possibility of symmetrical and asymmetric measures in response to unfriendly actions against the Russian Federation,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
The Trans-Gendered Freaks have CANCELLED their “Day of Vengeance” scheduled for tomorrow, April 1, at the US Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. Organizers cite “astronomical amounts of hate” as the reason for cancelling.
It probably didn’t help that one of their freakazoids murdered a bunch of Christian School Children in Nashville, TN the other day.
Burger and Fries Pot Pie
Beef and potatoes come together in this cheesy pot pie that’s baked to perfection – a savory dinner.
2023 04 01 08 31
Prep Time: 20 min | Total Time: 45 min | Yield: 6 servings
In 12-inch nonstick skillet, cook beef and onion over medium-high heat about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain well.*
Sprinkle flour over beef mixture. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Stir in tomatoes; heat to boiling. Remove from heat.
In ungreased 1 1/2-quart casserole, spread beef mixture.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Arrange frozen potatoes evenly in single layer on top.
Bake uncovered about 20 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
* Be sure to drain the cooked ground beef really well. Any extra juices will make the pot pie too watery. When it’s too cold outside to grill those burgers, comfort food calls, and this pot pie will surely hit the spot! Serve this pot pie with ketchup, if desired.
10 Absolute Benefits Of Having A Cat
Do you have a cat? Do you dream of having one? Then you have an exceptional taste in choosing your companions! Life changes forever after you bring this little furry ball to your apartment.
Russian journalist targeted in Saint Petersburg cafe. “Legally we took Bakhmut.”
Sounds like it was deliberately done as planned and targeted attack.
This Man And His Cat Recreate Famous Movie Scenes And It’s Amazing!
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When a man loves a kitty very, very much, sometimes he has to celebrate that love in strange ways – no, get your mind out of the gutter, it’s not like that! David and Sarah (his human partner and photographer) are the peopole behind the wildly entertaining Movie Cats Instagram. So far the couple has only done five of their movie parodies, but the couple promises that they will continue adding more pictures every few weeks.
In a statement by Yevgeny Prigozhin: “April 2, 2023, 23:00. We hoisted the Russian flag with the inscription “Good memory to Vladlen Tatarsky” and the flag of PMC “Wagner” on the city administration of Bakhmut. Legally Bakhmut is taken.”
He went on to say “The enemy is concentrated in the western remains of the city and are being hunted.” Here is his video announcement from Bakhmut:
The map below shows the APPROXIMATE line of control in and around the city as of April 2, 2023:
2023 04 03 12 34
Prigozhin’s announcement comes just hours after prominent Russian military blogger Tatarsky (real name Maksim Fomin) was killed in an apparent improvised explosive device blast in a café in Saint Petersburg on Sunday afternoon.
The Pro-Russian blogger was killed in a violent explosion. Security camera video below shows a blonde haired woman carrying in a large box believed to contain the bomb:
Something detonated later, killing the blogger and injuring almost 20 others. Video from outside the explosion, appears below:
The battle for Bakhmut has emerged as one of the most intensive and bloody engagements of the armed conflict in Ukraine, with both sides reportedly suffering significant casualties. Western officials have claimed that the city poses no strategic military value, but Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky pledged to defend it as long as possible after proclaiming the city a fortress.
Kiev’s attempts to cling onto Bakhmut, regardless of the losses, has “almost destroyed the Ukrainian army,” Prigozhin claimed earlier this week. However, Wagner fighters, who led the charge to capture the Donetsk People’s Republic city, also took “a serious beating,” he acknowledged.
UPDATE 7:49 PM EDT —
The Cultural Center and Freedom Square near the Administrative Block in Central Bakhmut is now under Russian/Wagner Control; Heavy Fighting is still ongoing in the North of the City with Russian Forces attempting to Advance.
UPDATE 9:57 PM EDT —
Among the many Ukrainian patches from dead soldiers in Bahkmut, many of them were AMERICAN patches!
In order for America to fight in Ukraine against Russia they made their soldiers “retire” on paper then sent them in as “mercenaries.”
This tactic was also used by almost ALL other NATO countries.
Russia faced upwards of 30 NATO countries in this single city, and NATO got it’s ass handed to them by Russia.
Hang on! We knew about Covid WHEN?
GPS Trackers That Show Cats’ Activity During The Night
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Australian government organization came up with a project to show people how their pet cats are actually active. They used GPS trackers to map out their activity. In Australia cats are considered invasive species and can have devastating effects on the native wildlife. Often cats’ owners are convinced that their pets don’t roam around at night, so the aim of this project is to show them what’s really going on.
Douglas Macgregor: “Ukrainians are BEING WIPED OUT, THIS IS SERIOUS”
https://youtu.be/SexcimxeRCM
Breakfast Shrimp
Breakfast Shrimp is a classic Low Country preparation of shrimp and grits. Credited to Mrs. Ben Scott Whaley in the Charleston Receipts cookbook.
2023 04 04 06 40
Ingredients
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 teaspoons chopped green bell pepper
3 tablespoons bacon grease
1 1/2 cups small, peeled raw shrimp
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 cup water (or more)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
Instructions
Fry onion and green pepper in bacon grease.
When onion is golden, add shrimp; turn these several times with onion and pepper. Add enough water to make a sauce — about 1 cup. Do not cover shrimp with water or your sauce will be tasteless. Simmer for 2 or 3 minutes and thicken with flour and a little water made into a paste.
Add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup. Cook slowly until sauce thickens.
Serve with hominy.
Yield: 4 servings.
Garbage – Fix Me Now – Bizarre Festival 1996
Oil Jumps 7% After Surprise OPEC Production Cuts; Russia & India Adopt New Oil Benchmark, ABANDON European “Brent” crude pricing
Prices for a barrel of oil jumped 7 to 8% last night in pre-market trading, after OPEC+ announced a reduction in oil production of about 1.1 Million barrels per day.
Last night, oil hit $80.98 per barrel, and continues to rise today:
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As this story is written, 10:04 AM EDT on April 3, 2023, The West Texas Intermediate contract jumped 5.74% to $80.01 a barrel, while Brent jumped 5.67% to $84.42
This will translate into higher prices at the gasoline pump for cars and the diesel pump for trucks, which then causes a rise in consumer prices for everything that has to move by truck. This type of demand inflation cannot be halted by central banks raising interest rates.
NEW PRICING MECHANISM
More shockingly, the top oil producers in Russia and in India agreed to change the market pricing mechanism they use to price oil transactions.
The largest oil producer in Russia and India’s top refiner have agreed to adopt the Asia-focused Dubai oil price benchmark. They have abandoned the Europe-dominated Brent benchmark. The signals are changing.
This will make it much easier for countries to buy oil WITHOUT USING THE U.S. DOLLAR!
That’s huge.
They just told the US / Eurotrash to FOAD. (F*ck-Off and Die)
Basically, they’re sizzling the West’ bacon and there’s nothing we can do about it short of war.
DIO- Caught In The Middle
What Would Animals Say If They Could Speak?
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All of us have already wondered what animals think and what they would say to us if they could talk. Jimmy Craig tried to answer this question with these amusing comics which are part of a series called “They Can Talk.”
The US version of democracy has utterly failed its people, resulting in a laundry list of chronic domestic problems.
The country’s massive national debt of over $31 trillion, economic inequality, inflation, stagnant wages for the last forty years, costly healthcare, expensive education system, student loan debt totaling $1.7 trillion with an average balance of $38,000, racial inequality, mass incarceration, the militarization of police, deteriorating infrastructure, housing affordability, homelessness, the opioid epidemic, and gun violence are all direct consequences of misguided government policies.
Shockingly, no other developed country has such severe and widespread issues.
Both of the country’s political parties are hostile to each other and deeply divided, yet they point fingers at other countries as the source of their problems.
The US has the audacity to promote its flawed version of democracy to other countries, despite being mired in problems and controversies at home.
They have started an astronomical 201 wars since WWII, overthrown 36 foreign leaders, killed or attempted to kill 50, dropped bombs in 30 countries, interfered in 86 foreign elections, and established a staggering 800 overseas military bases.
To make matters worse, they are the world’s largest arms exporter, far surpassing the combined exports of the next nine countries.
In the name of democracy, the US has caused the deaths of tens of millions of people in their conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria.
The CIA was also involved in covert operations that led to mass killings of communists in over 22 countries, and more than 500,000 Indonesian civilians disappeared in 1965-1966.
The Chinese military has not been involved in any war or used its weapons to kill a single person outside its territory in the last forty-four years.
Despite having a per capita GDP one-sixth that of the US, China is enthusiastically expending an enormous amount of its resources to assist in the development of other countries.
Highly recommended. It is long, about 10 speakers, with 10 minutes each of punchy and powerful presentations.
I have discussed this previously. Both Russia and China have laid out their reasons for a hot war with the Unified West.
Here is a very good ten minute long (or so) video by Gonzalo Lira on what is going on.
I suggest you all watch it.
Nothing else needs to be said.
MM Comment
The Chinese argument is spot-on.
You will also notice that all communication between the Chinese government and the United States has ended since these latest Taiwan fuck-ups initiated by the USA. Xi Peng is refusing all calls from Blinkedin, and all “officials” from the USA are ignored.
What’s going on?
Politics?
No. Serious shit is going down. Serious.
Both Russia and China are saying that the United States is a “rabid dog” and that something needs to be done. You cannot talk, negotiate or deal with a rabid dog. You can only “put him down”.
To euthanize an animal, typically to prevent its suffering in old age or illness, or because it poses a threat to humans or other animals. We decided to put our dog down last week. He was in so much pain from cancer that we felt it would be cruel to let him struggle on.
Put our dog down - Idiom
Global changes are hitting hot and heavy. We are really in the thick of it.
While there is a chance that a nuclear world war 3 could occur, it is looking like the West hit a wall. China and Russia declared “checkmate”. And there is nothing the USA can do.
Every move it makes is a losing move.
The world is interconnected, to deny that is to risk economic destruction.
So what is going on is simple. If the USA plows ahead with a hard hot war, the systems in place will zero out all banks, and the Untied States, without resources, or much in the way of assets, will flounder and then try to tread water, but eventually it will sink down into the depths and drown. It’s over.
So relax.
Sure, there’s a chance in foolhardy actions, but I have faith in the American military. Not in the American “leadership”. All will be well.
Be prudent. Follow the aforementioned guidelines, but please stay optimistic. All is good.
In March 2023.
main qimg 02fb6165b91a30f51b633d3b4012c8e5
1. Saudi Arabia and China to build refinery for 83.7 billion Chinese Yuan ($12.2 billion)
2. China and France complete first LNG trade using RMB
3. Russia considers using Chinese Yuan as reserve currency.
4. China and Brazil agree to use Chinese Yuan to settle trade rather than US dollars
5. Saudi Arabia considers accepting Chinese Yuan for oil sales
6. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) announced development of a new currency
7. President of Kenya tells citizens to get rid of US dollars.
8. India says they will settle trade in Indian rupees with certain countries rather than US dollars
9. Chinese yuan passes Euro to become Brazil’s second-largest currency in foreign reserves
10. IMF data shows that Russia now has ~33% of all reverses in Chinese Yuan
11. China and Russia agreed to use the Chinese Yuan as a settlement currency
12. Over $225 billion has been withdrawn from US banks in just 2 weeks.
U.S. calls for joint G-7 action to prevent China’s economic bullying – Nikkei Asia
The trouble for US is that G7 is nothing to China economically and militarily. It’s “small potatoes”.
U.S. calls for joint G-7 action to prevent China’s economic bullying – Nikkei Asia
SMIC’s revenue grew 33.6 per cent year on year to US$7.2 billion in 2022, while net profits reached US$1.8 billion, both record amounts
R&D spending equaled 10.1 per cent of total revenue, down for a third year from 11.7 per cent and 17.3 per cent in 2021 and 2020, respectively
2023 04 02 19 38
China’s top chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), which has been on a US trade blacklist for more than two years, said it posted record revenue and profits for 2022, thanks to strong demand for legacy chips in the world’s second-largest economy.
In 2022, the second full year the Shanghai-based company was restricted from importing key chip-making tools, SMIC saw its revenue grow 33.6 per cent year on year to US$7.2 billion, while net profits attributable to shareholders reached US$1.8 billion, both record amounts, according to its annual report released on Tuesday.
Its gross profit margin, a key indicator of profitability, reached 38 per cent last year, up from 30.8 per cent in 2021.
SMIC said it derived 74 per cent of its total 2022 revenue from China, up four percentage points compared to 2021, adding that the production capacity of its domestic fabs is still short of market demand, while its technology level lags behind global peers.
SMIC reportedly reached a technology breakthrough last year, producing a cryptocurrency mining chip at the 7-nanometre process node, without the need for cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet lithography machines from Dutch firm ASML. SMIC has never publicly commented on the reported breakthrough.
In its latest annual report, the foundry offered some technology insights, but stopped short of revealing details of its tech prowess, which is closely watched by analysts. FinFet technology, a type of 3D transistor that enables process nodes below 20-nm, was listed among its offerings, but the company did not disclose details of the process nodes it has achieved.
SMIC is the only foundry in China with 14-nm production capability.
As Finland Enters NATO, Revelations that NATO Nukes COULD Be put on Russia Border
In a move that could risk infuriating Russia, or turning Finland into another Ukraine, nuclear weapons could be positioned in Finland if the country’s application to join NATO is approved, according to a report from a Finnish newspaper.
Both Finland and Sweden submitted applications to join NATO in May, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the Helsinki-based newspaper Iltalehti, the bill regarding potential NATO membership the Finnish government will put before parliament doesn’t include any opt-outs for nuclear weapons.
Speaking to the paper, defense sources said Finland’s foreign and defense ministers, Pekka Haavisto and Antti Kaikkonen, gave a “commitment” to NATO in July that they wouldn’t seek “restrictions or national reservations” if Helsinki’s application is accepted.
Foreign policy insiders told Iltalehti this means NATO nuclear weapons could transit through, or be based on, Finnish territory. Additionally, there are no restrictions on establishing NATO bases in the country.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told Yle, the country’s national broadcasting company, on Saturday why she had not ruled out accepting nuclear weapons on Finnish territory when applying to NATO.
“I’ve considered it very important that we don’t set these kinds of preconditions, or limit our own room for maneuvering, when it comes to permanent bases or nuclear weapons,” Marin said, although she added it was unlikely that nuclear weapons would be stationed on Finnish soil.
The U.S. already has around 100 nuclear weapons in Europe, positioned in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey according to the Federation of American Scientists.
I write wonky, non-fiction books about China and publish an even wonkier newsletter for central bankers interested in Chinese governance.
It’s a niche market, you could say but though I specialize obsessively in an unfashionable topic, I have longed for popular recognition as much as any writer. Then a publisher friend to whom I complained suggested Substack. Distribution was free, he said, the interface simple, publishing takes seconds and, he added encouragingly, “Nobody reads your stuff anyway, so what have you got to lose?”.
I spent thousands looking for that audience on Google, Amazon and Facebook and none was cost-effective. But when I put my ravings on Substack, lots of people found them and even sent me money.
Substack is the most accessible, affordable medium for finding and creating an audience for non-fiction writers. If you write, write. Let Substack find your audience because it’s really good at that. Focus on your writing and, eventually, Substack will start pay you for the privilege of representing you.
Such a deal.
FUNKY MONKEY BABYS 「ちっぽけな勇気」
De-dollarisation is happening quicker than we imagined. Brazil and China have decided to cut dollar trade. Tanzania just signed an agreement to conduct all trade with India in Rupees and Tanzanian currency.
I bet the US is pretty mad about it?
I think this is mostly happening without the knowledge of Americans. Literally, American and British news must be the shittiest news products on the entire planet. Saudi Arabia killed the petrodollar, the arrangement where oil contracts are settled in US dollars.
When that happens, the dollars that are sitting reserve will be freed up and come back to where they can buy products and services, the United States and the broader West. US dollars will be concentrated in the West and will drive up inflation. Furthermore, as the US dollar loses reserve currency status, it will be much harder for the US to finance its massive debt. The Ukraine War will end the US dollars 77-year run as the world’s reserve currency. The BRICS Plus countries will have a larger economy than the West in a decade or so. In another answer to this question, someone else pointed out that even non-BRICS countries are ditching the US dollar as a reserve currency. Joe Biden huffed and puffed and blustered and blew down the American financial system.
US new shows are trying to tell Americans that China cannot produce computer chips without Taiwan in the foreseeable future. This is complete bullcrap, but Americans believe the US new shows that got Ukraine completely wrong. Americans believe new shows that couldn’t predict the economy yesterday.
Lukashenko’s aircraft, a Boeing 737 that he uses for international travel, was also designated for sanctions, which blocks its use in the U.S. Hum. I wonder how attractive these actions make for American-made products…?
By now it’s clear that the Chips and Science Act — which includes a $52 billion splurge for the semiconductor industry — is unlikely to work as intended. In fact, its looming failure is a microcosm of all that’s wrong with America’s current approach to building things.
2023 04 02 06 50
Passed last year with bipartisan support, the law was meant to revive US chipmaking capacity. Although America is a world leader in cutting-edge chip design, its share of global semiconductor manufacturing has declined from 37% in 1990 to about 12% Given the importance of such chips to the economy and especially to national security — the Defense Department needs about 1.9 billion of them a year — a more or less coherent case could be made for subsidies, prudently applied.
Yet simply writing checks was never going to be enough. Producing chips in the US still takes 25% longer and costs nearly 50% more than doing so in Asia. Significant policy changes would be needed for US-based manufacturers to be even remotely competitive. As things stand, they face three serious impediments — all inflicted by the government.
Chief among them is red tape. From 1990 to 2020, the time required to construct new chip plants (called fabs) in the US soared by 38%.
Clean Air Act permits can take 18 months. National Environmental Policy Act reviews take an average of four and a half years. A half dozen other federal laws may come into play, plus endless state and local variants. At every step, myriad agencies must be consulted and parochial interests must be heard.
Yet technology does not stand still for these bureaucratic tea parties; such delays only add expenses, discourage private investment, and prevent US manufacturers from seriously competing with overseas rivals.
Baked Ham in Foil
2023 04 01 09 11
Ingredients
1/2 cup water
1 (3- to 4-pound precooked boneless ham
Instructions
Pour cup water into slow cooker.
Wrap precooked boneless ham in foil; put into slow cooker.
Cover, and cook on HIGH for 1 hour, then on LOW for 6 to 7 hours or until ham is hot.
Biden JUST Made 71 Million Americans ANGRY!
Vietnam
2023 04 01 20 03
The First Dinosaur Tail Discovered Is Preserved In Amber, 99 Million Years Old And Covered In Feathers
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A dinosaur tail with beautifully preserved feathers still attached to the bone has been found preserved in amber, and it’s one of the coolest things we’ve ever seen. It’s not the first time feathers have been found trapped in amber, but it is the first time that researchers have been able to definitively link them to a dinosaur. The discovery will provide invaluable insight into how dinosaurs’ feathers looked and evolved – something we’ve never been able to learn from fossils.
1) Brutan is a land lock country reliance on India to access the rest of the world.
2023 04 02 19 24
2) geographically, they can only access (import/export /car/train) via India. So, India control Brutan economy, and they have to endure bullying from India.
3) brutan problem is like Nepal.
4) But, with the upgrade of the Chinese infrastructure building ability, the first road and bridges link between Nepal and China successfully completed through very difficult terrain, and hence Nepal no longer exclusively reliance on India to access the world , so in the past years, there are on going news of Nepal soldiers shooting at intruding Indian soldiers.
5) so, now, like Nepal, brutan working with China to access the world via infrastructure link to China
Indian influence collapsed once the project completed.
Russia IS INVADING, ITS WORSE THAN THEY EVER IMAGINED
https://youtu.be/wrVbr76pCxg
“Facing Clear Evidence of Peril” in a Country of Lies
Perhaps silence is the best response to the endless cavalcade of official lies that is United States history. The Internet and digital technology have allowed those lies to increase exponentially in number and frequency with the result that people’s minds have become like 7-Eleven stores, open 24/7 for snack-crap “news.”
But once you become conscious that it’s lies night and day, it sets your head aswirl and plunges your soul into depths of despair. You are tempted to retreat from such knowledge and talk of trees and trivia. But you are ashamed of your country. It’s hard to laugh. You feel you are drowning. You flounder and gasp for air. You look around and wonder why most people are able to go their merry ways believing the lies and whistling in the dark. Junk news nation, indeed.
Yes, there are alternative voices who tell the truth, but their audiences and monetary support are very small or non-existent compared to the corporate mainstream media and those who shout and scream across the Internet as they take in a lot of money from naive followers. The recent revelations about Alex Jones’s wealth probably don’t bother his diehard fans, but they should. Likewise, the funding sources for websites and writers of various persuasions are important to know, for they reveal possible biases in their work. Snake oil salesmen are commonplace, and there are many naive customers lining up for their wares.
Wealth and power are the main drivers of the media chicanery that has captured so many minds. Writers, of course, should be fairly paid for their work, but in this Internet age, most are not. As with the movies and book publishing, the income gap between the big names – the celebrity stars – and less well-known writers, even if their work is excellent, is huge.
Some sites and writers make a lot of money, but who they are is a guessing game. No one’s talking. Some regularly tell their readers that if they don’t receive enough contributions, they will be unable to continue to write or publish, even when the sites do not pay their contributors. Whether this is good marketing or income-by-threat is up for grabs. Whichever it is, it seems to work, as far as I can tell, for these writers and websites don’t disappear.
Money is the dirty secret of all news and commentary. To paraphrase someone: It is very difficult to get truth from writers whose income is dependent on pleasing those who fund them.
You may have noticed how many former military officers, CIA agents, mainstream journalists, pharmaceutical company executives, and sundry other government and corporate bigwigs appear in the mainstream and alternative media to support or oppose government policies. The mainstream ones doing the propaganda they always did, while the alternative ones appear as converts to the dissident faith. No one ever explains how and by whom these people are financed or how their lucrative pensions affect their consciences. “Former” is a funny word. Ha Ha Ha.
Confidence “men” come in all shapes and sizes with no one talking money.
So let me fess up. I received about $200 in support last year for edwardcurtin.com, my website. Nothing before that and not a cent over the last 5-6 years for many hundreds of articles that have appeared very widely across the Internet. Before the Internet, publications paid for work, mine and others. Not now, at least for me. How much money writers are receiving, and who is supporting their sites, is a taboo subject.
So I am thinking about selling mugs at my site with my name and mug shot on them and a line of supplements that will increase one’s testosterone and estrogen in equal measure to make sure no one takes offense in this era of delicate feelings. Ha Ha Ha. Yes, the joke is on us. I identify as a man since I am one. Don’t be offended.
Jokes aside, as Leonard Cohen sang:
“Oh, like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free”
If you are stubborn enough and have the good fortune to find inspiration from those brave dissidents who have gone before us and those who continue to lead us on, you realize silence is betrayal and that you must speak, even if all seems hopeless at times. Even when no one is paying you, or maybe more accurately, because no one is paying you. Even though it is hopeless, even though it isn’t. This is another secret. There are many.
It’s been twenty years since the U.S. brutally invaded Iraq. When George W. Bush, at a staged pseudo-event in Cincinnati on October 7, 2002, as he set Americans up for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, said, “Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun, that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud,” no one laughed him out of the house. His claim was simply an evil joke that was reported as truth. It was all predictable, blatant deception. And the media played along with such an absurdity, which is their job and what they always do. I pointed it out at the time in a newspaper column, but who listened to a hick writer in a regional newspaper.
Iraq obviously had no nuclear weapons or the slightest capability to deliver even a firecracker on the U.S. But the mainstream media, Senator Joe Biden, politicians galore, celebrities like Oprah Winfrey with her guest, the eventually disgraced Judith Miller of the New York Times, the despicable Tony Blair, et al., all supported Bush’s blatant lies. Soon Colin Powell, the “hero” of George H. W. Bush’s 1991 made-for-TV Gulf War of aggression against Iraq, would do his Pinocchio act at the United Nations and the U.S. military was off to get Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden’s evil twin, both the latest Hitlers until Vladimir Putin replaced them. I guess I skipped some others such as Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar Al-Assad. New Hitlers proliferate so fast it’s hard to keep track of them. Ha Ha Ha. The joke is on us.
As everyone knows, or should, more than a million Iraqis died because of George W. Bush, but how many cared? How many cared when once Bush was gone, Barack Obama, aided and abetted by the cackling Hilary Clinton, destroyed Libya and ignited the war against Syria? You want examples? There are too many to name here. But let it be said these lies span all American administrations, whether it’s Bill Clinton continuously bombing Iraq and Serbia through Trump bombing Syria and Somalia, up to the present day with Biden attacking Russia via Ukraine, etc. All these presidents are liars, but their followers treat them otherwise. Biden says Jimmy Carter asked him to deliver his eulogy. What does that tell you? Shall we laugh? Sing?
On the clear understanding
That this kind of thing can happen
Shall we laugh?
Shall we laugh?
Shall we laugh?
Shall we laugh harder if I mention the Covid-19 propaganda and all those writers who have failed to even address it, as they have failed to question 9/11 and other obvious official lies? Is it not evident that if they did so, their money flows might dry up? Here and no further is a widespread rule, for they must adhere to the boundaries imposed by “responsible thought” and the “no go” zones with which they tie their own hands in order to keep their wallets full.
If you are lucky, as I was, when you are young you discover how fearful of free thought and how corrupt our institutional authorities are. You don’t spend decades feasting off the spoils of those institutions only to “wake up” once you have made your name and secured your fortune, which seems to be the way of so many wise luminaries of the Internet Age who are either trying to ease their consciences as they get ready to kick the bucket or are perhaps putting us on.
When I was twenty-four years-old, I accepted my first teaching job at a small Catholic college where I taught theology. I had been trained in the latest and best scholarly work of the most renown international theologians. Rather than indoctrinating my students with rote learning, I taught them to read widely and think deeply in the tradition of a liberal arts education. To seek out the best scholarship.
But doing so became quickly apparent to the college and Church authorities who were stuck in the inquisitorial age of obedience or else and no thinking allowed. Although my students loved my courses and felt freed up for the first time to think about their spiritual lives, I was hounded to correct my heretical teaching, which of course I refused to do.
At one point when I was at lunch in the cafeteria, a nun who was a professor, stole my brief case with my notes and left the cafeteria. One of my students saw her do this and chased her into the ladies’ room where the nun hid in a stall. The nun kept flushing the toilet to scare the student away, but the student wouldn’t let her out until she returned the briefcase. Ha Ha Ha. It sounds funny to recount but was an example of my experience at this college. Someone vandalized my office door and ripped down anti-war posters that were on it. I was gone from that college soon thereafter. It taught me a lot. Obey or else.
Heresy: The Latin word is from Greek hairesis, a taking or choosing for oneself, a choice.
At another teaching job a year or so later, I had a more chilling experience. I was known as an anti-war activist, a conscientious objector from the Marines, etc., and one day, a late Friday afternoon when few were around, an administrator asked to meet me on a deserted stairwell where he proceeded in hushed tones to try to convince me to join him in Army Intelligence to spy on others. He said I would be perfect for the job since I was known as an anti-war dissident. I told him to fuck off, but I was shocked by his double life and his request.
I have since learned that this guy the spy was not an anomaly, for government confidence men are widespread.
I’ve had many other such early experiences for which I am very grateful, even though when I was fired from jobs and lost income it was traumatic at the time. By my thirtieth year, I knew the system was corrupt to its core and subsequent experience has only ratified that conclusion. I got the joke.
I recount these incidents not because my experiences are singular and I’m special, for others have suffered the same youthful fate. But such good fortune can fortify you for life or break your spirit. If the former, you don’t wait to retire to push back against all the lies or regret your past. You find that it’s all good and life has set you on the heretic’s path of freedom and choice. You realize that what you went through is absolutely nothing compared to people around the world who have and continue to suffer at the hands of the U.S. military industrial complex. You realize your experiences are trivial in the larger scope of things and that your government’s conduct is beyond condemnation. It is an abomination. You feel ashamed to live in a land where killing is a game.
The sociologist Peter Berger puts it well in his little classic, Invitation to Sociology, when he discusses experiences that lead to seeing through the play-acting nature of social life:
Experiences such as these may lead to a sudden reversal in one’s view of society – from an awe-inspiring vision of an edifice made of massive granite to the picture of a toy-house precariously put together with papier mâché. While such metamorphosis may be disturbing to people who have hitherto had great confidence in the stability and rightness of society, it can also have a very liberating effect on those more inclined to look upon the latter as a giant sitting on top of them, and not necessarily a friendly giant at that. It is reassuring to discover that the giant is afflicted with a nervous tick.
Notice the giant George W. Bush’s clicking eyes as he delivers his “facing clear evidence of peril” lies for the invasion of Iraq. He and his presidential good friends are cardboard cartoon characters whose eyes reveal their evil intentions. “It’s a Barnum and Bailey world/Just as phony as it can be,” but it would all fall to pieces if it weren’t for you and me failing to see through all the bad actors, not just presidents but the whole cast of characters that populate the Spectacle of news and opinion.
The Russians are coming! Ha Ha Ha. Yes, Oliver, the joke’s on us.
But it’s not really funny, except in the most sardonic and dark way, for we now do really face clear evidence of peril as a result of Biden and his crazy predecessors who have run U.S. foreign policy for so long. They have brought us to the edge of nuclear war with Russia by surrounding Russia with NATO bases and nuclear weapons, while doing the same to China.
The form of democracy in Western countries is devoid
The food supply of every American is going to start being INTENTIONALLY POISONED with mRNA genetic modifications being fraudulently called “vaccines.”
Lobbyists for the cattleman and pork associations in several states have CONFIRMED they WILL be using mRNA vaccines in pigs and cows THIS MONTH. It will actually become “vaccine food” and sold to YOU without your INFORMED CONSENT.
Buying and eating this beef or this pork may adversely affect you. In some cases, it may KILL you.
Attorney Tom Renz says “To be clear – at this point there are zero states requiring informed consent for “vaccine food”. While I would argue that it must be done under existing law . . .”
Renz goes on to point out, there is an article from the year 2000 about “edible vaccines”: (Article HERE) The article demonstrates how hiding a “vaccine” in foods, is absorbed into the body:
EdibleVaxGraphic
The trouble with this particular circumstance is that, to this day, no manufacturer of an mRNA vaccine, has fully disclosed the medically-active contents of the so-called “COVID “vaccines.” Moreover, tens-of-thousands of people have already DIED after receiving these so-called “vaccines” and hundreds-of-thousands of other people have become very sick or permanently injured from them.
NOW, if you were one of the smart people (like me) who DID NOT take those COVID (death dart) jabs, we will be intentionally POISONED with the mRNA because they’re putting it in our food without our informed consent.
Lawsuits will be too late. We’ll already be poisoned and dying. The public is reminded that “immunity” only works in court. It offers no protection to the people doing this, from street justice.
Forcibly stopping someone who is trying to poison you is legal self defense.
“You Will Be Depressed!” – Why Single, Aging Women FREAK OUT When They Hit The Wall
Budweiser Suicides “Bud Light” with new Trans Spokesperson
Budweiser, “the King of Beers” appears to many people to have just committed “brand-suicide” for Bud Light, by bringing on a Trans as a spokesperson. You can watch the suicide video below.
Why is this Brand suicide you ask? Well, think about it: Now, every time a guy is seen holding a Bud Light, everyone’s going to think he’s a homo. And everytime a girl is seen holding a bug Light, everyone will wonder if she’s _really_ a girl. Result . . . . probable brand suicide.
Don’t fret, guys. While we say R.I.P. to Bud Light, we can also say Hi to . . . .
2023 04 02 19 35
Corona girl!
Cranberry Pork Chops
2023 04 02 19 30
Ingredients
6 bone-in pork loin chops
1 (16 ounce) can jellied cranberry sauce
1/2 cup cranberry or apple juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
Instructions
Place pork chops in a slow cooker.
Combine cranberry sauce, juice, sugar and mustard until smooth; pour over chops.
Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or until meat is tender.
Remove chops; keep warm.
In a saucepan, combine cornstarch and cold water until smooth; gradually stir in cooking juices. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.
Stir in salt and pepper.
Serve over chops.
China & Brazil DITCH The U.S. Dollar!
Elon Musk Sounds the Alarm About the U.S. Dollar
The billionaire global CEO worries about the loss of the greenback’s influence which he attributes to the Biden administration’s foreign policy.
LUC OLINGAMAR 30, 2023 6:15 PM EDT
Elon Musk has become something of a watchdog over the actions of the U.S. government on the international stage.
The tech mogul gained influence in geopolitics by providing Starlink to Ukraine in the war with Russia. Starlink is an independent satellite internet service, developed by Musk's rocket company SpaceX. This service allows the Ukrainian Armed Forces to maintain secure communications on the front lines and Ukrainian civilians to stay in touch with the world.
This invaluable assistance to a country struggling for its independence has made the CEO of Tesla (TSLA) - Get Free Report one of the most powerful voices around the world on pressing issues facing the planet.
In recent weeks, the tech mogul has turned into a real headache for the Biden administration, which has reiterated its support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. This conflict, which has entered its second year, has still no end in sight. Musk advocates a peace solution that involves making concessions to Russia, which Ukraine and its allies categorically refuse.
Is the Dollar Losing Its Reserve Currency Status?
Washington and its European allies have thus tightened the sanctions against Russia. But the absence of an exit strategy from the Russian war has launched the debate about the American support for Ukraine via NATO. Critics blame the Biden administration for its tough line on Kremlin.
This debate is fueled by Musk and his friends who believe that the absence of a peaceful solution to end the Russia-Ukraine war has dealt a huge blow to American diplomacy and to the United States' place in the world.
They say that evidence of this is the rapprochement between China and Russia, two of the main enemies of the United States. They argue that adopting a hard line toward Russia has undermined America's international and geopolitical standing and prestige.
Musk considers, for example, that U.S. diplomats have become warmongers, which has brought America's enemies closer together. One of the victims of this rapprochement could be the dollar, symbol of the economic power of the United States.
He has just issued an alert to warn that the dollar could lose its role as the world's reserve currency. The warning was issued in a thread on Twitter.
"The US dollar is losing its reserve currency status," Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA, a former small cap money manager, wrote on Twitter on Mar. 29, adding in another tweet that the U.S. dollar "has been the backbone of the global economy for decades. Several countries even use the US Dollar as an official currency, like El Salvador, Panama, and Ecuador."
Musk shares these concerns.
"Serious issue," the billionaire warned. "US policy has been too heavy-handed, making countries want to ditch the dollar."
In addition to foreign policy, Musk also attributes the weakening of the dollar to the federal government's fiscal policy.
"Combined with excess government spending, which forces other countries to absorb a significant part of our inflation," he added.
Russia and Saudi Arabia
The dollar is considered the reserve currency of central banks. This means that various national central banks, which hold reserves in foreign currencies, do so mainly in U.S. dollars.
This allows the United States not to have to hold foreign exchange reserves in currencies of other countries, and especially helps to finance the deficit of its balance of payments. This status of the dollar dates back to the end of the Second World War and symbolizes the power of the US on the global stage.
Central banks around the world hold approximately 60 percent of their foreign exchange reserves in U.S. dollars. Nearly half of international trade, loans and global debt securities are transacted in dollars. But the sanctions imposed on Russia, as a result of the war with Ukraine, have helped to encourage efforts to "de-dollarize" global trade, some experts say.
Russia is looking at the yuan to replace the dollar, and Saudi Arabia may follow, Fox News has reported.
For Musk, if we get there, it is because American diplomacy lost its standing during the Russia-Ukraine war.
BY LUC OLINGA
Meet Mebaru, the Japanese Felt Artist Taking Instagram by Storm with Adorable Felted Cat Sculptures
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Mebaru is an artist who has gained a huge following on Instagram thanks to their incredibly realistic felted cat sculptures.
From playful poses to intricate depictions of specific breeds, these felted creations are sure to steal your heart. We invite you to take a look at these cute and realistic felted cats and get lost in the world of Mebaru’s creations.
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So THIS was all a LIE in Ukraine?
What do you dislike most about the U.S.?
Hi.
I am an Australian who is married to an American and, due to the nature of my work, lived ALL OVER the US over a decade.
Half my family are American and many of my closest friends.
In short, I’m very fond of the United States and support my nation’s close affiliation with them.
So please forgive me if I’m blunt.
This is NOT an American bash, it’s an honest expression of the one thing that [SOME] Americans do that never fails to trigger me.
“We saved your asses in World War Two”.
Americans often tell us bluntly, over and over how they “saved our arses” in both World Wars.
I assure you, EVERY SINGLE Brit, Aussie, Kiwi or Canadian reading along can hear those words spoken in an American accent as they read them.
That’s how often we hear it.
Almost weekly.
Certainly once a month.
Wars that we ourselves stepped up and fought in the protection of others.
Wars that wouldn’t even have affected us directly.
Wars we fought for YEARS before the United States.
Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand particularly could have turned their backs on Western Europe.
Britain herself could have closed her borders and looked the other way.
Hitler had no designs on the UK – He admired them.
All they had to do was stand back and allow the holocaust to happen.
But of course, they couldn’t because fighting Nazi Germany was the right thing to do.
We didn’t make Britain wait 3.2 and 2.3 years to enter either great war.
We were there from day one.
We didn’t charge Britain for our goods or help.
We didn’t keep a tally and make them pay it back for seventy years.
We didn’t insist they realign their trade preferences to favour our markets setting their still very young colonies prematurely adrift or cost them their empire, wealth, dignity or preeminence as a world power.
We didn’t use Britain’s plight as a springboard for our own wealth and dominance or spend the following century diluting their culture with shallow consumerism.
CANZUK didn’t ask for anything.
We just went because we’re family and that’s what family does and despite what some of you are going to assert in the comments, yes, America, though you are the black sheep you are also family.
Speaking for Australia, from a population of six million (2/3 of which were women, children, the elderly and infirm), a full one million Australian men served in the military during the Second World war.
Let that sink in.
We had, from our far-flung nation gathered together the fourth-largest air force in the world and the fifth largest navy and lost so many men in every theater of both World Wars that we had a noticeable lack of them right into the late 1970s.
Indeed, by the time American boots had touched the ground in North Africa and Europe, CANZUK had already sacrificed literally millions of men.
It’s SO, rude.
I’m not even sure you understand just how disrespectful it is and how much damage it does [at street level] to our relationships with the US.
Honestly – it’s there in the pit of all our stomachs whenever we even engage with an American.
I will leave you with this quote from the memoirs of one of your own.
American journalist Ernie Pyle who was killed in action by the Japanese in April 1945.
His account of D-day and the liberation of Paris.
“One cannot help but be moved by the colossus of our invasion. It was a bold and mighty thing. One of the epics of all history. I hope that we can rejoice in victory but humbly. The dead men would not want us to gloat.”
Peace.
Dedicated to the memories of our grandfathers.
Those that never came home and those that came home altered.
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and the United States.
Bhutan
First, a disclaimer: I’m not a Bhutan expert.
.
The China-Bhutan border agreement hasn't happened yet, but it does seem to be imminent. I'm just commenting right off my memory, which is as good as it gets. You can probably wiki and find a lot more details. China had long ago reached a treaty with Bhutan by an exchange of land. But India intervened at the last minute, forced Bhutan to overturn everything and start all over. Given that China ended up having to renegotiate its Bhutan border treaty with India, nothing happened ever since then. India has been perfectly happy keeping its soldiers in Bhutan, and keeping Bhutan a poor, undeveloped landlocked country completely dependent on India. I can understand how a lot of the people living in the "Land of Happiness" feel like they're trapped in the lowest level of Naraka.When the Doklam brouhaha between China and India broke out, it was over the unsettled area between China and Bhutan. Theoretically, it had nothing to do with India, except that India had soldiers stationed in Bhutan, and was supposed to defend Bhutan. In any case, Bhutan never asked India to defend itself against China. This fact was never mentioned in any Western press, forget about the Indian press. Finally, Bhutan let the cat out of the bag, and India, somehow, thinks that they have been stabbed in the back. I remember at the time of the Doklam standoff, I checked out Bhutanese comments from various social platforms. Most of them had very little positive things to say about India. It looked hopeful at the time that Bhutan would soon become Nepal 2.0.I don't usually follow Bhutan news. In any case, there are precious few channels talking about them. But I do follow a lot of India news channels (like a good detective, you can learn a lot from people's garbage), and there has been an outcry of India having been betrayed by Bhutan. It seems that after decades of nothing happening with the border treaty and wasting a lot of time with India in the way, China finally told Bhutan that if this mountain nation did not have authority to negotiate its own border treaty, then the two parties should just walk away, at least until such times when Bhutan is confident that it can decide its own sovereign issues. Bhutan is not stupid. They notice how things have been changing for Nepal. They don't want to be dead in the stagnant waters of India. They want to be connected to the world through China. As such China and Bhutan have been working steadily toward a common goal despite India. In January of this year, a Bhutanese delegation met with a Chinese delegation in Kunming to push forward the settlement of the China-Bhutan border. India was not invited. Needless to say, the Indians, acting like an overbearing overlord demanded to know the details of the meeting. This was expected, and confidential information would not be divulged. The roadmap likely included contingencies relating to how India would react. It may also include how Bhutan may allay India's fears, at the same time, gaining more concessions from Modi. It appears at this point that the China-Bhutan border settlement is a fait accompli. It's too late for India to interfere. The train has left the station and the ship has set sail. How do I know? By the Bhutanese letting the cat out of the bag. They made a mistake many years ago. They are not going to make it again unless they are very certain it's going to happen. So, very soon, China and Bhutan will establish diplomatic relations. There will be airports, highways, dams, 5G, Internet and tourists. Most importantly, at the right moment, Indian soldiers will be politely asked to leave quietly. At the end of the day, China does want to settle its border with India. Maybe it will help the Indians come to their senses.PM
I Missed Out on Marriage and Children | Women Regretting Feminism
Why does the USA want TikTok banned?
This is something that AMERICANS need to UNDERSTAND. TikTok is only an EXCUSE to pass thru Orwellian legislation to control the type of information that Americans received so that they do NOT have access to alternate information other than the narrative that the state want them to believe AND to spy on them.
The legislation, Bill S686, is also known as the Restrict Bill. Here are the key points behind that legislation:
CURRENT foreign adversaries – America’s favourite bogeymen – which can CHANGE by definition are China, Cuba, Korea Iran, Russian Federation. More importantly, these definition can CHANGE at ANYTIME.
It covers hardware technologies such as modems, routers, cameras and virtual techs such as VPN if they are manufacture or use to contact “foreign adversaries”
Using VPN to bypass banned apps such as TikTok is made a CRIMINAL act under this bill with MINIMUM imprisonment of 20 years AND a minimum fine of $250,000 AND up to one million dollars if you knowingly do so.
It gives the federal government the authority to monitor any activity virtual or otherwise. Essentially they can monitor you 24/7 thru your routers, video games, smartphones, thermostat, cameras, etc.
EVEN more TERRIFYING, this will happen when the President appoint a Secretary of Communication who formed a group on their own without any voter input or oversight whatever, can meet behind closed doors and they can ban or monitor anything deemed inappropriate to security that goes thru the internet.
LET there be NO AMBIGUITY, this legislation is designed to control the information that Americans read and hear so that THEY can be EASILY MANIPULATED AND also designed to spy on Americans. Yes, the law also allows the state to spy on your teen or preteen daughters NAKED or in various stages of undress.
THAT Americans, deliberately bombarded by Messages of Hate, are NOW being HERDED towards war with China
EXCEPT that the United States will be fighting a war with against a powerful BRI Eurasian Alliance
IN a war that the United States will not win and will be defeated
CONSUMED by hate which devour their humanity, they will turn to the only thing they have left…..their nuclear weapons
IN their ATTEMPT to take the world down with them into the depth of the abyss
IN this world, in a country big and small, Haven is now preparing its favourite son to meet the challenges of the end of time AND the Force of Darkness.
VPN Users Risk 20-Year Jail Sentences in the US Under New RESTRICT Act
A bill dubbed the 'RESTRICT' act was submitted to Congress and could have severe consequences for VPN users in the United States.
1 pound boneless pork loin roast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, lean
12 ounces andouille sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups rice, medium-grain white
2 yellow onions, chopped
1 bell pepper (green, red, or both), chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
Instructions
Mix all ingredients except green onions in slow 4 to 6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours, or on HIGH for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Watch carefully during the last 1 hour (LOW) or 1/2 hour (HIGH) of cooking to prevent rice from overcooking.
Just before serving, check seasoning and add green onions.
If the A-10 was designed to be used in uncontested airspace. When it was designed as I understand it it to provided anti-tank and close air support in the fulda gap in Germany, wouldn’t the USSR have portable AAA and anti aircraft missiles?
The A-10 was not designed to be used in uncontested airspace, but it was designed for a time when people were more realistic about losses in war than they are now. The A-10 fleet was expected to be expendable planes thrown in to stop Soviet armored columns, but it was perfectly understood many would not survive that.
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The A-10 were apparently expected by some in the US air force to face an attrition rate of 7% per 100 sorties. And would be expected to do 250 sorties in a day for the fleet in Europe. So within the first 24 hours of a conflict in the 1980s, the US expected over 15% of all A-10s in the theater to be lost.
Considering what was known and how they intended to use them, I would say that was a fairly conservative estimation. Soviet forces were littered with organic AA, and when the A-10 was made the BUK and S-300 missile systems were not really understood yet. The biggest fear was the OSA missile system with a 15km range. With the A-10 expected to visually see targets to engage them, this would be fairly difficult, especially using it’s gun, which is effective at about 1½ km. The original S-300 had ranges of 47–90km depending on variant, but this wasn’t known in the west at the time.
Either way, it was fully expected the A-10s would suffer enormous losses, but was still considered a valuable asset for attempting to disrupt and delay Soviet columns.
Even ChatGPT Knows The U.S. Provoked Russia To Invade Ukraine
21 Life Lessons From Cats
1 48
There’s a lot us, humans, can learn from our feline friends. 21 examples below from New York Times bestselling authors & illustrators Lisa Swerling & Ralph Lazar, who have just launched a new cats project called Tess & Lion.
Kamala Harris in Africa to strengthen US diplomatic ties | DW News
By Dimbwe Maxala from Utube comments
I am from one of the countries on her tour.
I am not sure how the Ghanaians feel about this, but I can safely speak on behalf of Zambia and Tanzania, and say that they US is wasting its time. To get a better understanding of this, perhaps Kamala should travel from Dar Es Salaam to Lusaka Zambia, on the 1600km (1000 mile) railway line that the Chinese built ( and ceded free of charge) for the two countries.
The impetus for the construction of that railway line was that Zambia needed an outlet to the ocean, after the racist white regimes then ruling Rhodesia and South African decided to close off its access to the ocean because of its support for the liberation movements in those countries.
The Chinese who were then as poor as Africans stepped in and built the TAZARA railway line, which lifted that seige of Zambia, allowing the country to export its copper via Dar Es Salaam, rather than the ports of South Africa, as had always been the case.
The Chinese were there, as were the Russians, during the dark time.
Time after time, the US took the side of the racists.
When the negotiations for Zimbabwe’s independence were held in London in 1979, the US and the UK stood together with the brutal white settler regime of Ian Smith.
When the war for Namibia’s independence was going on, the US supported the continued apartheid South African occupation of the country, and blocking the implementation of UN resolution 435, that demanded that the South Africans leave Namibia.
Ronald Reagan insisted on a linkage of the white South African exist from both Namibia and Angola, with the leaving of the Cubans then militarily fighting against South Africa together with government of Angola.
People in Southern African have never forgotten their experience with the West, and Kamala Harris’ charm offensive is unlikely to achieve anything.
Why is political correctness so rampant in the West, but in Asian countries, no one cares?
In western countries it merely matters to be SEEN as the good guy.
Your actions count a whole lot less.
In Asian countries what you DO matters.
Look at the Iraq genocide, they still think they’re the GOOD guys after mass murdering 10000s of Iraqis and Afghans. Because we meant well! It was a mistake so that totally absolves us!
すし娘 ちっぽけな勇気(FUNKY MONKEY BABYS)
Has Xi Jinping killed the goose that lays the golden egg by arbitraily bankrupting the private tutoring industry and with it destroying tens of billions in equity of public companies?
Oh quite the Opposite
All of China will thank him for it one day
Private Tutoring Industry was becoming way out of control.
Initially Tutoring was a boon, it helped Chinese students understand concepts pretty well
However as time went by Tutoring slowly became more and more deeply seated into the Chinese Education structure and every student began to lazily depend on Tutoring which meant Private Tutors could demand more money
With time it became almost like without private tutoring no Urban Chinese student could survive or do without
And slowly Private Tutorial Groups began to rise in value, start IPOs, bloat up without any assets and claim to be worth billions.
Is that a Golden Goose?
Please tell me how many Students do you know in US who go to SAT Coaching or GRE Coaching?
Most Students self study or study in Groups rather than pay for a Tutorial course
Yet in China – students using Private Tutorials rose to nearly 88% by 2019.
They used Tutors for everything and the basic concept understanding that created the Excellent Chinese Students of the 1990s -2010s would slowly be eroded if this nonsense had continued
Spoonfeeding at its worst
And on top of this Most Tutorials became Industries of their own and began marketing and began to ridiculously boost their own valuations
No!!! said Xi Jingping
He had many discussions with Respected Professors and Teachers and fundamentally covered the three Points in 2020 May which included
→ Students ability to think and learn on their own are being affected by Private Tutorials
→ Private Tutorials are grossly inflated and taking full advantage of the Lax focus paid to them in the early 2005–2010
So the CPC said – Let Students who dont understand use Tutors and Tutorials but let Students not become lazy
Thus he decided to formulate and regulate the industry
It was a Brilliant Move
Those who wanted to become Billionaires with Tutoring – scrambled
Those who made good money and genuinely impacted Students to think – stayed and continued to nurture and build more students
Even Today Private Tutoring Exists
Only thing is – the Industry is regulated
Ceiling on Valuation, Mandatory insistence on Registration of Tutors, Syllabus being overseen by the CPC Education Committee to ensure Students can still think and learn on their own, No IPO allowed until 2032, Minimum 15 years for a Tutoring Company, Valuation based on Asset Valuation not Speculative Valuation, No Overseas investment in Private Tution Companies
The Result – The Sharks are GONE or going really fast.
Genuine Tutors and Tutorials are very much here to stay and help students especially weaker ones while also ensuring future students learn on their own and dont get spoonfed
And best of all -Tutorials dont replace Schools and control a Robotic Destiny of Students.
Easily one of the Finest Pieces of Legislation by a World Leader in the 21st Century
Genuius! This Is How China Is Out Of The Economic Crisis Which Killing Every Country
https://youtu.be/-2fBSWfKHZs
How ridiculous do you think the US Congress carried out the interview on TikTok CEO MR. Shou Zi Chew?
What a circus of clowns! Sorry didn’t really want to insult the clowns. Better to compare them to a herd of charging ignoramus buffaloes, or some hungry anacondas, definitely social vermins of the worse kind.
Will the USA take the risk to have a war with China to maintain hegemony?
My comment and answer on Quora. -MM
Indeed, this is a question that many people are asking.
And precisely, because it is on many people’s minds, that I will answer it. Well, without a “crystal ball” perhaps, but in my own way.
So let’s look at the parameters…
[1] No actual leadership
President Biden is a figurehead. There’s no one “upstairs”.
This is not a political assessment. It’s an actual observation by anyone who watches the videos of him. He cycles in and out of clarity, and often appears to be suffering from pretty advanced dementia.
He goes though the motions. Read the teleprompters, and “kisses babies”.
But in the strategy briefing rooms, in high level discussions, and other important roles, he’s present but not proactive.
[2] Careening out of control
Without leadership, the “car careens wildly on the road”.
Financial opportunists place all sorts of bills and initiatives for personal profit “on the table”. These then “grow legs” and take on a life of their own. The Tiktok ban is one such example. Thus the Senate and Congress appears to be simply a forum for grandstanding while the “representatives” try to accept higher and higher piles of cash for their participation.
Congress more aptly resembles a shark feeding frenzy over a cow carcass.
There’s no real statesmanship, leadership, or forward planning. It’s all on “autopilot”, and being run by monied interests.
[3] The road is not empty
It wouldn’t be so bad if the “careening car” is on a wide and open empty highway. But it isn’t. There are many other cars on this road. There are cars with couples. cars with families, and school busses full of children.
It’s only a matter of time before the careening car smashes into someone else.
After smashing into Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, the car is now banging into a large clunky tractor-trailer; Russia. And, each time the tractor-trailer tries to get unstuck the car smashes again, and again, and again. It’s almost like the driver for the United States car has no brakes. It’s acceleration only. And Russia while dinged up, is still moving forward.
Now a big yellow bus full of school children looms up ahead. This is China, and it is enormous (being double-Decker), and powerful, and does not want to be hit.
And everyone around is terrified.
And what does the United States car do?
It “floors” the gas petal, and is zooming straight ahead. The driver seemingly wants to broadside the bus at high speed.
Conclusion
Is it no wonder why people are concerned? People are terrified.
At this stage of the game, and I am loathe to say this, there are only four (x4) things that can stop the upcoming disaster…
The car runs out of gas, and stops dead in the middle of the road. It sputters, and dies.
The people inside the careening car take control of the wheel. And then, carefully and slowly, ease it to the side of the road.
The crazy car drives off the highway on it’s own, and destroys itself without hitting anyone else.
The tractor-trailer and the bus full of children coordinate and with their combined mass, push the madman off the road on their own. And other cars, acting in good faith, help in whatever capacity they can provide.
OPEC+ oil alliance announces surprise production cuts
Good strategy to crush the Western nations economy at a time when they are severely ill .
Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers have announced voluntary cuts to their production amounting to about 1.15 million barrels per day (bpd), calling it a “precautionary measure” aimed at market stability.
The 23-nation group had been largely expected to stick to its already agreed 2 million bpd cuts when its ministerial panel, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, meets virtually on Monday.
Growing up as a young boy, I lived off “breakfast cereals” every morning. These are just sugar-coated wheat or rice pellets. I would put sugar in generous heaps piled on top of the pellets and then add icy cold milk to it.
2023 04 01 08 09
Over the years, I have grown away from this expensive habit. Accepting warmer cooked foods, often not sugary, and coffee as replacements.
As we age; we change.
I call this growth.
Is it good or bad, Time will tell. But right now, I feel healthier than I ever did when I lived in the USA; twenty years ago.
Things that make you go hum…
Personally, I view all this military and nuclear weapons systems, as China and Russia holding a “shotgun to the head” of the United States. They are telling “President” Biden that they know that the United States is either bat-shit crazy, or acting irrational (on the global Geo-political scene) intentionally for Geo-political advantage.
Don’t fuck with us. They say.
Just do though your death spasms, but don’t fuck with us.
If you do, well then…
Suicide by cop might actually be the way the United States ends.
But, you know, there are smart people in both China and Russia. They know everything that I am describing right now.
And you and I, well…
We don’t know the full story; getting the full intel. But one thing is certain, the USA is totally fucked.
It’s just simply a matter of perception about how bad it actually is.
ALL roads now lead thru China
within three hours
three leaders from Malaysia, Singapore AND Spain
arrived in Beijing
others like President Macron of France and EU President Ursula von der Leyen
will arrive in the next several weeks
It is clear that the world have now ANOINTED a new leader
disgusted with the constant war and death
the bullying and belittling
most of all, its constant diatribe of hate
that the prior leader had inflicted on others
THAT this world seek peaceful coexistant
a FAMILY of NATIONS
China and Putin just DEALT the U.S. Dollar a fatal blow
Americans have no idea how bad badly it’s going to affect them.
White House — Americans in Russia Should LEAVE IMMEDIATELY
The White House today publicly told Americans residing in, or traveling in Russia, to “Leave Russia Immediately.”
Here’s the White House Statement:
US AmericansShouldLeaveRussiaImmediately
Absolutely Fantastic Coconut Lamps by Vainius Kubilius
1485
Artist Vainius Kubilius carefully crafts lamps that project visually exciting and exotic patterns of light on adjacent walls. Unlike your typical light designer, Kubilius doesn’t simply work with metals and manmade materials. Instead, this creative innovator incorporates coconuts into his products, which he designs under the label Nymphs.
“If incidents like TikTok were to occur repeatedly, the [world’s] digital future would indeed be a worrying one. In this sense, the TikTok saga cannot be given enough strategic scrutiny and attention”
Today’s edition of Sinification focuses on one of the many reactions in China to the US Congress’s recent hearing on the popular video-sharing app TikTok. The piece presented below is co-authored by two analysts from the influential China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) and offers a somewhat more moderate appraisal of TikTok’s recent scrutiny in the US than others (for a more hawkish and propagandistic commentary, see for example Tian Feilong’s recent opinion piece for Guancha.cn). Their article is entitled “Xiang Zhuang’s Sword Dance: What is he after? — The Prismatic Effect of the TikTok Incident”, which refers to a famous plot by warlord Xiang Yu (项羽) to kill the future founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty Liu Bang (刘邦) in 206 BC. In TikTok’s case, the one performing this deceptive sword dance is, of course, the United States. The authors base most of their commentary on arguments made by Western analysts, another reminder perhaps of how much more closely the Chinese follow discussions in the West than we do theirs – yet also how much easier it is for them to do so. Beyond the language barrier, I am referring here to both the censorship and self-censorship that hinder public political discussions in China. Though less acute than what is often assumed, such constraints are nevertheless real and make the analysis of these debates all the more difficult.
SUMMARY
US concerns that TikTok may pose a threat to its national security are, of course, dismissed with the company being compared to “an innocent man whose talent has aroused the envy of others”.
The US’s crackdown on TikTok is said to be a case of “treating the symptoms but not the root cause” and the result of the politicisation of America’s tech and industrial policies.
It is seen as a symbol of Washington’s quest for cyber “dominance and leadership” in the world and its desire to constrain China in this field.
The TikTok affair is depicted as particularly worrying and as potentially auguring further TikTok-like crackdowns – a trend that would also exacerbate an already fragmented internet.
EXCERPTS
“It is widely believed that this [TikTok] affair, although seemingly targeted against TikTok, is in actual fact ‘unrelated’ to it [与其’无关’]. It is but the tip of the iceberg in the US government's many overpowering measures to crackdown on China in the digital sector. Thus, our attention should go beyond this event itself and focus on the various implications it brings to light.”
“[The crackdown on TikTok] is nothing other than a case of the innocent man whose talent has aroused the envy of others [无他，匹夫无罪，怀璧其罪罢了]. Washington’s new National Cybersecurity Strategy clearly states the need for the US to rebuild the digital ecosystem and cyberspace so that it can ensure America’s [global] dominance and leadership. And as we all know, the future digital ecosystem and cyberspace will be built on new technologies and apps. Digital market giants such as leading tech companies are undoubtedly one of these key elements.”
“Meanwhile, the rise of TikTok in recent years has seen it become one of the very few competitors to Facebook, Google and others.”
“Throughout the [TikTok] hearing, there was a common feeling among onlookers that ‘Xiang Zhuang was dancing with a sword’ [i.e. the US had ulterior motives]. The US government's wielding of its so-called data security weapon [数据安全大杀器] was the nominal focus of the questioning. However, members of the hearing committee consistently turned a deaf ear to the data security protection model that TikTok had agreed on during its discussions with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Instead, they latched onto its Chinese-owned background and wouldn’t let go of this. Before the hearing, FBI Director Chris Wray claimed that the Chinese government could control TikTok's activities in the US remotely. During the hearing, House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chair Rodgers and [Ranking Member] Pallone both said that its Chinese-owned background made it impossible for TikTok to adhere to American values and continued to repeat the cliché that TikTok is a Chinese government proxy corporation in the US that has the potential to harm America’s domestic security. After the hearing, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Mark Warner stated that the hearing had failed to allay lawmakers' concerns about TikTok's links to the Chinese government.”
“In fact, as the US side itself admits, all of this is just an excuse [一切只是由头]. According to Glenn Gerstell, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and former general counsel of the US National Security Agency (NSA), the data held by TikTok does not in fact constitute a strategic risk [Comment: As far as I am aware, Glenn Gerstell has not said this. His arguments have been a lot more nuanced. See here and here for some of his thoughts on the matter].”
“Caitlin Chin, another researcher at CSIS, further stated that recent [measures], such as the US DATA Act and the RESTRICT Act, have all been targeted against China, and that TikTok's Chinese-owned background is itself an easy target to attack [Comment: I am not familiar with Caitlin Chin’s views, but here are two of her most recent commentaries on this issue: 1. Banning TikTok Will Not Solve U.S. Online Disinformation Problems; 2. The Plans to Ban TikTok Aren’t Really About TikTok].”
“All this shows that these various acts of political grandstanding [各种粉墨登场式的卖力表演] really have little to do with TikTok itself, which has become nothing more than a political mobilisation ‘tool [工具人]’ for the US government in the digital sphere.”
“Discussions are still underway on how to resolve this issue properly. For example, Justin Sherman, a researcher at the Atlantic Council, a US think tank, believes that the solution to the TikTok issue should not be limited to the binary choice of banning or not banning it. Additionally, US Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken has said that, apart from a ban, there were [other] ways of addressing the TikTok problem [Comment: In response to the question ‘Shouldn’t a threat to United States security be banned?’, Blinken’s word-for-word answer was, ‘It should be ended one way or another. But there are different ways of doing that’].”
“James Lewis, senior vice president of the American think tank CSIS, also recommended that while the US should take action against TikTok, it should not be banned [Comment: Since no references were provided in this article, the authors could be referring to Lewis’s argument that it would be unconstitutional to ban TikTok on account of America’s right to free speech]. Instead, CFIUS [could] set oversight conditions and form an oversight committee, thereby reducing the national security risks posed by TikTok.”
“In reality, however, these solutions will be treating only the symptoms and not the root cause [‘治标’不‘治本’]. That is because the issue itself is a result of the ‘politicisation’ of [the US’s] tech and industrial policies.If the politicisation problem is not addressed in a fundamental way, not only will the plight of TikTok itself be difficult to resolve, but one can even foresee many other such ‘TikTok’ incidents emerging in other areas.”
“Although the final outcome of the [TikTok] case has not yet been decided, the longer-term and deeper ramifications of this event have already emerged. These deserve deep consideration and very close attention. For example, does this episode indicate that the US government's regulation of global cyberspace is set to shift further from ‘behind the scenes’ to ‘the front of the stage’ [从’幕后’走向’台前’]? Well-known global cyber-surveillance incidents such as ‘PRISM gate’ have shown that the US’s [attitude towards] cyber-surveillance has both a dark and a light side. Ostensibly, [the US] has been a proponent of so-called freedom and equality online and has been promoting the flow of data and content. But following the TikTok saga, the international community is [now] worried that as Washington’s digital and online policies become increasingly assertive and politicised, its intervention in and regulation of [this space] will intensify. As Marietje Schaake, a researcher at Stanford University's Cyber Policy Centre and former Member of the European Parliament, has said, a by-product of [America’s] oversight of TikTok has been that the US has recognised the failure of its so-called hands-off approach towards online businesses and that a political consensus is emerging in government to further regulate cyberspace.”
“In light of this, there have been increasing concerns about the further fragmentation of the internet. As Lewis claims, a US ban on TikTok is bound to trigger Chinese countermeasures. Alena Epifanova, a researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations, believes that should a US ban trigger an escalation in conflicting US and Chinese policies, the impact would go far beyond China and the US and could jeopardise the future of the global internet. Katja Muñoz, [another] researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations, says that a US ban could trigger emulation around the world, setting a bad precedent for internet protectionism across countries and prompting the introduction of more bans against online businesses, which would be extremely destructive.”
“Therefore, from the perspective of geopolitical security and strategic rivalry, the TikTok issue may be only the tip of the iceberg. But the entire future of the online and digital space ecosystem will be shaped by [the fact that] ‘many a little makes a muckle’ [聚沙成塔: lit. grains of sand put together can make a tower] or even ‘dripping water turns into ice’ [滴水成冰]. If incidents like TikTok were to occur again and again, the [world’s] digital future would indeed be a worrying one. In this sense, the TikTok saga cannot be given enough strategic scrutiny and attention.”
Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Pie
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Ingredients
12 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Chopped onion to taste
4 eggs
1 cup Bisquick
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Butter a 9-inch pie pan.
Layer bacon crumbs on bottom and cheese on top.
Beat remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour over top.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes.
Garnish with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and bacon.
Is it true that anything non-negative said about China in the United States is considered CCP propaganda?
I am from Taiwan.
Yes, that is more or less where things are going. Not only will it be considered a CCP propaganda, but the agenda is to make the word “China” sound dirty, and those who invoke the word feel filthy and ashamed, thus shy away from using it.
IBM recently unveiled its new suite of quantum computer modules, named after many Asian cities. You would think, with China’s status in research in quantum computing, it would include many Chinese cities. Wrong. There are modules named after Auckland, Mumbai, of course, even Hanoi, but not a single Chinese city. IBM doesn’t want to look non-sexy, or even filthy.
Recently I saw an American woman promoting rice bowl dishes on TV. She said, “You know, there are so many wonderful rice bowl dishes in Asia, Korean rice bowl, Japanese rice bowl, Vietnamese rice bowl, ….”, at which point she caught herself, lest she should sound filthy and shameful. Good for her that she narrowly escaped becoming the pariah of that TV show.
The antithesis of that is Taiwan, where I am from. In the West, if you say anything negative about Taiwan, you are labeled a CCP mouthpiece. This happened recently with the University of London, which labeled everyone a Chinese spy who inquired about the Taiwanese president’s self-proclaimed but unprovable PhD degree. BBC (of course!) even gave those people colluding with the University of London ample airtime to broadcast this accusation.
“If you are curious about whether the Taiwanese president really has a PhD, you are a Chinese spy!”
— University of London
When Dize Does Matter – Bestiarum Vocabulum: Last Of The Earth’s Giants
Patrick Aryee is a biologist. After studying Cancer Biology at the University of Bristol, Patrick decided to pursue a career in wildlife filmmaking and was an integral crew member for a number of BBC productions. Now, Patrick Aryee’s gets up close and personal with some of the world’s biggest creatures in his new three-part series. Episode one airs on Sky1, Wednesday 13 June, 9pm.
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The Amphimachairodus, an early member of the cat family, was 1.3m in length and weighed an estimated 490kg. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
The ice age giant ground sloth (Megatherium) stood a colossal 5.5m high. Meanwhile the Glyptodon is a prehistoric relative of the modern armadillo – albeit one the size of a VW Beetle. While the terror bird from the Cenozoic era was a truly terrifying 3m high. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
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This giant snake, Titanoboa, lived around 58 to 60 million years ago. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
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The Gigantopithecus Blacki, a giant ape from nine million years ago, was 3m tall. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
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Canis Dirus translates to “fearsome dog” and the creature is also known as a “dire wolf”. It lived in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
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This prehistoric sperm whale was 16m long from nose to tail. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
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The D einotherium, a prehistoric relative of the elephant, was 4.1m high. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
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This Megalodon (big tooth) lived between 23 and 2.6m years ago. It is an early relative of the great white shark and palaeontologists believe it was a staggering 20m in length. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
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The A mphimachairodus giganeus and the D inocrcuta gigantea where both 1.3m high with truly fearsome teeth and powerful jaws. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
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This enormous prehistoric relative of the brown bear, Arctotherium angustidens, was the height of a grown man when walking on all four paws. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
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Fossil records indicate that this early lizard, Megalina prisca, was a whopping seven metres in length. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)
US GOV “LEAVE NOW” China MOBILIZING for “LARGE WAR”
The American hypersonic “Dagger” died without being born
The United States took the appearance of Russian hypersonic missiles “Dagger” and “Zircon” very painfully and in recent years has been desperately trying to catch up with us in this critically important segment of weapons.
One of the “answers” to Russia was to be the new AGM-183A air-launched missile (ARRW). It was supposed to be deployed in the first half of the 2020s.
But, this “product”, having failed its next test on March 13, 2023, completely lost the “trust” of the US Air Force command and yesterday it was announced that work on this program was being curtailed.
In general, the American “Dagger” died without being born, and ours has successfully hit the enemy for the umpteenth time, incl. and officers of the NATO countries who had the imprudence to end up in Ukraine in specially protected bunkers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
P.S. How did they write in the USA about “Daggers” several years ago – “beautiful pictures for Putin”? Well, now let them admire their pictures, which will forever remain just pictures…”
Looks like they never solved the maneuverability, ramjet and communication problems related to hypersonic technology, needed to create a weapon like Zircon. They might be able to make some missile that can fly over mach 5 intermediary flight stage, but has to slow down and become regular supersonic missile for target acquirement and maneuvering.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 30 2023 14:03 utc | 2
As I have detailed before, the global car manufacturing industry is the largest and most impactful manufacturing sector, with huge spin-offs in electronics, software, electric battery and general mass manufacturing technologies. With the replacement of internal combustion engines (ICE) with electric propulsion system vehicles (EV), the area in which Chinese car manufacturers lagged was replaced with an area where they could leap-frog (along with Tesla). Already in the Chinese car market, the largest car market in the world, the sales of ICE cars have peaked and are falling:
2020 Chinese Car Sales: 19.7 million, of which 1.27 million were EVs
2021 Chinese Car Sales: 21.48 million, of which 2.9 million were EVs
2022 Chinese Car Sales: 23.6 million, of which 5.92 million were EVs
Therefore, Chinese ICE car sales were 18.43 million in 2020, 18.58 million in 2021, and dropped to 17.68 million in 2022 even as the overall car market grew substantially. Estimates for Chinese EV sales in 2023 are forecast to reach 8 million with little overall car market growth, meaning that ICE sales will fall to 15.6 million – a fall of 2.08 million sales (11.7%)! This fall will be concentrated in the foreign car manufacturers (excluding Tesla) as they provide the majority of the ICE vehicles while having little or no share of EV sales (excluding Tesla). The Chinese car manufacturers are generally represented in both ICE and EV sales (e.g. SAIC, GAC, Changan, Geely, Chery) or are completely focused on EV sales (BYD, Li, Xpeng, Nio). Every extra EV sale will tend to reduce sales of foreign manufacturers brands and increase those of local brands.
Could things be much worse for the foreign ICE brands? Yes, for two reasons, the Tesla instigated price war and new ICE emission standards coming into effect in July. The Tesla China price cuts in October of last year then in January of this year, together with the falling costs of manufacturing inputs (e.g. Lithium) has produced somewhat of a price war which has brought EVs on par with ICE cars with respect to purchase price. This has easily offset any negative effects from the reduction in EV incentives at the end of 2022 and may lead to a faster displacement of ICE vehicles; EV sales will be higher than forecast and therefore ICE sales less than forecast. Lower sales for the European manufacturers and higher sales for Chinese manufacturers (plus Tesla). In the first two months of 2023, Volkswagen only outsold BYD by about 60,000 cars (ICE and EV) with Toyota lagging far behind and with Changan and Geely nipping at its heels. The German and Japanese manufacturers used to dominate the Chinese car market and rely on China for a large share of their profits (e.g. 50% for VW); none have a meaningful position among EVs in China. This will only get worse in 2024 and 2025, as EV market share moves well past 50%.
With sales lagging far behind production, the ICE manufacturers and their dealers have an increasing number of cars swelling their inventories. The problem is that those cars will become illegal to sell in China from July, when the new emissions regulations come into place (Electric Viking covers this well in the video below). The ICE manufacturers only option is to slash prices to move those cars, with the EV price war significantly reducing the prices required to move the cars, or ship the cars abroad to sell them at significantly lower prices (with the net price reduced even further by shipping costs). There could possibly be millions of cars sold at losses of US$10,000s, producing overall losses of tens of billions split between the dealers (who own the cars once they take delivery) and the car manufacturers; possibly bankrupting much of the European, Japanese and US manufacturer’s Chinese dealership network and producing large losses for the manufacturers themselves.
The end result will be a financially damaged set of Western car manufacturers, some impact to Chinese manufacturers (some of the smaller more marginal ones may go by the wayside), and a significant jump by the winners which may include BYD, Tesla, GAC and many other Chinese manufacturers; with domestic manufacturers taking a much larger, and increasing, share of the Chinese market.
With a recession in the offing for both the US market (important to Japanese as well as US manufacturers) and Europe, together with the effect of the Tesla price cuts in the US and the price cuts plus increasing China brand sales in Europe (e.g. MG), the traditional Western ICE car manufacturers may find themselves in a rapidly falling downward spiral. They will not only have falling revenues, and losses from selling Chinese ICE cars below cost to clear them, but also many of their assets (e.g. ICE manufacturing plants) may be rendered obsolete; requiring significant write-offs for not fully depreciated assets. As a manufacturer’s revenue and asset levels form the basis for loan agreements, and these ICE manufacturers have extremely large amounts of debt, they could rapidly find themselves in both liquidity and solvency crises.
There may be some protection for the US home market from the Trump implemented China tariffs and the recent protectionist Inflation Reduction Act (for example, BYD has no plans to set up a US plant), but the European market has no such protection. GM has pretty much exited its international operations, with its Chinese sales produced through joint ventures with SAIC (SAIC-GM) and SAIC and Wuling (SGMW) that it does not have majority control over. The recent travails of GM joint-venture sales in China:
Ford has already significantly retrenched its international operations, and its Chinese sales are handled through a joint-venture with Changan-Ford; with a 2% market share. To all intents and purposes GM and Ford have become US domestic manufacturers of mostly trucks and SUVs. In China both SAIC and Changan have the possibility of offsetting falling GM and Ford sales with sales of their own brands, including EVs. The threat in the US will tend to come from Tesla for the next few years, the real battleground will be Europe and the rest of the world outside the US and China. The biggest losers may be VW, Toyota, BMW and Mercedes Benz – exposed to the Chinese, European and US markets.
This will be at a time when Western government deficits are stretched by increased defence spending and recession, European deficits have been stretched by subsidies to cushion populations from huge increases in energy costs, and COVID has already produced much higher debt levels. The significantly increased interest rates to fight inflation, from near zero levels, will also exacerbate deficits due to increased interest payments. It is these stretched governments that will be asked to bail out the failing Western car manufacturers. Even if some manufacturers are bailed out, the result will be a much-reduced Western car industry (excluding Tesla) and a significant increase in the Chinese share of that industry; one where they already dominate the battery sector.
Such a realignment within the largest and most important manufacturing sector in the world will have very significant geopolitical impacts, with the West being further “hollowed out”. The inclusion of Japan and possibly South Korea in this hollowing out may significantly impact the balance of power within Asia, and the relationship between the nations of ASEAN and China. Any protectionist measures taken by South Korea or Japan to protect their car industries will most probably doom their car sales in the largest global car market, China. The possible devastation and downsizing of the European car industry, combined with the self-harming sanctions fallout, may remove Europe (and especially Germany) as a significant geopolitical player. Chinese automobile dominance in Latin America will further pull that region into the Chinese economic sphere.
Geopolitical strength is most fundamentally based upon geo-economic considerations, and the realignment of the most important global manufacturing industry will have impacts that ripple throughout the world over the next years and decades. The major winner will be China, with a Russia benefitting from a much-weakened Europe.
US Dollar LOST 86% Of Its Value & Continues To Lose Its Global Hegemony To Chinese Yuan
Yeah, I learned I'm feeling sick , whats happening to my country. Born in '57, it was great, you youngsters wouldn't believe how cool it was. Really you wouldn't .
China, Brazil strike deal to ditch U.S. dollar for trade
China and Brazil have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary, the Brazilian government said on Wednesday, Beijing’s latest salvo against the almighty greenback.
The deal will enable China, the top rival to US economic hegemony, and Brazil, the biggest economy in Latin America, to conduct their massive trade and financial transactions directly, exchanging yuan for reais and vice versa instead of going through the dollar.
“The expectation is that this will reduce costs… promote even greater bilateral trade and facilitate investment,” the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) said in a statement.
China is Brazil’s biggest trading partner, with a record US$150.5 billion (S$200 billion) in bilateral trade last year.
The deal, which follows a preliminary agreement in January, was announced after a high-level China-Brazil business forum in Beijing.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was originally scheduled to attend the forum as part of a high-profile China visit, but had to postpone his trip indefinitely on Sunday after he came down with pneumonia.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of Communications BBM will execute the transactions, officials said.
China has similar currency deals with Russia, Pakistan and several other countries.
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Spending spree
The most dramatic effects of a weakening dollar will be scrutiny of the Pentagon budget. So long as the dollar is protected by its reserve currency status the party can continue. It is a pity that the US wasted the enormous value it got from its seignorage on arms destined to be useless but that is life. The public, as noted in the Boston Review article cited @16 above, has been axcuded from foreign policy decisions since 1945 so the enormous amounts spent on what is laughably called ‘Defence’ have been subject to very little public or congressional scrutiny.
The Pentagon says “Jump” and the American People reply “How High?”
De-dollarisation will put an end to that. Having to fork out money for weapons that are never used except on targets that they are totally inappropriate for (cf B52s and Afghan wedding parties) will help concentrate minds as Americans are asked to finance expenditure out of the taxes that they pay. And which bear disproportionately on those least able to pay them.
This year’s budget is discussed by William D. Hartung at Information Clearing House, which is returning to form after a lean period due to ill health.
“On March 13th, the Pentagon rolled out its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The results were — or at least should have been — stunning, even by the standards of a department that’s used to getting what it wants when it wants it.
“The new Pentagon budget would come in at $842 billion. That’s the highest level requested since World War II, except for the peak moment of the Afghan and Iraq wars, when the United States had nearly 200,000 troops deployed in those two countries.
“It’s important to note that the $842 billion proposed price tag for the Pentagon next year will only be the beginning of what taxpayers will be asked to shell out in the name of “defense.” If you add in nuclear weapons work at the Department of Energy and small amounts of military spending spread across other agencies, you’re already at a total military budget of $886 billion. And if last year is any guide, Congress will add tens of billions of dollars extra to that sum, while yet more billions will go for emergency aid to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia’s brutal (sic)* invasion. In short, we’re talking about possible total spending of well over $950 billion on war and preparations for more of it — within striking distance, in other words, of the $1 trillion mark that hawkish officials and pundits could only dream about a few short years ago.
“The ultimate driver of that enormous spending spree is a seldom-commented-upon strategy of global military overreach, including 750 U.S. military bases scattered on every continent except Antarctica, 170,000 troops stationed overseas, and counterterror operations in at least 85 — no, that is not a typo — countries (a count offered by Brown University’s Costs of War Project). Worse yet, the Biden administration only seems to be preparing for more of the same. Its National Defense Strategy, released late last year, manages to find the potential for conflict virtually everywhere on the planet and calls for preparations to win a war with Russia and/or China, fight Iran and North Korea, and continue to wage a global war on terror, which, in recent times, has been redubbed “countering violent extremism.” Think of such a strategic view of the world as the exact opposite of the “diplomacy first” approach touted by President Joe Biden and his team during his early months in office. Worse yet, it’s more likely to serve as a recipe for conflict than a blueprint for peace and security….” HERE
* The (sic) is mine. The ‘brutal invasion’ hyperbole part of the price that Tom Englehard and Hartung pay for not thinking things through. After seventy years of Cold War its as unsurprising as it is lamentable
China has just completed its first trade of liquefied natural gas (LNG) settled in Chinese yuan currency, the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange confirmed.
Chinese state oil and gas giant CNOOC and TotalEnergies completed the first LNG trade on the exchange with settlement in the Chinese currency, the exchange said in their statement.
The trade involved around 65,000 tons of LNG imported from the United Arab Emirates, the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange added.
NOTE: China will never admit that it is re-exporting Russian LNG even though it now does it all the time!
The French supermajor, one of the world’s top LNG traders, confirmed to Reuters that the trade involved LNG imported from the UAE, but declined to comment further on the deal.
Hal Turner Commentary Opinion
So now our ally, France, is ditching the US dollar for fossil fuel trades. One by one, countries of the entire world seem to be giving-up on using the U.S. Dollar. Instead, countries are negotiating currency values between each other, then using local currency to settle trade deals.
This is the death knell for the USA.
As more and more countries use fewer and fewer dollars, all those excess dollars they’ve been holding in the central bank reserves, will end up coming back here to the United States because countries don’t need (or want) them anymore.
As all that cash returns to America, the value of the US Dollar will plummet against foreign currencies.
Since the US doesn’t manufacture much of anything here anymore, but instead imports from foreign countries, all the things we have to import will get more and more expensive as the dollar falls further and further in value. America will see inflation similar to what the Weimar Republic suffered before World War 2, with wheel barrows of cash needed to buy a loaf of bread.
All this is happening because our federal government is meddling in the affairs of so many foreign lands. If those foreign countries fail – or refuse — to do what America wants, our federal government imposes economic sanctions, forbidding those countries from using “our” money for “their” trade.
In the past, economic sanction from the US would mean a country was literally cut off from most foreign markets because almost all foreign trade has always been settled in US dollars.
As countries see the US meddling, they’re deciding they don’t want to be pushed around by the US federal government. As such, they are negotiating trade deals with each other, to accept each other’s currency, thus by-passing the US, and making it impossible for the US government to meddle with them.
As more and more countries do this, all those hundreds-of-billions of Dollars they all hold in the central banks, will come flooding back to the US and our inflation will break our country.
Our federal government is directly to blame for this.
When YOU cannot feed YOUR family because the money is so worthless, remember, it was YOUR member of the US Congress who did this. It was YOUR US Senators who did this.
As you watch your children suffering pains from hunger, hold those sniveling, lowly, government public servants accountable.
UN Spokesman Claims U.S. Soldiers Are Not In Syria – Gets IMMEDIATELY Owned!
Ukraine President Posts Petition for U.S. Nukes on Ukraine Soil; Russia Suggests They Would make Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strike
A potential Russian “petition” on a preventive nuclear strike could come in response to any initiative to transfer US nuclear weapons to Ukraine, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev opined on his Telegram channel on Thursday.
A petition calling for the deployment of US nuclear weapons on Ukrainian soil was posted on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s website on Thursday.
Commenting on the petition on Zelensky’s website, Medvedev blogged that the response could, in all probability, take the form of “a Russian petition in favor of the immediate pre-emptive use of Russian nuclear weapons.”
Jan 6 “Q-Anon Shaman” Jacob Chansley, Released from Prison Early
Jacob Chansley, the man known as the “QAnon Shaman” has been transferred to an Arizona halfway house.
Chansley was moved from federal prison to the Phoenix area with a projected release date of May 25. Chansley had pleaded guilty to obstructing the Electoral College proceedings and was sentenced to 41 months in prison back in November.
“Recent changes have been made regarding First Step Act assessments such that the 28-day assessment will count as the first, and that an inmate will be able to earn 15 days after two assessments rather than three,” a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson told the outlet. “These additional time credits were calculated during the last scheduled application rollout in March 2023. therefore, these changes will allow inmates to earn the extra 5 days of time credit for every 30-day period.”
The release comes after video showwing Chansley being escorted by police around the US Capital, was publicly shown, proving he did no violence or property damage, and that the government’s claims were lies. This video had been in the possession of the Democrat’s January 6 Committee, and they kept it hidden to perpetuate the outright lies they were peddling about January 6 being an “insurrection.”
In Ukraine, Russia enjoys armaments escalation dominance, thanks to its massive weapons industry, which dwarfs America’s and produces 50,000 shells and missiles every day. Ukraine gets 5,000 from the all the armories of the West – and no likelihood of more.
Outside Divine intervention, the contest can end only one way. Russia’s capacity to escalate its existing manufacturing dominance means it can do more of anything Ukraine can do.
That’s why military professionals spend so much time on economics and logistics. They’re taught that fleets win battles and economies win wars. But since fleets fight battles, we must look more closely at how things are shaping up in the Pacific.
Fleet escalation dominance
The PLAN enjoys fleet escalation dominance over the US Navy in the West Pacific.
China’s 340 warships are newer and better armed than America’s 290. And, thanks to launching five Burke-class destroyers simultaneously this year, the PLAN will have 400 boats in 2025, while the USN hopes for 300 by 2030.
Says US Naval War College Professor – and former Navy Captain – Sam Tangredi, “In naval warfare, the bigger fleet almost always wins. In 28 naval wars, from the Greco-Persian Wars of 500 BC, through Cold War interventions, we found just three where superior technology defeated bigger numbers”.
Armaments escalation dominance
China has turned its research lead in chemistry and math into powerful, innovative weapons. Beijing contends with Moscow for the lead in hypersonic missiles while the US has yet to test one.
Even conventional Chinese missiles outrange their American counterparts by 50%-100%, and in some cases, the US has no counterpart to their innovative, specialized weapons.
Quality
China’s naval technology is superior to America’s simply because it’s a generation younger. PLAN boats have much lower mileage, and are more powerfully armed than ours.
We’re Number Three!
If the foregoing is accurate, we’re Number Two in the West Pacific.
Russia’s victory in Ukraine, over the USA, NATO and the EU, will drop us another notch. Do voters want to spend $1 trillion a year to boast, “We’re Number Three!”?
Politically and economically, navally and terrestrially, can the US even afford industrial warfare?
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And if we to go to war, we know who has morale escalation..
“We’re DONE with you!” – Zelensky STUNNED as they walk out | Redacted
Chinese leader Xi Jinping says he is preparing for war. At the annual meeting of China’s parliament and its top political advisory body this month, Xi wove the theme of war readiness through four separate speeches, in one instance telling his generals to “dare to fight.”
His government also announced a 7.2 percent increase in China’s defense budget, which has doubled over the last decade, as well as plans to make the country less dependent on foreign grain imports. In recent months, Beijing has unveiled new military readiness laws, new air-raid shelters in cities across the strait from Taiwan, and new “National Defense Mobilization” offices countrywide.
It is too early to say for certain what these developments mean. Conflict is not certain or imminent. Yet something has changed in Beijing that policymakers and business leaders worldwide cannot afford to ignore. If Xi says he is readying for war, it would be foolish not to take him at his word.
RUSSIA TO HELP CHINA MAKE MORE NUCLEAR BOMBS
Russia plans to provide fast breeder nuclear reactor technology to China, an agreement that could allow Beijing to significantly grow its nuclear arsenal and tip the prevailing global balance of nuclear weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping announced a long-term agreement to continue developing fast breeder nuclear reactors optimized for plutonium production for nuclear weapons.
In December 2022, Russia’s-state owned Rosatom nuclear power company finished transferring 25 tons of highly-enriched uranium to China’s CFR-600 nuclear reactor, which analysts say has the capacity to produce 50 nuclear warheads a year.
US Department of Defense (DOD) officials and US military planners have assessed that the CFR-600 will be critical in building China’s nuclear arsenal from 400 warheads today to 1,500 by 2035.
The U.S. Air Force secretary says he’s seen nothing ‘more disturbing’ in 50-year career than this move by China.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall compares China’s nuclear threat to Russia’s during Cold War.
BABYMETAL – Light and Darkness (OFFICIAL)
A Visit To The World’s Only Black-Cat Cafe
There are well over a hundred cat cafes all over Japan, but there’s only one devoted exclusively to black cats – a cafe called Nekobiyaka in the castle town of Himeji.
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Yes, it’s the world’s first and only black-cat cafe, located near Himeji’s central station and along the route to the town’s famous landmark castle. While there were only six cats present when we visited (the website lists a dozen), they were an extremely lively bunch – running around, jumping in the air, and playing a vigorous game of fetch with a cloth-covered toy. We’re not sure, but we suspect that catnip may have been involved.
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Since it’s hard to tell the cats here apart, they all wear different-colored bandanas around their necks, and their names incorporate their identifying color. The staff will lend you a little book with photos of all the cats, listing their names and birthdays.
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The cafe is attractively furnished in residential living-room style, with windows looking out onto one of Himeji’s shopping streets. Background music is an odd mix of easy-listening and music-box arrangements of pop songs. Cat treats are not available, however.
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The cats here are unusual in that they like playing fetch with a cloth-covered cat toy, and two of the cats were in hot competition to catch the toy in mid-air and then bring it back. By the way, although the cats all look very similar, they wear different colored bandanas around their necks so that cafe visitors can tell them apart.
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When you’re not playing with the cats you can drink your coffee (or a beer), being careful that it doesn’t get knocked over, and browse through the cafe’s collection of manga and magazines, many of them cat-related. All in all it’s a very relaxing way to spend an hour of your afternoon.
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Russia Has HALTED all Nuclear Notifications to USA; Including Test Launches
RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: RUSSIA HAS STOPPED ALL NUCLEAR-RELATED NOTIFICATIONS TO UNITED STATES, INCLUDING WARNINGS ABOUT TEST LAUNCHES.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies that Moscow has halted all information exchanges with Washington envisioned by the last remaining nuclear arms pact with the U.S. after suspending its participation in it last month.
Along with the data about the current state of the countries’ nuclear forces routinely released every six months in compliance with the treaty, the parties also have exchanged advance warnings about test launches. Such notices have been an essential element of strategic stability for decades, allowing Russia and the United States to correctly interpret each other’s moves and make sure that neither country mistakes a test launch for a missile attack.
If Russia terminates missile test warnings, it would mark yet another attempt by the Kremlin to discourage the West from ramping up its support for Ukraine by pointing to Russia’s massive nuclear arsenal. In recent days, President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of Moscow’s ally Belarus.
Last month, Putin suspended the New START treaty, saying Russia can’t accept U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites under the agreement at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal. Moscow emphasized that it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether and would continue to respect the caps on nuclear weapons the treaty set.
The Foreign Ministry initially said Moscow would keep notifying the U.S. about planned test launches of its ballistic missiles, but Ryabkov’s statement appeared to signal an abrupt change of course.
Hal Turner Analysis and Opinion
For literally years, both the US and Russia have notified each other about all aspects of their nuclear aresenals; movement of warheads/missiles, test launches and track of test launches, etc. That has now stopped.
Now, when Russia Tests a missile, the US has no way of knowing if it is a test – or real.
This is now the time when mistakes get made.
A misinterpretation. A misreading of direction of travel. A misreading of intent.
I have warned for months that when the nuclear war commences, it will happen like a lighting bolt out of the blue. I have warned that we may get little or NO NOTICE.
Now you know my warnings were right.
This situation between the US/NATO/Ukraine and Russia, is growing more dangerous by the hour.
We are in grave danger.
What are the reasons why everything is so cheap in China? How much do Chinese workers get paid and how does the country make money if things are so cheap for tourists?
I think the reason you feel this way is because the price of everything in your country is way too high.
Pizza Pork Chops
2023 03 31 21 38
Ingredients
6 (1-inch thick) pork loin chops
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups tomato pasta sauce
4 cups cooked orzo
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
Remove excess fat from pork. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper.
In 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.
Add pork; cook about 5 minutes, turning once, until brown.
Place pork in 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker.
Sprinkle onion over pork.
Add pasta sauce.
Cover; cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours.
Place orzo on platter. Top with pork and sauce. Sprinkle with cheese.
Yield: 6 servings
URGENT: 300 RUSSIAN MOBILE NUCLEAR MISSILES ON THE MOVE
Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces began WHAT THEY SAY are planned exercises involving the Yars mobile nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile systems, Russia’s defense ministry said minutes ago (11:06 PM EDT on Tuesday, 28 March 2023)
“In total, more than 3,000 military personnel and about 300 pieces of equipment are involved in the exercises,” the defense ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Each YARS missile carries of nuclear warhead with a yield of 800 kilotons.
Remember that the bomb at Hiroshima was 15 kilotons, and has been considered to be less than 5% efficient. - MM
Grab a bowl of potato chips and dip and sit a spell.
If youse got some brewski’s, have a quaff.
Enjoy today’s installment.
MM Interview on “Super Soldier Talk”
Bob & Doug McKenzie – Twist-off Tops
They were basically mocking the American impression of Canadians, and then Americans started basing their Canadian impressions on Bob and Doug McKenzie, which was a satire of how the Americans thought Canadians talked and... I've gone cross-eyed...
Saudi Arabia takes step to join China-led security bloc SCO, as ties with Beijing strengthened. What does it mean for the US influence in the Middle East?
It should be the nail in the coffin of the US hegemony in the gulf region and the Middle East, also it will be a blowback for the US arms & ammunition sales. Even Military Industrial Complex already book the sales of their used arms and ammunition in the Ukraine war. But it is obvious that after the peace deal brokered by China of Saudis and Iran, all proxy wars in the region (especially Yemen, Libya, Syria, etc) will be finished. Because most of the wars are fought between Sunni and Shia factions. So the middle east and the gulf will be cleansed from wars in near future.
Even though the US and the west have already Ukraine war as a proxy war and arms sale, also they are trying hard to instigate another war in the heart of Asia in form of Taiwan. But in the gulf specifically, in war-torn areas like Syria and Yemen, China will be the lead in reconstruction and rehabilitation work, which will financially important in this era of global recession and slowdown.
Finally, with the strong leadership of China in regional trade blocks like SCO, RCEP, ASEAN, BRICS, and many more, the chance of disruptions or war chances is minimized (even for China and India too). So no room for USA MIC here. In Africa and Latin America, the situation is abruptly changing in favor of China instead of the USA, due to the strong influence of China. Conclusively the fall of the war-mongering policies of the USA will be no room in near future due to the peaceful rise of China and its soft power.
On 2023/3/27, China Foreign Affairs Qin Gan announced that China will sign the “Southeast Asia Nuclear-weapon-Free-Zone Treaty”. What is the treaty about?
Qin’s announcement came out after meeting with ASEAN secretary. ASEAN all welcome it, except perhaps Philippines who does not want peace in the ASEAN region.
Qin said: China will be the first one to sign the “Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty” so as to maintain safety & stability of southeast Asian region (hereafter SA region).
China will work with southeast Asian countries to eliminate interference from country(s) outside SA region.
China will implement the rules in “Declaration on Conduct of Partners in South China Sea” that were set by countries in SA region.
China will make South China Sea a peaceful sea. A friendship sea. And a cooperation sea.
The 2023 treaty is a supplement to “Declaration on Neutralization of Southeast Asia” that was signed in Bangkok in 1971 by 10 countries in SA region.
By signing the 2023 treaty, China has promised southeast Asian countries not to install nuclear weapon in any countries in SA region.
China urges southeast Asian countries to exercise their strategic sovereignty. Do not let the US-led West lead them by their nose.
Philippines has been led by the nose by USA recently. Macros allowed USA increase US military base from 5 to 9. Before going to Japan, Macros repeated a Japanese slogan “when Taiwan has problem, so will be Philippines”.
Westerners only hear the western narrative without knowing the history of South China Sea.
Let me give a summary re South China Sea – history from natives on Hainan Island, China
Natives on Hainan Island are fishermen for generations. Can trace back to Han Dynasty ie 2000 years ago. They own a book that records the rocks/islands in South China Sea. This book 更路簿 （literal translation: distance & road record) 1更 (distance) = 10 海里 (nautical miles). It was a map & directory for fishermen in old days before there is beidou/GPS. This book is classified as world cultural heritage today.
In the past, fishermen would leave 1 person on the island (for months) so as to guard it. Or erect a sign with Chinese words to mark their territory.
Can any countries eg Philippines or Vietnam present such historical records?
Two Quorans gave detailed history of SCS. Search Quora.
1, Why does China not declare out of the UNCLOS 1982 to continuously claim 80% of South China Sea in the Chinese legal way? Answered by Johnny Fung in China World Leader
2, USA approved Chiang Kai-shek’s 11-dot line – prepared by Chiu Yu in China World Leader
American “news” for today…
The “Drudge Report”…
2023 03 29 11 22
Prince – Purple Rain (Official Video)
On 2023/3/28, there are 2 forums going on. One whose headquarter is located in China is called Boao Forum for Asia. One is led by USA & called The Summit for democracy. What is the difference of the 2 forums?
China’s focuses on business & trading which unifies the intl community. USA divides the intl community by political system.
When USA unilaterally decides which country can join or not, USA itself is NOT democratic. … there is no justification for USA to lead the summit.
USA’s foreign policy is to DIVIDE. Divide countries & divide people inside any country. Like a gossiper dividing the friendship of you & your friend, by creating hatred or fear of the rival. By demonizing rival with lies & twisted facts.
USA divides the intl community into “democracy” & “authoritarian”.
Russia runs western democracy but is called authoritarian by USA. Aha. Now we see it. The so-called “democracy” depends on whether a country submits to USA or not. Submit to an un-democratic USA. Isn’t that an irony?
True democracy calls for respect & coexistence of the different. We dont tell others how they manage their home. Why can USA tell others how they govern their country?
See, USA is so authoritarian that they takes away other’s FREEDOM to govern their country according to their situation, culture & history.
So authoritarian that they uses arbitrary economic sanction or military to deprive people in other countries of human rights eg Economic Right to job/income, Social Right to safety, & even Right to Life in case of wars.
USA is a true AUTHORITARIAN in the intl community. But USA calls itself democratic.
China is also called authoritarian by USA because China does not submit to USA.
What is Boao Forum about? Business & trading.
Every country & individual needs economy to maintain life eg buy food, shelter, healthcare etc. Everyone can live under any political system; the world exists long before the word “democracy” was born.
Business & trading has no nationality, political system, religion or ethnicity. They speak the same language – money ie basic need for life.
BusIness & trading UNIFIES people. Not dividing people.
FYI, there is a 3rd one called China Development Forum. It is organized by Chinese government to invite world CEO eg Apple, Pfizer, BHP etc.
A guy called my radio show tonight saying he viewed video and found what HE says are discrepancies in the shoes and pants the shooter was wearing. I stopped that call dead in its tracks and I’ll tell you why.
I am not Alex Jones. He pulled that stuff with the Newtown, CT school shooting and it got him sued.
I’m NOT going to be another radio host who gets sued to oblivion by airing whack-jobs who deny reality, because those calls and their absurd theories cause emotional harm to grieving families.
Alex Jones did that, and now he’s on the hook for a Billion Dollars in damages. Oh, and all those callers to his show that pushed that bullshit, none of THEM ponied-up even one cent of that court judgement, did they? Nope! They left Alex Jones swinging in the breeze and moved on to some other outlet to push their tripe.
I’m not gonna have that shit on my show.
It is my considered opinion this shooting at a Christian School in Nashville, TN took place. I believe the victims were brutally murdered in cold blood, and the families of those victims are in my thoughts and prayers. They should be in yours too.
I will not abide absurd theories about this type of incident somehow being manufactured or in any way untrue.
If you want to push that crap, do it somewhere else. I won’t have it on my show or on my web site.
Barbecue Pork Roast, Tavern Style
2023 03 29 10 57
Ingredients
2 large onions, sliced
1 (4 pound) pork roast
6 whole cloves
2 cups water
1 (16 ounce) bottle your favorite barbecue sauce
1 large onion, chopped
Instructions
Place half of the sliced onions on the bottom of the slow cooker.
Place meat on top along with cloves and the remaining sliced onions.
Add water, cover and cook for 8-12 hours or overnight on LOW.
Remove meat from slow cooker. Drain liquid from slow cooker and discard.
Remove bone and fat from meat; shred meat; return to slow cooker.
Add chopped onion and barbecue sauce.
Cover and cook another 1-3 hours on HIGH or 4-8 hours on LOW, stirring 3 or 4 times.
At around 11 am on March 23, 2013, all eyes were on the podium at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations as the world attentively awaited an important speech that was to be delivered.
It was Xi Jinping’s first important speech during his first overseas trip after he was elected as the Chinese president. The speech was highly anticipated and drew worldwide attention.
“It is a world where countries are linked with and dependent on one another at a level never seen before. Mankind, by living in the global village in the same era and on the same Earth where history and reality meet, has increasingly emerged as a community of common destiny in which everyone has in himself a little bit of others,” he said.
This major concept of human beings having “a community with a shared future for mankind” proposed by Xi soon grabbed international headlines and was quickly spread to all parts of the world through extensive media reports.
In what seems like an instant, one decade has passed since the momentous speech, and the decade has been marked by numerous and significant changes.
As the world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, the historical trend of peace, development, and win-win cooperation has gathered an unstoppable momentum. The prevailing trends of global multipolarity, economic globalization, and greater democracy in international relations are irreversible. Meanwhile, the world is being confronted with complex and intertwined traditional and nontraditional security challenges with damaging hegemonic acts, domination and bullying. There is a long and tortuous way to go for the global economic recovery. Countries around the world are deeply concerned and eager to find a lasting solution to mounting crises through cooperation.
The world has gained a more profound understanding that peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefits make the world vibrant while bullying, division, conflict, and confrontation only lead nations into strife and chaos.
The world today is also full of uncertainty. Human beings must overcome the fog of hegemonism, the prevailing Cold War mentality, the employment of zero-sum game tactics, the notion of the inherent superiority of certain civilizations, and other forms of interference, and veer away from this turbulent course of history as soon as possible. The concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” proposed by Xi is the ideological beacon charting this course.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres once said the UN is willing to join China in promoting world peace and development, and in realizing the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
A vision to future
Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a major global concept in his speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, calling for joint efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind, on March 23, 2013. Photo: Xinhua
Truth can only be made clearer through the test of time. The great value of the concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” has been repeatedly validated over the last decade because of its insight into reality and a forward-looking vision for the future.
Only with insight can we see the times clearly.
Xi noted that we should expand our global vision and develop keen insights into human development and progress trends, respond to the general concerns of people from all countries, and play our part in resolving the common issues facing humankind.
Historically, the world has never been more connected than it is now, and human beings have never been more interdependent as they are today. If the Suez Canal is blocked, Europeans will run out of coffee to have with their breakfast; a severe rainstorm in Southeast Asia will increase the prices of computer hard drives in Latin America; thousands of parts for an airplane are manufactured by companies in dozens of countries; when an earthquake hits a country, news and pictures of the natural disaster can spread all over the world in a few minutes; and now the novel coronavirus disease has forced the entire world to fight together.
As we are all members of the global village and we belong to a community with a shared future for mankind, it is impossible to solve problems arising from such interconnectivity by severing links. All human beings must be seen as one in order to find the right way to deal with such problems.
A vision is the key to the future.
Xi has repeatedly used a “ship” as a metaphor to portray the future of mankind, when he virtually addressed the 2022 World Economic Forum, stating that “facts have shown, once again, that amid the raging torrents of a global crisis, countries are not riding separately in some 190 small boats, but are rather all in a giant ship on which our shared destiny hinges.”
In the last decade, the world has experienced dramatic changes and the road has been fraught with difficulties. Against this backdrop, the vision of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” is becoming more forward-looking when we consider how mankind has worked together to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, when the UN Climate Change Conference achieves positive outcomes, and when the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) creates many “national landmarks,” “livelihood projects” and “monument of cooperation.”
As Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain’s 48 Group Club, said in 2020, “Coronavirus [disease] is a global crisis that no country is immune from. It has proved that building a community with a shared future for mankind is the only right choice to win the battle.”
History has proved once again that nearsightedness leads nowhere and selfish interests lead only to bad results. “Building a community with a shared future for mankind” is the only way to overcome the rapids in the treacherous waters of history.
World of great harmony
Throughout the ages, people at home and abroad have shared their yearning for a better world. The idea of “a community with a shared future for mankind” continues to resonate because its approach emphasizes “commonality.”
Pursuing the concept of “Datong,” or “a world of great harmony,” is the main aim.
“We should jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and work together to build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity,” Xi said in relation to the vision of an ideal world. This is a clear blueprint for a community with a shared future for mankind, and a contemporary version of the ideal of “great harmony” for mankind.
Over the last decade, Xi has visited more than 70 countries on the five continents during his more than 40 overseas trips, hosted and attended a series of important multilateral diplomatic activities, proposed the BRI, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, and promote a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation, all of which have enriched the vision of “a community with a shared future for mankind” and created specific ways to achieve the said vision.
This has offered China’s solution to the changing world, times, and history, and gained broad international consensus.
“It’s mankind’s common ideal to build a world in which there are no disputes, every country enjoys development, and every person lives happily,” Yasuo Fukuda, former Japanese prime minister, said at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in April 2018. “To realize this ideal, political leaders in the world need to show great foresight, point out the development direction, and make their best efforts to turn the vision into a reality,” he said.
“China’s initiative to build a community with a shared future for mankind is based on such a vision and it is hoped that all countries will join hands to realize the goal,” he noted.
Facing together is an effective way to solve problems.
In China’s eyes, to truly pursue world peace, we need dialogue and consultation, and to truly benefit the global population, we should build a shared future.
As Xi said, prejudice, discrimination, hatred, and war can only cause disaster and suffering, while mutual respect, equality, peaceful development, and common prosperity represent the right path to be taken.
Over the last decade, the universal values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom have gained increasing popularity. Building an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity has become an increasingly common pursuit for more and more countries.
The international community clearly realizes that there is no such a thing as a superior state, nor a one-size-fits-all model of national governance, nor an international order dominated by a single country. A united world － not a divided one － that is peaceful and not volatile is what serves the common interests of mankind.
The initiative of building a global community with a shared future was initiated by China, but promoted by all.
The concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” proposed by Xi is extremely important, Pakistani President Arif Alvi said on March 15, 2023, adding that only by working together can countries around the world address the challenges they face, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and poverty.
China, under the leadership of Xi, has established a better image in the world and is leading the world in a good direction, Alvi said.
Beneficial global thoughts
The charm of thought often reflects one’s great personality. The idea of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” has gained increasing popularity among the people because it reflects Xi’s spirit as the leader of a major country and a world-class leader with the aim to benefit the world while deeply caring for its people.
This spirit offers great wisdom for the benefit of the world.
“All countries should rise above differences such as nationality, culture, and ideology, to build a community with a shared future for mankind and jointly build our shared planet,” Xi has said on numerous occasions internationally while extending a sincere invitation to the rest of the world. “All countries are welcome to board the train of China’s development,” “Our aim is to turn the Chinese market into a market for the world, a market shared by all, and a market accessible to all,” “Development is real only when all countries develop together,” he said.
The facts speak for themselves. The BRI has become a quality international public goods jointly built by all parties and shared by the world.
The China-Europe freight train line, so far, runs more than 65,000 trains, making it an “iron caravan” connecting Asia and Europe. The China-Laos railway can transform Laos from a landlocked country into a land-linked hub that connects the wider region. The Chinese-built Peljesac Bridge in Croatia fulfilled the Croatian people’s dream of connecting their northern and southern territories.
This sentiment also encapsulates the Chinese’s leader’s “people first” philosophy.
Even when China was poor, it tightened its belt to help its African brothers build this [Tazara Railway] railway, Xi said when he held talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Beijing on November 3, 2022. “Now that China is more developed, it is better placed to act on the principle of sincerity, real results, amity, and good faith, to help our African friends achieve common development, and to build a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era,” he noted.
From the Tazara Railway to Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, and Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), from the China-Cambodia Friendship Poverty Alleviation Demonstration Village Project to the provision of 1,000 training quotas for poverty alleviation at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to various countries, sincerity and real actions all bear witness to China’s initial sincerity in seeking development with the world.
“Most of the world has said this is really how we want to move forward… China and its development, and its willingness to share that development has created a new opportunity for the world,” said William Jones, Washington bureau chief of the US publication Executive Intelligence Review.
China’s success story of poverty alleviation has given “a different direction to history,” Jones said.
By relying on independence, putting people and their lives first, peaceful development, openness, inclusiveness, and solidarity, instead of war, colonialism, and plunder, the Chinese people have blazed a new path to modernization, which is different from the Western mode.
The Chinese path to modernization has inspired many other countries, especially developing ones, to figure out a new path to modernization. The Chinese people hope and believe that as more countries in the world embark on the path to modernization, the dream of a community with a shared future for mankind will come true eventually.
Right path serves common interests
The world belongs to people from all countries, and the future of the world must be in the hands of all people. Why has the concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” profoundly influenced the world? Because it encourages openness, goodwill, and innovation to achieve common goals.
This right path best serves the common interests of the vast majority of people in the world.
Xi stressed that to have a community with a shared future for mankind is not to replace one system or civilization with another. Instead, it is about countries with different social systems, ideologies, histories, cultures, and levels of development coming together for shared interests, shared rights, and shared responsibilities in global affairs, and creating the greatest synergy for building a better world.
In the last decade, the concept has brought joy along the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR thanks to faster and smoother travel instead of the cries of the refugee camp; it has brought about the opening of new factories in industrial parks around the world rather than enterprise collapse in the wake of Western-proposed “decoupling”; it has transformed certain land-locked countries into land-linked hubs, prevented some countries from being sadly made into “chess pieces.”
Martin Jacques, a senior fellow of politics and international studies at Cambridge University, said that China has carried out unprecedented work at home and abroad, and offered “a new possibility” to the world.
This right path encourages active participation.
In the last 10 years, the concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” has been written into the resolutions or declarations of the United Nations, BRICS, and other international organizations many times over: At the bilateral level, China has resonated with many countries in the face of complicated global issues; at the regional level, the building of several communities with a shared future has enjoyed steady promotion; at the global level, communities of global development, human security, human health, and human and natural life, communities with a shared future in cyberspace, a community with a shared future in nuclear security, and a community with a shared future in the ocean have emerged.
The Global Development Initiative proposed by Xi has received positive responses and support from more than 100 countries and international organizations, including the United Nations, and about 70 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative.
Recent Saudi Arabia-Iran talks in Beijing had achieved important outcomes, which are a testament to the successful practice of the Global Security Initiative, which has been praised and supported by more than 70 countries, and was unanimously welcomed by the international community.
Xi introduced the Global Civilization Initiative at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting on March 15, 2023, which was warmly endorsed by the participants and resonated widely with the international community.
The BRI has transformed from a blueprint proposed one decade ago to a reality today, turning into effective development for countries and tangible benefits for countless people. So far, it has seen the participation of more than three-quarters of the world’s, attracting trillion dollars of investment, forming more than 3,000 cooperation projects, creating 420,000 jobs for countries along the BRI route, and lifting tens of millions of people out of poverty.
It has been a decade since the concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” was proposed. The world has seen the power of ideas and heard the echoes of history – only when destiny is shared will the world have a brighter future.
People want to live comfortable lives, to have friends and wine in every place they go, to have a happier future for their children that’s better than they have today. No one wants to survive in uncertainty, poverty, and backwardness, to grow up in a land shrouded in hostility and intimidation.
“Building a community with a shared future for mankind is an exciting goal, and it requires efforts from generation after generation,” Xi addressed the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 18, 2017.
How can we take responsibility for our children and give them a better future?
The world’s tomorrow depends on our decisions today. We believe that as long as we uphold goodwill and communicate sincerely, even the biggest conflicts can be resolved and even the thickest ice can be broken. We look forward to realizing harmonious coexistence and win-win cooperation among countries, passing on the flame of peace from generation to generation.
Chinese people are ready to cooperate with the people of the world, to always be on the right side of history and on the side of the progress of human civilization, and to walk hand in hand on the path to peace and development.
China’s rare earth countermeasures have succeeded!
The Burden Of Blogging
Some times it’s just like this. I am not feeling well. I am not sick but something is just not right.
I have no idea what to post about. Every theme and issue feels so repetitive. It is the burden of blogging, especially when one tries to post every day.
I need a pause. Likely only for a few days. I will continue to post open threads. I will continue to clean the spam queue and to somewhat police the comments. But over the next few days there will be no new original content here.
I will do something other than reading news, thinking and writing about it. I hope that it will help to clean my mind to then come back with some fresh ideas.
Artist Illustrated 25 Bad Puns To Brighten Your Day
0 9 1
According to an artist Irina Blok: “I am a designer based in San Francisco, and I love to doodle during my spare time. I hear many words that amuse me during the day, not sure why, but they are just too funny. Perhaps it’s a combination of being easily amused and having English as a second language. In any case, it’s a good method to escape our sad pandemic reality and deal with stress.
For example, when my mother mentioned she is doing “intermittent fasting,” an image of a person putting a mitten over their head popped into my mind. Then when I heard “thumb drive,” I saw an actual human thumb driving a car. Same with “Bluetooth” (my daughter was asking why someone came up with this name?) – in my head, I saw an actual blue tooth transmitting Wi-Fi from a mouth.
I usually write down funny words, and when I have some free time, I grab my iPad and quickly draw it. My goal is to create a new drawing every day, and I have been sharing them on my Instagram.
I really enjoyed drawing this, and I hope you’ll find these amusing too! Here are the links to my previous posts if you missed them here and here.”
The World Has Misjudged the Semiconductor Supply Chain
https://youtu.be/NfTTUjo5FJo
What was Hitler’s last day on Earth like?
In late April 1945, chaos reigned in Berlin. Years of war had turned former superpower Germany into a battleground, and its cities from strongholds into places under siege. The Red Army had completely circled the city, which now called on elderly men, police, and even children to defend it. But though a battle raged on in the streets, the war was already lost. Adolf Hitler’s time was almost up.
The people of Germany had already taken leave of their Führer. Since a public appearance on his birthday, April 20, he had been disconcertingly absent from the public eye. In reality, he was holed up in a bunker near the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, surrounded by his command staff and a few private citizens, including his mistress Eva Braun.
For weeks, bad news drifted into Hitler’s hideaway. As American forces advanced from the west, and the relentless Soviet tanks from the east, Hitler’s generals began to lose their heads. Suspicious of a coup by his closest advisors, Hitler raged and planned and raged again. When he learned that Felix Steiner, one of his SS commanders, had ignored his orders to stage a heroic last stand south of the city, he began to rant and cry, declaring the war lost. Later that day, he consulted with Werner Haase, his private doctor, about the best ways to commit suicide.
By April 29, the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Though Hitler married Eva Braun that morning, people were more interested in discussing suicide than celebrating a wedding.
Hitler had learned that Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, had given the Allies an offer of immediate surrender—an offer they promptly refused. Outraged, Hitler demanded that Himmler—once his close and powerful compatriot—be arrested.
Then Hitler heard of the death of Benito Mussolini, his counterpart in Italy. Executed and defiled by an angry mob, the dictator’s end was a powerful warning about what might be in store for the man who had promised his now-devastated country an endless empire. Mussolini’s death set the last 24 hours of life in the bunker into motion.
APRIL 30, 1945
All times are approximate
1 a.m.: Field Marshal William Keitel reports that the entire Ninth Army is encircled and that reinforcements will not be able to reach Berlin.
4 a.m.: Major Otto Günsche heads for the bathroom, only to find Dr. Haase and Hitler’s dog handler, Fritz Tornow, feeding cyanide pills to Hitler’s beloved German Shepherd, Blondi. Haase is apparently testing the efficacy of the cyanide pills that Hitler’s former ally Himmler had provided him. The capsule works and the dog dies almost immediately.
10:30 a.m.: Hitler meets with General Helmuth Weidling, who tells him that the end is near. Russians are attacking the nearby Reichstag. Weidling asks what to do when troops run out of ammunition. Hitler responds that he’ll never surrender Berlin, so Weidling asks for permission to allow his troops to break out of the city as long as their intention never to surrender remains clear.
2:00 p.m.: Hitler and the women of the bunker—Eva Braun, Traudl Junge, and other secretaries—sit down for lunch. Hitler promises them that he’ll give them vials of cyanide if they wish to use them. He apologizes for being unable to give them a better farewell present.
3:30 p.m.: Roused by the sound of a loud gunshot, Heinz Linge, who has served as Hitler’s valet for a decade, opens the door to the study. The smell of burnt almonds—a harbinger of cyanide—wafts through the door. Braun and Hitler sit side by side. They are both dead. Braun has apparently taken the cyanide, while Hitler has done the deed with his Walther pistol.
4:00 p.m.: Linge and the other residents of the bunker wrap the bodies in blankets and carry them upstairs to the garden. As shells fall, they douse the bodies in gas. Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda, will kill himself tomorrow. Meanwhile, he holds out a box of matches. The survivors fumble and finally light the corpses on fire. They head down to the bunker as they burn.
On May 1, Germans who can find time between shells to listen to the radio are greeted with the tones of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung—“The Twilight of the Gods.” Hitler, they are told, has “fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany.” The Führer is dead.
Huawei has completed key technical breakthroughs in chip autonomy and 14nm EDA tools.
What Were Aztec Sacrifices Ritual Actually Like?
They were religious events first. The Aztecs believed that their gods got their sustenance from human sacrifice; and one of the basic duties of Religion is caring for your gods. The most important of these sacrifices were carried out during the 18 monthly festivals of the Solar Year.
One of these, to give you an example, was the Tlacaxipehualiztli, the Festival of the Flaying of Men, celebrated at spring equinox before the rainy season, one of the most brutal and complex.
We know about it thanks to the notes of the Spanish monk Bernardino de Sahagun, who in the 16th century interviewed old Aztec men who were still alive in pre-spanish Mexico and recounted how this festival was held in the Aztec capital:
40 days (or maybe even a year) before the festival, a captive (from war) was designated to impersonate the god Xipe Totec (Our Flayed Lord), and he was celebrated in public as living image of the God until the Festival.
He was taught courtly manners, walking about the city playing a flute, smoking tobacco and being praised by the people and the Tlatoani (the leader).
He was even wed to four young maidens representing goddesses. There were similar representants for other important gods (Tonatiuh, Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Chililico and so forth).
These slaves-gods were to be sacrificed on the main pyramid by cutting out the heart. There were six sacrifice-priests who cut open the slaves breast with an Obsidian knife and then cut out the heart.
After that, the corpses were rolled down the pyramids stairs. The corpses were then flayed and their flesh given to important Aztecs. Moteuczuma would have gotten the best part, the femur. The flesh was then eaten.
Other captives would be clothed in the skin of the flayed corpses and adorned with the ornaments those killed earlier wore as “gods”.
They were paraded through the city by their captors, and finally, on the next day, fought in mock combat against Eagle- or Jaguar-wariors (they only had a mock sword with feathers instead of obsidian).
Once the captive was beaten down, he was sacrificed by a priest wearing the vestments of Xipe Totec.
His heart and blood from his chest was then presented to the sun. The captor would take that blood, and walk around the city to the statues of the gods, feeding them by painting their lips with blood.
The captives corpse was then brought to his captors house, flayed, and cut up, his flesh given away and eaten.
However, there was a special link between captor and captive, and the captor wouldn’t eat of the flesh of his captive.
Poor or sick people would walk through the streets, wearing the skins of the sacrificed, begging.
For twenty days, the priests, too, would wear the flayed skins, often adorned with gold and feathers, until the next festival (Tozoztli) approached.
The skins were then stored in special containers in a cave in the Xipe-Totec temple.
There were certainly festival-like elements, but the main events were very ritualized and everyone involved hat a part to play and knew what to do.
Even the captives were probably not struggling against their fate, but from what I’ve read, walked to the place of their sacrifice willingly, and played their part in the choreography.
The religious part was the most important. The gods needed to be fed.
China’s anti-sanctions solution released! Biden’s plan may fail.
What Was it Like Living in Occupied France During WWII For the Average Person?
In France, the Nazis split France into an occupied and unoccupied zone – occupied being the north, unoccupied, or Vichy, being the south. Nazis would have been living in the occupied zone – you would have had to board one for several days at a time – from 1940, and into the unoccupied zones from 1942.
The economy certainly suffered. By the terms of the armistice, the French had to pay for the costs of their own occupation. Although the French got the Vichy government, the Nazis became less and less interested in collaborating with them as opposed to outright taking advantage of them, particularly in the economic sector. 40% of French industry and 58% percent of state revenues went towards Germany, and in 1943 Germany instituted what’s called the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO) which was basically a labor draft. You get your papers from the Germans, you get sent to Germany or Poland to go work in a factory. You’re there for however long they want you and you don’t get to go home. It was hugely, hugely resented.
And yes, there were definitely strict rations, which became even stricter as the war went on.
The Vichy government had their own special police, called the milice. The important thing to remember about occupied France was that the Vichy gov’t legitimized itself by asserting that Vichy France was a free France. As a result, you get Vichy police in addition to the Nazi police, you get French civil servants organizing much of the “National Revolution,” etc. (Interestingly, the Vichy government also made Mother’s Day an official holiday.) The idea of French sovereignty was huge, and when the Nazis started to infringe on it by instituting things like the STO and trying to deport French nationals, then you have a problem.
As for clandestine resistance movements, that’s another post entirely, but I’ll go on.
In France you had the external resistance and the internal resistance. The former was led by Charles de Gaulle, who flew to London after the 1940 armistice and basically said that he thought Vichy was stupid and if you agreed with him, go join him. He eventually had 7,000 people in what was called the FFL (Free French Legion, I think) and they fought out of Algeria. They were rather successful. I’m not a military historian by any means, so I have no idea what they actually did, but several governments recognized de Gaulle as the legitimate leader of France and de Gaulle was able to pester Eisenhower into liberating Paris in the summer of 1944.
Then you had the internal resistance, which was much less organized. The FFL tried to hook up with them in 1942 so that all the resistance forces in France could be under de Gaule – it was a success if only because the internal resistance needed the money from the FFL. The CRN (National Resistance Council) that came out of this “merger” was generally successful? I think. They coordinated with the guerilla fighting units to distract German/Vichy forces and kept up morale after the STO/full occupation. They also helped out in the Battle of Normandy.
Planet Claire (The B-52s Cover) by Jan van Grean
What Was Life Like For a Jester In The Medieval Era?
Being a true Jester was very hard work. You had to be a one-man entertainment machine.
One had to be able to memorize long-form poetry, tailor jokes to fit the crowd, tactfully tease your patron without committing offense, and zing guests that your patron wasn’t fond of.
You had to play instruments, sing, dance, perform acrobatics, and design and maintain your own motley.
They would learn puppetry, ventriloquism, juggling, balancing, and slight of hand.
The best description I’ve personally heard to describe the life of a licensed Jester was to think of yourself as a living television.
You were to appear immediately when your patrons needed you and provide whatever form of entertainment they desired for as long as they desired.
You would sing a lullaby for the children one moment and recite accounts of bloody wars the next if that’s what was asked of you.
A sharp mind, a strong body, and a gift for improvisation were often requisite for this sort of work.
Secondly, a Jester’s job wasn’t only to make whatever noble employed him laugh. Their position as a member of court was surprisingly complex.
The most famous jesters were probably quite intelligent and quick witted, similar to our best comedians today.
A jester was given the right to say things without deference to authority, but they had to walk a thin line of not offending too many people or pushing the limits too far.
That ability to bypass deference had a lot of uses in a royal court where everyone was obsessed with being “politically correct” if you will.
A jester was able to deliver bad news to King Phillip VI of France about the destruction of his fleet by the English when nobody else dared by allegedly stating that the English “don’t even have the guts to jump into the water like our brave French”
They also provided a check to nobles who were too full of themselves. While it was expected for most in your court to agree with and support the noble, the jester was there to point out flaws.
Elizabeth I of England reprimanded one of her jesters for not being severe enough with her.
William Sommers was liked by Thomas Cromwell for often pointing out the extravagant spending of the English court.
Further, as a member of the court and an employee of the noble, they were generally well paid and granted a decent amount of influence and power.
This is REALLY bad!
Old Record Producer Hears – BABYMETAL – Gimme Chocolate – Old Guy Reaction
I'm a 44 year old metal head and I've been jamming out to Babymetal for ten years. As the rest of the music industry has drowning in trash for the last 20 years Babymetal is a breath of fresh air wrapped in metal. FYI the fans of Babymetal are known as The One and no we are not cult.......or are we?
Cajun Sausage Jambalaya
A slow cooker makes Cajun Sausage Jambalaya a snap. Be sure to check the last hour or two to keep the rice from overcooking.
1 pound boneless pork loin roast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, lean
12 ounces andouille sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups rice, medium-grain white
2 yellow onions, chopped
1 bell pepper (green, red, or both), chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
Instructions
Mix all ingredients except green onions in slow 4 to 6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours, or on HIGH for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Watch carefully during the last 1 hour (LOW) or 1/2 hour (HIGH) of cooking to prevent rice from overcooking.
Just before serving, check seasoning and add green onions.
Working as KTV Girl in Beijing
https://youtu.be/DSlFSMPe_vQ
The 10 Deadliest Battles Of The American Civil War
The American Civil War is a devastating mark on the history of America. The number of lives lost was substantial, and the social and economic repercussions, though some needed, changed the face and future of the United States forever.
These are a few of the deadliest (and most important) battles of this historic conflict.
Fort Donelson
The Battle of Fort Donelson took place in early February of 1862. Fort Donelson, located near the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, was a Confederate stronghold backed up by thousands of soldiers. The Union, lead by Ulysses S. Grant, attacked the fort after their initial taking of Fort Henry.
The Union won the battle, and it was a significant victory on their part, as it resulted in the surrender of 12,000 Confederate soldiers and new power in Kentucky and access into Tennessee. The number of casualties? 17,398, mostly Confederates.
Second Bull Run
The second Battle of Bull Run took place in Manassas, Virginia, and evidence of the battle can still be seen today. It was a Confederate victory resulting in 22,180 casualties, with slightly more than half of those casualties occurring on the Union side. This battle is considered one of the most important for the Confederacy.
Antietam
It’s not entirely certain who won the Battle of Antietam, but there’s no doubting the heavy losses on both sides, resulting in 23,100 casualties. The result of the battle was the Confederate retreat across the Potomac, after the battle took place in Maryland, in mid-September, 1862. Not long after the battle occurred, President Abraham Lincoln gave his Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important events in American history. While this battle certainly isn’t the deadliest on our list, it is significant, as September 17th was the bloodiest day in America’s military history so far.
Stones River
This Tennessee Union victory was not far ahead of the Battle of Antietam in terms of casualties, coming out at 23,515. After a Kentucky battle, Confederate and Union troops clashed outside of Nashville in December of 1862. The battle began on New Year’s Eve, took a small recess on New Year’s Day, and then resumed on January 1st, 1863. It lasted until January 5th when the last of the Confederate troops retreated further into Tennessee. When the troops retreated, the Union did not follow, proclaiming a victory for themselves and awaiting their next opportunity.
Shiloh
Another Tennessee battle, the Battle of Shiloh took place in April of 1862. The Union did win this battle, although they suffered the most casualties. The total number of fatalities was 23,746, and 13,047 of these fatalities were on the Union side. However, despite this, they still won the battle.
The Confederacy lost a chance to overpower the Union troops, after the Confederacy launched an attack on General Ulysses Grant at Pittsburg Landing and the Union called for reinforcements and the Confederates lost their general. After a counterattack planned by Ulysses, the Confederates were forced to retreat, despite their better numbers.
Chancellorsville
The Virginia Battle of Chancellorsville took place nearly a year later, in 1863, taking place in late April and early May. The Confederates took the victory under General Robert E. Lee, and there was a total of 24,000 casualties, approximately, with the Union suffering 14,000 and the Confederacy suffering 10,000. The battle is told in many history books as General Robert E. Lee’s best and most important victory throughout the war. However, the Confederacy also suffered a huge blow during the battle with the death of Stonewall Jackson. The worst part? Jackson was killed by his own men, accidentally wounded at night due to a soldier mistaking his identity.
The Wilderness
In May of 1864, more than 100,000 Union troops went head to head with only 60,000 Confederates. With Ulysses Grant newly in charge of the entire Union army, he planned to attack Robert E. Lee in what was to become a historically tragic battle. The Union lost about 17,666 men and the Confederacy lost about 11,000 for a total of more than 28,000 casualties. Worse yet, one night, with many of the dead and dying lying about the battlefield and camps, a fire broke out over the landscape, killing those who could not escape. The resulting scene of the Battle of the Wilderness has been depicted as one of the most horrific of the war.
Spotsylvania Court House
Taking the third spot on our list, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House took place near the same time as the Battle of the Wilderness, also in May 1864. Again, there is no clear winner in this battle, but there were almost 30,000 casualties, though more were on the Union side. The battle saw Generals Grant and Lee go at it again, for nearly two weeks, in a series of battles often grouped into one in retelling. Many important military figures on both sides were killed, before the two sides broke it off and the Union continued their march to Richmond, Virginia.
Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga took place in Georgia, in 1863, resulting in 34,624 casualties, split almost evenly between both sides. The Confederate army won, forcing the Union army back into Tennessee. While the battle did not play much of an important role in the overall war and was not significant on either side, it was the second most deadly incident over the Civil War, earning it the second spot on our list of the Civil War’s deadliest, bloodiest battles.
Gettysburg
Arguably one of the most well known and the most easily recognizable battles in the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg was also one of the absolute deadliest. The three-day event resulted in more than 50,000 casualties. Regardless of its date almost two years before the war’s end, it was the beginning of the South’s destruction. From this point forward, the South no longer attempted to invade the North with their war efforts, and battles were fought on Southern ground. The battle site, in Pennsylvania, is one of the most popular, if not the singularly most popular, Civil War site in the country.
David Bowie – China Girl (Official Video)
•David Bowie – vocals
•Stevie Ray Vaughan – guitar
The Complete Guide to What Every Man Should Keep in His Car
Things In Car 2
When I was growing up, I noticed that my father kept his car well-stocked with supplies. A lot of the equipment was for his job busting poachers as a game warden, but most of the things were for emergency situations that could happen to anyone. And there were plenty of times when my dad was able to put those supplies to work.
Be it a maintenance issue or a snowstorm, keeping the following items in your vehicle can save you time and discomfort, and perhaps even your very life, should an emergency arise. Obviously, the necessity of some items depends on the environment in which you live/are driving through (you don’t need an ice scraper in Tampa) and the season (though it’s best just to stock this stuff and keep it stocked, rather than removing/adding things as the seasons change).
1. Paper maps. Sometimes — okay, plenty of times — Google Maps or Waze doesn’t want to cooperate. And if you don’t have service, their reliability is of no import anyway. It’s always a good idea to keep paper maps handy of the areas you’ll be driving through.
2. Snacks/MREs. You never know when you’ll be stranded for long periods of times in your car. And depending on where you are, you could be dozens of miles from the closest source of help. Keep some MREs or granola/power bars in the back of your car to munch on while you wait for a tow truck to come, or to sustain you for a long walk to a gas station to call for help.
3. Cell phone charger/extra battery. Cell phones, and their batteries, are notoriously unreliable and quick-draining in emergency scenarios. It’s like they know when you need them most. Build some redundancy into your car’s emergency kit by keeping both a charger, and an extra battery. No excuses; they’re cheap these days.
4. LifeHammer. Should an accident trap you in your car, this rescue tool could save your life in a couple ways. It has a seat belt cutter, a steel hammer head that easily breaks side windows, and a glow-in-the-dark pin for easy retrieval in the dark. Every car should have one easily accessible!
6. Portable air compressor. When your tire is leaking but hasn’t totally blown out, instead of putting on a spare, you can use a portable air compressor to get back on the road. The compressor fills your tire up enough to allow you to drive to a repair shop to get it fixed. It plugs right into your cigarette lighter. Bonus use: no more paying 75 cents to fill up your tires at stingy gas stations.
7. Windshield wiper fluid. Few things are as indispensable as wiper fluid. Dirty windshield, no fluid, and wet, dirty roads? Get used to stopping every 10 minutes to clean the windshield. Always have some in the car for when you inevitably run out and need it most.
8. Roadside flares. When pulled over on the side of the road, you’re basically a sitting duck, hoping that other drivers don’t clip you. It’s especially dangerous at night. Ensure that you and those around you are visible when you pull over by using road flares, or at least a reflective triangle. The old school flaming flares seem to be harder to find these days as people switch to the LED variety.
9. Jumper cables. You walk out to your car after a long day of work, stick the key into the ignition, give it a turn, and…click, click, click. Crap! You then look up and notice you left the dome light on all day. It happens to the best of us. Car batteries die, so be ready with a set of jumper cables. And even if you never suffer a dead battery, it’s always good to have a set of jumper cables so you can help a damsel (or dude) in distress who needs their car jumped.
10. Tow strap.Get your car unstuck from anything with a tow strap. Attach one end of the strap to the front of the car that you want to pull and the other to the hitch on the back of your car. The stranded driver stays in the dead car, puts it in neutral, and gets freed. Easy as that!
11. Water. For when you’re stranded in Death Valley in the middle of the hottest heat wave on record…or for any other time your car decides to break down on you. Also for when you’ve been on the trail and are parched because you didn’t pack enough in your hiking pack. Always keep a few bottles handy in the trunk.
12. First aid kit. Whether you’re cleaning up a head wound filled with glass shards or fixing a boo boo on your two-year-old, it’s good to have a first aid kit. You can always buy one, but putting together your own in an Altoids tin is more fun.
13. Blankets. Blankets have uses that go beyond emergency situations. It’s always good to have a blanket in the car for snuggling with your gal while you cheer for your team on a cold fall night or for laying it on the ground for a picnic. Get the space-saving (but not very romantic) emergency Mylar variety, or something a little classier like the Paria from Rumpl.
14. Fire extinguisher. Car fires can be especially dangerous because of the flammable liquids coursing through their systems. Keep an extinguisher in the car that can be used not only for your own emergencies, but for others who might be in danger as well. An auto extinguisher is useful, as it will be rated for putting out car-specific fires that are fueled by gasoline and oil.
15. Shovel. There are a couple of instances where a folding shovel might come in handy. The first is when you get stuck in the snow or ice. You can use the shovel to dig some snow out and place some dirt under the tire to get more traction. The second situation is when a car tire gets stuck in a hole or something. You can use the shovel to dig about and create some ramps to help get your car unstuck. Also, it can be used as an improvised weapon.
Winter/Snow-Specific Items
16. Kitty litter. Kitty litter? For traveling with your cats and they need a potty break? Hardly. Kitty litter is extremely useful as a traction device when you’re stuck in the snow or ice after a skid gone wrong. It’s not usually that you’re buried in snow that keeps your car from moving, but the slickness of the surface you’re trying to move on. Throw a handful of kitty litter in front of the tires, and they’ll have some traction to help get you on the road again.
17. Multi-wick candles. If you’re stranded in a broken-down car in the winter, you might need more than just a blanket. An actual heat source will come in mighty handy. Have a multi-wick candle (the single wick kind don’t provide adequate warmth) on hand (and matches!); it can keep your car warm for quite awhile. Candles are expensive, so make your own on the cheap (and you save even more money going scentless).
18. Ice scraper. Don’t be the chump who’s out there scraping their windshield with a credit card at 5AM in the morning. A good ice scraper will set you back just a few bucks from most any convenience store, and it will make clearing your windshield much easier and much faster.
19. Hat and gloves. Along with a blanket, make sure your head and hands stay toasty warm too. The thicker the better here; you aren’t going for fashion, but survival.
20. Tire chains. Not only are tire chains handy in wintery mountain passes, they’re actually required in some states. Don’t get stuck in the mountains; don’t get a ticket for not having chains.
BABYMETAL – PA PA YA (feat F HERO) – Old Guy Reaction
How to Escape a Sinking Car: An Illustrated Guide
Sinking Car 3
Nearly 12% of the bridges in the United States have been deemed “structurally deficient” by the Federal Highway Administration. It’s scary to think that one might collapse while you’re driving over it, plunging your car into the water below. Becoming a victim of bridge collapse is hardly the only way to end up in a submerged vehicle, however. Many drivers simply skid out around a curve, go over a guardrail, and end up in a body of water. According to some studies, over 10,000 water immersion auto accidents happen each year.
Finding yourself in a sinking vehicle can be a terrifying experience and panic can keep you from being able to escape. Memorize these easy-to-follow tips so you can stay calm and get out quickly and safely if this ever happens to you. You don’t have to know every detail, but remember these four words: “Seatbelts. Children. Windows. Out.”
Stay as calm as possible. When you have gallons of water filling your car, it’s hard not to panic. But when the difference between life and death comes down to a matter of minutes, having a clear head is essential to your survival. Panic is often the reason people drown; they lose the ability to think straight and don’t know what to do. The women in the North Dakota accident called their friends on their cellphones! But panic=death. Hyperventilating and wasting your energy on ineffective actions closes off the easiest options of escape, wastes precious oxygen and shortens the amount of time you’ll be able to hold your breath when making an escape. Just concentrate on what you need to do.
Your best chance of escape is the first 30-120 seconds. In research done on the subject, it was found that in the vast majority of situations a vehicle will actually float for 30-120 seconds before sinking. This is your best chance at escape. Stay calm, but also act quickly. If you have your wits about you, 30 seconds is plenty of time to escape, even with passengers.
Do not wait for the pressure to equalize! When your car starts really sinking, the differential between the pressure outside the car and inside the car makes opening the door impossible. So people are commonly told to wait until the car fills completely with water in order for the pressure inside and outside of it to equalize, at which point you will supposedly be able to open the door. But two shows, Mythbusters and Top Gear have tested this theory and found it wanting. The inside/outside pressure will eventually equalize, but it won’t happen just as soon as the car fills up with water. It takes a bit longer, so long that you’ll likely drown before it happens. It is possible if you are patient, calm, and conserve your oxygen, but don’t count on it.
The door is an option, but not your best option. There are still some experts that say your best chance of escape is through the door right as you hit the water. In our research, however, this theory is losing steam. Sure, you have the ability to escape through a door if it’s done immediately, but there are a few serious downfalls. One, if you try and can’t do it, you’ll have exhausted much of your energy. Then you’ll be panicked, which is bad. Two, it requires a tremendous amount of strength to open a door, even in just a foot of water. You may be able to escape that way, but can your wife and kids? Third, if you escape through the door, the car will pretty much immediately sink, rendering it impossible for passengers to escape. If you’re a strong man, you can go this route, but only as a backup plan and if you’re the only passenger in the vehicle.
Roll down or break a window. Simply put, the window is your best chance for escape. If the waterline has not risen past the windows, try rolling down the window first. Contrary to popular belief, Mythbusters found that automatic windows don’t immediately short circuit underwater. But as the car sinks, the pressure of the water will prevent you from rolling them down. This is even the case with manual windows. Even if you’ve got Popeye-sized biceps, you won’t be be able to overcome the pressure and roll down the windows. You’ll probably just break the crank.
So if rolling down the window doesn’t work, you’ll need to break the side window to escape. This is actually harder than you might think as the windows are made of strong, tempered glass. While the windshield is easier to shatter, they’re designed to be unbreakable and are laminated with a plastic sheet that could keep you trapped in the car. If you’ve been doing your push-ups and pull-ups, you might be able to break the side window with your elbow or fist. Aim for the corner of the window. But this is extremely difficult. The water significantly slows down the force of your movements. The Mythbusters were unable to break it with a kick from a steel-toed boot. Even if you are able to punch it through, your risk cutting up your hands on the broken glass. Remember the scene at the beginning of Karate Kid II when Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese punched through some car windows? Yeah, your hands could look like that. Wrapping your hand in something can help reduce the chance of slicing them up.
Your best option is to have some sort of device in your car at all times that allows you to easily break your windows in case of an emergency. The LifeHammer or the T3 Tactical Triage and Auto Rescue Tool are two tools you might want to consider keeping in your car. The former has a hardened steel tip while the latter has a spring loaded steel tip window punch, which allows you to break strongly tempered windows with the push of a button. They also have cutting devices that will cut through a seat belt if you find that you can’t unbuckle yourself. Keep them in a place that will be immediately accessible in case of an accident; you don’t want to be rummaging through your glove compartment as your car fills with water.
Escape through the window. If the waterline is still below the car window, escaping from the window will be pretty quick easy. If the waterline is past the window, keep in mind that as soon as you break the window, you’ll be hit with a flood of water. But you should still be able to swim out. Watch Adam from Mythbusters “break” the window and make his escape:
Swim to safety. Push off the car and swim to the surface. If you’re disoriented and don’t know which way is up, look for bubbles and follow the direction they’re going.
What to Do with Passengers
First, don’t open the door to make your escape. While you might be able to get out, the car will quickly fill with water and sink rapidly, possibly trapping your passengers in a watery grave. Instead, roll down or break the window.
Escaping from a sinking car is hard enough by yourself. But what if you have passengers? The first goal is to keep them calm. Take control of the situation by explaining exactly what you’re about to do. When people see there’s a plan, they’ll usually calm down. Make sure they can get out of their seatbelts. If the buckles don’t work, they’ll need a cutting tool. A child can escape from the rear window, but know that they are smaller than front windows. If it’s a small child, pull them up to the front and get them out of your window and follow after.
Prince & The Revolution – When Doves Cry (Official Music Video)
More American “news”…
No wonder Americans are considered to be ignorant and boorish by the rest of the world.
2023 03 29 11 25
Is it true that every single piece of information on TikTok is automatically transferred to the Chinese communist party intelligence?
Of course. Every time you post a funny cat video on TikTok, the Chinese intelligence agents want a full report on the colour of the cat; its age and gender; and its exact location by GPS.
Don’t you know? Every aspect of your personal life that you post on TikTok is a grave matter of national security. Such as what you ate for lunch, snd the new pair of shoes you bought, and the latest video game you’re playing.
Besides, the CCP intelligence officers have nothing better to do but watch millions of TikTok videos all day long.
Strange Brew 1983 : Van Jump scene..
USA media believe that the USA’s tech war against China and a possible military war will completely cripple China and the USA will reign supreme until the end of the century. What’s your opinion?
It’s clearly not working. Trump’s trade war cost the US 1,800 factories and 250,00 jobs. Trump and US experts said that the US would win the trade war in 2 weeks. 2 years later. the US is the one that has suffered massive damage.
Fed research: Trump’s trade tariffs led to losses in billions
Chinese exporters and American importers have been misrepresenting data to avoid paying taxes or losing out on rebates.
Trump’s trade policies have cost thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs: Action is urgently needed to rebuild the manufacturing sector after the coronavirus pandemic
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A new report by EPI Senior Economist and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Research Robert E. Scott finds that President Trump’s trade policies have failed to curb offshoring—and they have not addressed the root causes of America’s growing trade deficits and the decline of American manufacturing. In addition to the Trump administration’s overall weak trade…
And now Biden would have you believe that the US is going to stop China from producing chips. Well, SMIC just started mass production of 12nm chips with Chinese equipment. SMIC was already producing 7nm chips and no one knew until some reverse engineer took apart a SMIC chip to see what process node was used and discovered, to his surprise, that it was 7nm.
None of the equipment China is currently using stopped working. They are still producing chips.
SMEE just released their 28nm machine to a customer for testing in production. Which means that it will be mass produced this year. With 28nm machines, China can make 7nm chips using all Chinese equipment.
Huawei just came out with 12nm EDA software for designing chips at 12nm. So expect 7nm or smaller for EDA software this year or early next year.
As far as the military is concerned. China is a peer. Which means that China has comparable technology or better. Everything the US uses must be brought by ship. China has zero logistics for their fight with the US should the US start a war.
China’s industrial capacity is more than the US and the EU combined. And China has already stockpiled enough missiles to sink double the number of US ships in existence. So even if the US convinced all NATO nations, Japan, South Korea, Australia to send everything they have. They will all be sunk.
The problem for the US is that each ship has limited ammo. The ships have maximum of 90–120 VLS launch cells. They carry anti-missile missiles and land attack missiles. The mix is about 1/3 to 1/2 anti-missile missiles.
It is SOP to fire 2 missiles per incoming anti-ship missiles.
China has 1,200 frontline fighters like the J-15, J-16, J-20. Each can carry 6 air to air missiles or 4 anti-ship cruise missiles. China has around 500 H6 bombers that can carry 5 anti-ship cruise missiles each. China also has a large drone fleet of around 500. Each drone can carry 4 air to air missiles or 2 anti-ship missiles.
Go look up the number of US destroyers. And do some simple math. You will find that the US doesn’t have enough ships or fighters. Which means that everything the US, NATO, SK, Japan, and Australia will be destroyed or sunk.
Notice I didn’t even bring up Chinese ships or submarines or land launched anti-ship missiles or hypersonic missiles.
So the US government has seriously mis-calculated. The US simply can not win. The current policy will backfire. we can hope that the US won’t be stupid and start a war that the US will lose.
In 3 days EVERYTHING changes for the US Dollar | Redacted
The Countries Bailed Out by China:
A new report published by the AidData research lab at Virginia’s College of William & Mary sheds some light on the usually nontransparent practice of Chinese bilateral emergency loans. The researchers that also hail from the World Bank, Harvard University and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy identified 22 countries that were bailed out by Chinese loans when they ran into liquidity problems between 2000 and 2021.
main qimg b09ed01416c71f6f29fe1a5e2556958f
Countries that utilized these loans in an especially high number of years, i.e. rolled over their loans into subsequent years include Pakistan, Mongolia, Argentina and Sri Lanka. The latter country tapped China’s central bank for the first time in 2021 before defaulting on its debt anyways in 2022. Argentina and Mongolia were also identified by the report as countries that have been in dire financial distress since the early 2010s and were using China as a lender of last resort despite the country’s loan terms being less favorable than lower-interest bailouts offered by the IMF or the U.S. Fed. The list of Chinese bailouts also includes countries experiencing major inflation events, like aforementioned Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt.
Bailout amounts provided by China remained quite low in the 2000s and early 2010s, before shooting up from 2015 onwards, climbing to a total of $100 billion for the two decades. The two most common ways in which these loans work is through a liquidity swap with the Chinese Central Bank – where most of the outstanding balances of around $40 billion were located as of 2021 – or through credit lines from Chinese state-owned banks. Three countries, Venezuela, South Sudan and Ecuador, received prepayments on goods they were to deliver to China.
CIA Larry Johnson: “What’s Coming IS WORSE THAN A WW3, THIS IS SERIOUS” in Exclusive Interview
https://youtu.be/nhWXUowhInA
The West is stuck between the public sentiment which it contrived and the reality on the ground, Alastair Crooke writes.
Consequential Strategic Change – Upon leaving his meeting with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping said to Putin, “Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years – and we are driving this change together”.
The ‘Entente’ was sealed during hours of talks over two days, and amidst a plethora of signed documents. Two powerful states have formed a duality that, in marrying a gigantic manufacturing base to the pre-eminent raw materials supplier and the advanced weaponry and diplomatic nous of Russia, leaves the U.S. in the shade. A seat in the shadows (assumed through volitation, or inability to contemplate such radical transition) reflects the U.S. with its back turned towards participation in the unfolding multipolar world.
With the U.S. in thrall to hegemony, the emergence of a global trifurcation is inevitable – including the three spheres of trade war: Eurasia, led by Russia China; Global South influenced by India – and with the U.S. dominating over the EU and Anglo-Sphere.
But that was not the essence of what President Xi meant by ‘change’; trade, military interchange and monetary system change were already ‘baked in’. What Xi and Putin are suggesting is that we must cast aside the old spectacles of western orientalism, by which we have been accustomed to view the world, and to think it differently and in diverse ways.
Transformation is never easy. How is the U.S. political class reacting? =It is flailing about wildly. It is deeply spooked by the manifestation of this new entente. It has lashed out, as usual, with a propaganda outpouring: Putin got little from Xi’s visit, bar pomp and ceremony; Xi’s was a ‘bed-side call’ on an ailing patient; Russia humiliated by becoming a Chinese resource colony –and to top it all, the summit failed to find a Ukraine resolution.
All of this propaganda is nonsense, of course. These are canards thrown to the winds. Washington understands how compelling is the Chinese narrative: China seeks harmony, peace and a meaningful way of life for all. America, however, stands for domination, divide and contain – and bloody, colonial-type forever wars (in the China meme).
Xi’s narrative has traction – not just in the ‘refuse-to-be-aligned’ world, but significantly within ‘Other America’, too. It even resonates a tad in otherwise wholly ‘tin-eared’ Europe.
The problem here, is that these ‘two Americas’ – the entitled Oligarchy and ‘Other America’ – simply were not able to discourse with each other, and have withdrawn into separate spheres: The western tech-platforms (such as Twitter) were knowingly configured so as to precisely not listen to ‘Other America’. And to cancel, or de-platform, contrarian voices. Today’s anti-Russian schema is yet another derivative of ‘nudge psychology’, originally trialled during Lockdown: Then ‘Science’ (as determined by the governments) offered public ‘certainty’, and at the same time stoked fear that any non-compliance with government rules might lead to death.
The moral certainty (claimed from following the ‘Science’) gave justification to judge harshly, condemn and dismiss people who in any way questioned Lockdown. Today’s geo-political psychological ploy – a derivative from the Lockdown precedent – is to ‘paste’ to the geo-political sphere the woke position of zero tolerance towards questioning supposed principles ‘that are inviolable’ (such as Human Rights). Thus, the schema uses the narrative ‘clarity’ of Russia’s ‘illegal, unprovoked and criminal invasion of Ukraine’ to give the western public the satisfying sense of righteousness needed to similarly judge harshly, oust from employment, and publicly denigrate any who expressed support for Russia.
This is viewed as an Intelligence Success, by contributing to the objective of maintaining NATO ‘burden sharing’ – and in ensuring across-the-board western expression of ‘moral outrage’ at all things Russian.
The West’s ‘Certainty Ploy’ may have worked, in that it deceptively has kindled a moral fury within a large segment of public opinion. Yet it can also be a trap – by firing up such emotionally charged propaganda; the force of the latter now limits western options (at a time when the circumstances of the Ukraine war are much changed from what had been expected). The West is now trapped by that public opinion that views any compromise that is not one of full Russian capitulation to violate its ‘inviable principles’.
The notion of exposing differing facets to a conflict (which lies at the crux to mediation), providing differing perspectives coming into view, becomes intolerable when set against ‘black and white’ righteousness. Xi and Putin are held by the western media to be so morally deficient that many fear being scorned for being on the wrong side of the ‘moral’ fault line on such a contentious issue.
Notably, this ploy does not work in the rest of world, where wokism has little traction.
There is however a substrata of Ruling Class worry about this denial technique. Two real issues arise: First, can America survive absent U.S. hegemony? What bonds, what national meaning, what vision could substitute to hold such a diverse nation together? Is ‘modernity as the winner of history’ convincing in the context of contemporary cultural degeneracy? If today’s scouring ‘modernity’ comes only at the cost of personal loneliness and loss of self-esteem (which is the recognised symptom of alienation arising from severance from community-roots), is technological ‘modernity’ then worth it? Or can some return to earlier values become the guiding prerequisite to a different mode of modernity? – one that works with the grain, instead of against the grain of cultural embeddedness.
This is the key question posed by Presidents Xi and Putin (through the civilisational nation-state concept).
Secondly, the U.S. has morphed from being a military to essentially a rent-seeking financialised hegemon. What price the enduring U.S. business prosperity should the U.S. lose dollar hegemony? Dollar ‘privilege’ has long sustained U.S. prosperity. But American sanctions, asset seizures, and new monetary arrangements pose the question: Is the global order changed so much that dollar hegemony, beyond the U.S. and its dependencies, is no longer sustainable?
The western ruling classes are certain of the answer: Political and dollar hegemony are interconnected. Keeping power, enriching the ‘golden billion’, means sustaining both – even as the Élites plainly can see that the American narrative is losing traction around the world, and states are migrating to new trading blocs.
That ‘Other America’ is not so sure they see the carnage associated with America’s endless interventions as ‘worth the candle’. There is too, an undercurrent of thought that a financial system, dependent on ever more and ever bigger ‘fixes’ of financial stimulant, either is healthy (in creating inequalities), or that its’ pyramiding leverage can be sustained over the long term.
: “For America to be displaced … by an Asian people long despised and dismissed with contempt as decadent, feeble, corrupt and inept, is emotionally very difficult to accept”. Yew predicted, “The sense of cultural supremacy of the Americans will make this adjustment most difficult”.
Equally, for China, which has had a long and continuous history as a great power, to be blocked by a ‘people from nowhere’ is intolerable.
l’Entente is a bitter pill for the West. For a generation, separating Russia from China has been a primordial U.S. goal – as originally prescribed by Zbig Brzezinski: To contain both Russia and China through exacerbating regional disputes (Ukraine, Taiwan) was the zero-sum-game, with Russia the first target (to compel a pivot back to the West through economic implosion),and then move on to contain China – but China alone. (Yes, some in the West believed
that a Russian pivot westwards was very feasible).
A former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Wess Mitchell, wrote
in the National Interest magazine: To Prevent China Grabbing Taiwan: Stop Russia in Ukraine! Simply put, Mitchell’s point was: “Were the U.S. to inflict enough pain on Putin for his gamble in Ukraine”, then Xi implicitly would be contained.
So, containing Russia via Ukraine was ‘it’: “If the United States is going to threaten catastrophic sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, they better damn well be catastrophic, because the credibility of the U.S.-led financial system for punishing large-scale aggression – is on the line”, Mitchell warned. “The United States will only get one chance to demonstrate that credibility—and Ukraine is it”.
Mitchell continued,
“The good news in all of this is that Ukraine has given the U.S. a momentary, and perishable, window to act decisively and not only deal with the situation in Ukraine – but dissuade a move against Taiwan… The impact of Putin’s brutality in galvanizing European burden-sharing is a game-changer for U.S. global strategy. With Germany spending more
in coming years on defense than Russia ($110 billion annually vs. $62 billion), the United States will be able to focus more of its available conventional forces on deterring China”.
‘A momentary window’? But here was the egregious mismatch: the U.S. was betting on ‘the perishable moment’, but Russia was preparing for a long-term war. The financial sanctions didn’t work; Russia’s isolation didn’t happen; and the containment strategy contributed rather to destabilising the global financial system to the detriment of the West.
The Biden Administration had bet all on a containment strategy intended to avoid a two-front war – a strategy that has not worked out, as expected. More than that, the shooting down of the Chinese balloon and the ensuing anti-Chinese battle cries emanating from all quarters in the U.S. convinced the Chinese that their earlier, November attempt at détente with U.S. and Europe at the Bali G20 was ‘dead in the water’.
China re-calibrated; and prepared for war. (At minimum, a sanction Cold War, but ultimately, for Hot War). Full steam ahead with l’Entente. The Brzezinski divide and rule strategy had been holed below the waterline and sunk.
The West is now painted into a corner: It cannot sustain war on both Russia and China, yet its overblown, deliberately deceitful, manipulation of public opinion to create western ‘cohesion’ makes de-escalation almost impossible.
The public in the U.S. and Europe now sees Russia and China in the darkest shades of the Manichaean Demiurge. They have been repeatedly told that Russia stands at the cusp of total collapse, and that Ukraine ‘is winning’. Most Americans, most Europeans believe this. Many have come to revile these new adversaries.
The U.S. leadership class cannot back down. Yet, it has not the means to wage a two-front war. The trap consists in propaganda stemming from an earlier Lockdown schema that was designed to frighten, and dis-inform the public. A principal aim of which was to make doubt or scepticism appear morally irresponsible within public discourse. Similarly, the new schema of western public control by which Presidents Xi and Putin are made to look so morally deficient that much of the public fears to criticise the war on Russia – has boomeranged. That ‘certainty’ means that it would be morally irresponsible to back out of a war – even one that is being lost. The war now must proceed to the defeat of the Ukrainian regime – an outcome far more humiliating than a negotiated end would have been. But public opinion will not allow anything less than Putin’s humiliation. The West is stuck between the public sentiment which it contrived and the reality on the ground.
In this way, the West fell into its own ‘Certainty Trap’.
let’s hope that the US will not panic and accept the truth that everyone is finally beginning to see, which is: USA is the No. 1 Terrorist organization on this planet, our home.
But I don’t see that coming. It would be naïve to think that they will let China do what they are doing. The US will fight for their unipolar hegemony.
However, it is surprising how stupid the US is acting… (no need to explain that further in this audience) But the fact that such stupid people have access to all kind of weapons, is very worrying.
In the last days I have already noticed a new level of emotionalized propaganda in the German media, “explaining” in all “newspapers” the ever-boring story of The Good and The Evil. The language is becoming more infantile and desperate, almost embarrassing (Fremdscham)
I am afraid they are preparing their people for a justification of something …. very very stupid. I hope not.
So far Russia and China have acted quite cleverly, not responding to the various childish provocations. Instead they behaved like adults and were surprisingly successful in de-escalation. They show strength and wisdom at the same time.
They seem to be prepared for anything the US will do. They know the US empire is ending and they even seem to be aware that they should not humiliate the Empire (something they could do very well, if they wanted to).
May peace prevail.
Posted by: HansJuergen | Mar 20 2023 11:07 utc | 4
Nicknamed the “cradle” of integrated circuits, EDA is a widely used software in the sector and significant to the entire chip-designing process. /CFP
Huawei has developed electronic design automation (EDA) tools for chips produced at and above 14-nanometer technology with domestic partners, marking a major breakthrough for China’s semiconductor industry.
Nicknamed the “cradle” of integrated circuits, EDA is a widely used software in the sector and significant to the entire chip-designing process.
The Chinese tech giant has achieved localization of EDA tools above 14nm in the chip field and will complete comprehensive verification this year, Huawei confirmed on March 24, citing the remarks made by its rotating chairman Xu Zhijun on February 28.
Xu also said the company has developed 78 tools related to chip hardware and software.
China has long relied on U.S. companies such as Cadence and Synopsys for high-end electronic design automation tools.
Chips produced at the 14nm level were first introduced in smartphones in the mid-2010s and are two to three generations behind leading-edge technology, but it still marks a breakthrough.
The progress is part of a broader push by Huawei to develop domestic development tools for hardware, software and chips amid the U.S. governmental restrictions.
Xu further mentioned that although the company has achieved many breakthroughs in product development tools over the past three years, it still faces formidable challenges, thus Huawei will redouble its efforts to attract more global talents to achieve a strategic breakthrough in the area.
Caramelized Onion Smothered Pork Chops
Caramelized Onion Smothered Pork Chops are exceptionally delicious. They will most certainly become a part of your meal rotation.
caramelized onion smothered pork chops
Ingredients
4 boneless pork chops, with as much fat removed as possible
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons butter
2 cups thinly sliced onion
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
Instructions
Season both sides of pork chops with garlic powder, sage, thyme, salt and pepper.
Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat, evenly coating the bottom of the skillet.
Increase heat to medium-high. Cook both sides of chops for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.
Push chops to outside edges of skillet. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the center of the skillet and add onions to the center of the skillet, sprinkling with sugar. Replace skillet cover and cook for 10 minutes, frequently tossing and stirring onions with a spatula. Onions are caramelized when tender and medium-brown in color. DO NOT let the onions burn!
Check chops for doneness before serving. They will be done when a fork piercing the thickest part of the chop draws clear juice. If the juice is pink, cook chops a bit longer until done.
Serve pork chops with caramelized onions piled on top.
Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.
By Graham Allison, a professor of government at the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to visit Moscow this week in his first trip abroad since his reelection comes as no surprise to those who have been watching carefully. When one steps back and analyzes the relationship between China and Russia, the brute facts cannot be denied: Along every dimension—personal, economic, military, and diplomatic—the undeclared alliance that Xi has built with Russian President Vladimir Putin has become much more consequential than most of the United States’ official alliances today.
Many observers still find this alliance hard to believe. As former U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis put it in 2018, Moscow and Beijing have a “natural nonconvergence of interests.” Geography, history, culture, and economics—all the factors that students of international relations focus on—give both nations many reasons to be adversaries.
On today’s map, large swaths of what was in earlier centuries Chinese territory are now within Russia’s borders. This includes Moscow’s key naval base in the Pacific, Vladivostok—which on Chinese military maps is still labeled by its Chinese name, Haishenwai. The 2,500-mile border between the two nations has repeatedly seen violent clashes, most recently in 1969. On the Russian side, the land east of the Ural Mountains is full of natural resources but has a population of just 32 million people, while on the Chinese side, hundreds of millions of people live with few natural resources.
On the broader canvas of history, Russia was a prime antagonist in China’s “century of humiliation,” joining forces with Western imperialist powers to put down the Boxer Rebellion and forcing China to sign eight “unequal treaties” during the second half of the 19th century. In recent decades, the status inversion resulting from Russia’s decline from its position as the second superpower in a bipolar world, combined with China’s meteoric rise, must cause a leader as status-conscious as Putin some consternation.
But while history deals the hands, human beings play the cards, and Xi has defied expectations to masterfully build a relationship with Putin that matters deeply to both. Putin was the first leader Xi visited after becoming China’s president in 2012. Since then, the two have held 40 one-on-one meetings, twice as often as either has met with any other world leader. Putin calls Xi his “best and bosom friend,” who, as Putin noted in 2018, is the only world leader with whom he has celebrated his birthday. When Xi awarded Putin China’s Friendship Medal in 2018, he called the Russian president his “best, most intimate friend.”
In recent years, Sino-Russian economic ties have grown. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China had displaced the United States and Germany to become Russia’s No. 1 trading partner and top buyer of Russian oil and gas. In the past year, China has provided an economic lifeline for Russia, buying everything the West won’t and helping Russia maintain access to financial markets amid sweeping Western sanctions. Chinese purchases of Russian energy last year were up 50 percent from 2021 levels while bilateral trade hit record highs. China was not only the world’s largest exporter to Russia in 2022, but it also accounted for the largest year-over-year increase in export volume to Russia of any country in the world. Last month, the yuan overtook the dollar as the most traded currency on the Moscow Exchange for the first time ever, representing almost 40 percent of total trading volume.
And despite Western sanctions intended to eliminate Russia’s access to critical technologies, Chinese exports of integrated circuits to Russia doubled in 2022. Indeed, in every area where China can support Russia without incurring major costs to itself—unlike lethal arms sales to Russia that violate U.S. sanctions, which CIA Director William Burns recently said China was “considering” but “reluctant to provide”—it has done so.
Furthermore, while many Americans discount Sino-Russian military cooperation, as a former Russian national security advisor has put it to me, China and Russia have the “functional equivalent of a military alliance.” China regularly participates in joint military exercises with Russia that dwarf those the United States conducts with its much more publicized “strategic partner,” India. It sent soldiers to Russia’s annual Vostok exercises in September and conducts joint air and naval exercises on a near-monthly basis. Russian and Chinese generals’ staffs now have candid, detailed discussions about the threat U.S. nuclear modernization and missile defenses pose to each of their strategic deterrents. While, for decades, Russia was careful to withhold its most advanced technologies in arms sales to China, it now sells the best it has, including S-400 air defenses. The two countries share intelligence and threat assessments as well as collaborate on rocket engine research and development. More recently, Beijing and Moscow have collaborated to compete with Washington in a new era of space competition.
Their diplomatic coordination has also ramped up as Xi and Putin become increasingly convinced Washington is seeking to undermine their regimes. The two countries almost always vote together in the United Nations Security Council and reinforce each other’s political narratives. For instance, China has repeatedly refused to call Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a war, instead labeling it an “issue,” “situation,” or “crisis.” Its diplomats and propaganda megaphones echo even Russia’s most extreme claims about the war, blaming NATO for ignoring Russia’s “legitimate concerns” and suggesting the United States wants to “fight till the last Ukrainian.”
Neither leader has made a secret of his ambitions to end U.S. hegemony and create what Xi called on Monday a “new model of major-country relations.” Their success in forming new alignments of nations—including the so-called BRICS bloc and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, whose citizens make up two-thirds of the world’s population—demonstrates that their declarations are not merely aspirational. While U.S. talking points highlight the world’s condemnation of Putin’s invasion, Chinese and Russian diplomats note that many countries have not joined in, including the world’s largest country, the world’s largest democracy, Africa’s leading democracy, and most nations in the global south.
An elementary proposition in international relations 101 states: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” By confronting both China and Russia simultaneously, the United States has helped create what former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski called an “alliance of the aggrieved.” This has allowed Xi to reverse Washington’s successful “trilateral diplomacy” of the 1970s that widened the gap between China and the United States’ primary enemy, the Soviet Union, in ways that contributed significantly to the U.S. victory in the Cold War. Today, China and Russia are, in Xi’s words, closer than allies.
Since Xi and Putin are not just the current presidents of their two nations but leaders whose tenures effectively have no expiration dates, the United States will have to understand that it is confronting the most consequential undeclared alliance in the world.
Revenging An Abused Girl Scene – The Equalizer 2 (2018)
What is actually going on…
The Chinese "Peace Plan" - as annotated by me:
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/zyxw/202302/t20230224_11030707.shtml
China's position on a political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis
2023-02-24 09:00
First, respect the sovereignty of all countries. Universally recognized international law, including the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, should be strictly observed, and the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all States should be effectively guaranteed. All countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal, and all parties should jointly safeguard the basic norms governing international relations and safeguard international fairness and justice. International law should be applied equally and uniformly, without double standards.
[MY NOTE: Boilerplate, standard Chinese position which does not even mention Ukraine or Russia.]
Second, abandon the Cold War mentality. The security of one country cannot be at the expense of the security of other countries, and regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs. The legitimate security interests and concerns of all countries should be taken into account and properly addressed. There are no easy solutions to complex problems. We should adhere to the concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, focus on the long-term peace and stability of the world, promote the construction of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture, oppose basing one's own security on the insecurity of other countries, prevent the formation of camp confrontation, and jointly safeguard peace and stability in the Eurasian continent.
[MY NOTE: Ditto]
3. Ceasefire and cessation of war. There are no winners in conflict wars. All parties should remain rational and restrained, do not add fuel to the fire, do not intensify contradictions, avoid further deterioration or even loss of control of the Ukrainian crisis, support Russia and Ukraine to meet each other halfway, resume direct dialogue as soon as possible, gradually promote the de-escalation of the situation, and finally reach a comprehensive ceasefire.
[MY NOTE: Note that this does not call on Russia or Ukraine to do anything. Instead it calls on "all parties" to "avoid loss of control", calls on outside parties to support Russia and Ukraine in peace efforts to promote a ceasefire. No direct calls for either Russia or Ukraine to actually commit to a ceasefire.]
4. Initiating peace talks. Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way to resolve the Ukrainian crisis. All efforts conducive to a peaceful settlement of the crisis should be encouraged and supported. The international community should adhere to the right direction of persuading peace and promoting talks, help all parties to the conflict open the door to a political settlement of the crisis as soon as possible, and create conditions and provide a platform for the resumption of negotiations. China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in this regard.
[MY NOTE: Ditto.]
Fifth, resolve humanitarian crises. All initiatives that contribute to alleviating the humanitarian crisis should be encouraged and supported. Humanitarian action must respect the principles of neutrality and impartiality and prevent the politicization of humanitarian issues. Effectively protect the safety of civilians and establish humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from warring areas. Increase humanitarian assistance to relevant areas, improve the humanitarian situation, provide rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and prevent larger humanitarian crises. Support the coordinating role of the United Nations in humanitarian assistance to conflict areas.
[MY NOTE: Again, boiler plate concern for humanitarian issues. Russia can agree to this in a heartbeat without having to do anything different than they've been doing.]
Protection of civilians and prisoners of war. Parties to a conflict should strictly abide by international humanitarian law, refrain from attacks on civilians and civilian facilities, protect women and children and other victims of conflict, and respect the fundamental rights of prisoners of war. China supports the exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine, and all parties should create more favorable conditions for this.
[MY NOTE: Ditto.]
7. Maintain the safety of nuclear power plants. Oppose armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities such as nuclear power plants. We call on all parties to abide by international law such as the Convention on Nuclear Safety and resolutely avoid man-made nuclear accidents. Support the constructive role of the IAEA in promoting the safety and security of peaceful nuclear facilities.
[MY NOTE: Same, same - Russia has been doing that, Ukraine has not. This is a strike against Ukraine and is something which Russia again could agree to in a heartbeat without having to do anything at all.]
8. Reduce strategic risks. Nuclear weapons cannot be used, and nuclear war cannot be fought. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons should be rejected. Prevent nuclear proliferation and avoid nuclear crises. It opposes the development and use of chemical and biological weapons by any country under any circumstances.
[MY NOTE: And who has biowarfare labs in Ukraine? Not Russia! Another strike against Ukraine - and by extension, the US. Again, Russia need do nothing.]
9. Ensuring the export of grain. All parties should implement the Black Sea grain transportation agreement signed by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations in a balanced, comprehensive and effective manner, and support the United Nations in playing an important role in this regard. China's initiative on international food security cooperation provides a feasible solution to the global food crisis.
[MY NOTE: Once again, Russia need do nothing it isn't already doing.]
10. Stop unilateral sanctions. /b10>Unilateral sanctions and maximum pressure will not only fail to solve problems, but will also create new ones. Oppose any unilateral sanctions not authorized by the Security Council. Relevant countries should stop abusing unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" against other countries, play a role in cooling down the Ukraine crisis, and create conditions for developing countries to develop their economies and improve their livelihood.
[MY NOTE: Direct strike against the United States and Western Europe. Again, Russia doesn't need to do anything.]
11. Ensure the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain. All parties should earnestly safeguard the existing world economic system and oppose the politicization, instrumentalization and weaponization of the world economy. Jointly mitigate the spillover impact of the crisis, prevent international cooperation in energy, finance, food trade, and transportation from being disrupted, and harm global economic recovery.
[MY NOTE: Ditto.]
12. Promote post-war reconstruction. The international community should take measures to support post-war reconstruction in conflict areas. China is ready to provide assistance and play a constructive role in this regard.
[MY NOTE: Ditto.]
This is a "peace plan"? I thought China was trying to get a real ceasefire going based on the babble I was reading from everyone else. This is pablum. This is a PR document, nothing more. It's utterly meaningless. Why the US even bothered to say they won't do it is beyond me - other than, of course, to guarantee that no negotiations ever occur. But this document doesn't even call for meaningful negotiations on any specific time frame, venue or with any support except China.
Russia can agree to this in a heartbeat, then get right back to prosecuting the war the same way as it did yesterday.
This is the biggest nothingburger I've ever seen. It makes it very clear that Xi is going to Russia for discussions on matters other than this nonsense and is using this to solidify the Russian-Chinese alliance for the benefit of the perception of the non-aligned nations.
There will be absolutely no change in the war based on this document or any comments which Putin or Xi may make in the wake of their meetings.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 20 2023 11:30 utc | 5
Why do people who have been to China and the USA prefer China?
I have taken a vacation in China recently( Tianjin and Xiamen ).
China is so beautiful, peaceful, very modern, super safe . Chinese cities are very clean , very vibrant and life is very convenient . The public transportation systems are superb and most advanced . You almost don’t see any homeless people on the streets or anybody smoking marijuana . Chinese people are friendly, nice and helpful . China is not perfect and needs a lot of improvements but she has really caught up with the best countries in the world and has even exceeded some of them.
I hope that the mayor of LA (where I live )can do something about the homeless ,beggars and people with mental illness who live on the streets , build some shelters for them and don’t allow them to set tent everywhere, making LA like a shithole.
I hope that the mayor of NYC ( where my child lives ) can rinse NYC subways thoroughly , so there will be no more human shits and urine, no more rats and mice, no more cockroaches , no more dirty/crazy people living there.
If China can make their cities/ subways/train stations/air ports super clean, why can’t America ? Don’t forget that many people still believe USA is the most powerful country in the world ,right ? A first class country should be safe and clean , correct ?
P.S. some people asked me that if China is supposed to be very crowded ,why there are so few people in my photos ? I agree that many cities of China are very crowded , but there are still some locations with very few people. I didn’t choose place without people on purpose to take pictures. I saw nice places ,I stopped and I just took pictures.
Better Call Saul | Mike Gets Revenge
COVERT INTEL: ISRAEL ON VERGE OF POLITICAL & SOCIAL COLLAPSE
The state of Israel is literally on the verge of political and social collapse tonight (Sunday) after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Gallant who opposes changes in the country’s Judicial Powers. The Israeli Army is already suffering DESERTIONS as the Army sides with the fired Defense Minister!
Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies. But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition.
This has become far more than a political/legal matter. The citizenry and institutions of state are engaging in almost outright rebellion against these proposed moves.
Change the world
There's a RSOTM video in which Russian soldiers have to walk through an Ukrainan trench they conquered. They have to walk, they cannot avoid this even if you see them doing it gingerly, over the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, collapsed face down into the cold mud. Imagine seeing your son, husband or father killed like that. That's what war is - all for the greed and callousness of some "Western" millionaires and billionaires. And it was ever so. I do not worship Xi and Putin, but I admire them and we can but hope they will change the world.
Posted by: Anthony | Mar 20 2023 12:44 utc | 18
Operational update
Scorched earth, war crimes, Avdeevka and the Chinese
With circumstances on the battlefield having changed, I’ve decided to write a new operational update. It looks as if the end of Ukraine’s armed resistance is drawing nigh, which leads me to a couple of questions about the justification for continuing the conflict as well as some legal considerations. I’ll try to provide a brief summary.
I see a change in Russia’s operational approach to the vectors of attrition in Donbass. BMA originally outlined five vectors, which in fact have been activated and pushed. Our original five vectors have changed, so I’ll revise our definition to bring it into line with the current state of affairs.
I’ll also touch on next week’s meeting between President Xi and President Putin, which starts March 20, and what they might propose to President Zelensky to end the war.
Background
For a better understanding of what I’m going to discuss, I suggest you read the following articles in advance:
Today we see that Ukraine is struggling to keep the five theatres of war supplied with fresh troops and equipment. The demand for replenishment is growing, and Ukraine’s logistics capacity is shrinking.
Why demand is growing:
The battles are intensifying as the Russians push forward aggressively.
In slightly more than a year of fighting, Ukraine has used up almost everything it needs to sustain the war, not only military equipment but also civilian goods required for rear functions.
The Ukrainian army has become almost entirely dependent on Western equipment, because the Soviet inventories have been depleted or destroyed. Western equipment has to be maintained in Poland or Germany. Soviet equipment can be maintained in Ukraine, often on the battlefield itself, but Western matériel has to be transported thousands of miles. This factor puts further stress on the logistics network.
Ukraine had plenty of huge machine plants where its weapons and equipment were maintained. Russia has identified and destroyed most of them as well as Ukraine’s improvised workshops.
Why capacity is shrinking:
Ever more electrical substations are being destroyed, which adversely affects rear logistics.
A great quantity of rolling stock has been destroyed.
Ever more warehouses used to store supplies are being identified and destroyed. The West and Russia are playing a cat-and-mouse game, identifying new storage locations and then destroying them.
I estimate that, from the outset of the war, 150,000 people have been engaged in Ukraine’s rear logistics, carrying out transport of matériel between the west and the east and, within Ukraine, transport, production and distribution of goods and equipment for training, replenishment, etc.
With Ukraine increasingly short of manpower, I assume many of the rear troops and civilian auxiliary forces have been also mobilized and sent to the front, which of course further complicates logistics on the ground. Still, I assume that logistics is still working adequately because it is the most important function of an army. But if Ukraine fully cannibalizes its rear troops and people, collapse will follow. In fact, collapse could happen in the next two or three months.
But, most important, Ukraine is running out of soldiers. Its remaining professional troops, who were trained in the West, are being committed to the fight. They should have been held back for the counteroffensive in the south. Since Russia has intensified the pressure in the five theatres of war, the attrition rate of the Ukrainian forces has increased unsustainably. To stabilize the frontlines and to prevent them from collapsing, Ukraine has been forced to use professional troops earmarked for the counteroffensive.
If any of the theatres of war collapses, all the other theatres will follow suit because the rear of the others will be exposed.
Well, that’s definitely not in the interests of the collective West. So, what is actually happening?
Ukraine is losing an insane number of troops every day. I assume the figure is far higher than those cited by either side. Ukraine has an interest in keeping the numbers low to maintain public support. Russia can’t report high numbers without dampening its soldiers’ morale. Brothers are fighting brothers. Sometimes Donbass brothers are fighting one another. What is happening is a civil war, a slaughter forced on the Russians (and the Ukrainians) by the West. No Russians are happy about it. Nor am I. The conflict only serves the interests of the West.
Ukraine is using insane amounts of ammunition, weapons and equipment to hold the line in Donbass. This matériel produces no added value for the West. The Ukrainian troops in Donbass usually don’t even encounter a Russian soldier, let alone kill him; they are dying almost exclusively from artillery shells, airstrikes and tank fire. The equipment supplied by the West is being squandered. Its purpose is to kill plenty of Russians; but in this configuration thousands of Ukrainian troops are being equipped with Western weapons, sent to the frontline and dying without firing a shot or even seeing a Russian. That is a very bad investment.
Conclusion? The Ukrainians wasting equipment and dying, to no purpose. The investment in political and financial capital is not achieving their main goal:
Cutting off the road to Crimea. This would be a major political blow to Russia and would cost it a great deal of political capital, domestically and in the eyes of its allies.
Or, even better, but worse for the Russians, would be to have at least a single Ukrainian soldier set foot on Crimean soil. Even if Ukraine were to collapse immediately after, such a political setback would be deadly for Russia.
These unreliable Ukrainians…
Not entirely:
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are dead. Multiple times more are wounded. Hence, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian families have been torn apart, destroyed or displaced. The West can be sure that at least several generations of Ukrainians will hate Russia. The Russians will have to set up a very expensive program in the newly incorporated or occupied territories to integrate these people into Russian society. Scorched Earth.
Tens of thousands of Russians are dead or wounded. The toll could reach 100,000 before the war is over, if it hasn’t already, which in turn means millions of families that will resent every policy that involves spending to integrate the now-hated Ukrainians. Scorched Earth.
This brings us to the general hatred that has been fomented by the West between Russians and their Ukrainian brothers (of whom most are RUSSIANS). Scorched Earth.
The Western commanders are forcing the Ukrainians to fight in all the major industrial plants in Donbass to make sure they are completely destroyed. Destruction of the plants will lead to unemployment in the new territories. People who have experienced a war and are left sitting idle at home can do crazy things. Moreover, rebuilding these facilities will be costly. Most likely BRICS partners will be invited to invest, which will detract from sovereignty. Scorched Earth.
Even though Russia is trying hard to win the war with legacy weapons, so as not to expose its most advanced technologies to NATO, we can assume that NATO is meticulously studying the way the Russians are fighting, especially in standard situations (offensives, defence, logistics etc.).
A massive demographic catastrophe is in progress in Ukraine. Most families have fled abroad and will never return. The able-bodied male population that has not been able to hide in villages or elsewhere has been worn down on the frontline. The wounded and disabled will paralyze the country further for decades. In the new Russian territories (many are still to join), these additional costs will weigh on Russia’s balance sheet. Scorched Earth.
The same goes for disabled Russian soldiers in Russia. Many will not be able to return fully to work, and caring for them will be expensive. Scorched Earth.
From the start, Ukraine had no chance. As the West knew full well. Even so, vast amounts of money and equipment have been invested to sustain the Ukrainians’ ability to fight, which has led to the catastrophic consequences enumerated above.
Today it is clear that collapse is imminent. And yet we see, that the West is insisting, instead of preserving these men, to attrition them in the right way. Not, to no purpose, into the Artemovsk meat grinder and the other theatres, merely to gain political advantage in the south, namely to Melitopol.
Remaining Ukrainian men, don’t die senselessly for us – the West! Shame on you! Die in Melitopol, so we can gain political leverage over the Russians!
I hope, dear reader, you understand what I want to highlight. The war and the struggle for victory have been over since the Russians created a semi-cauldron around Artemovsk, which serves as a shooting range where Ukrainians try to enter or to escape from the meat grinder. Ukraine is no longer fighting to defend Ukraine. That struggle is over. The time has come when the commander-in-chief is obliged to realize that there is no purpose in continued fighting; it’s time to start negotiating the best possible surrender conditions. Once the army is thoroughly defeated, the window will close, and all that’s left will be unconditional surrender, which I expect in the summer of 2023.
Keep all that in mind for the “Chinese” section.
Next, let’s consider the legal implications of driving people to certain death with no prospect of ever gaining the upper hand.
War crime
If military success is not feasible, but the fighting continues with a massive loss of lives, both civilian and military, the leaders could be guilty of a war crime.
Ukraine continues to mobilize and to send people to certain death without any prospect of victory. Hence, with the continuation of the war, tens, or hundreds, of thousands of civilians and troops are going to die without affecting the outcome of the war in any way.
This is a serious war crime. The severity of it is extreme. It is murder.
Could I have made this argument earlier? Actually, no. Ukraine had some chance of winning the war politically. I outlined these chances in my analysis of phases one, two and three. Then Russia mobilized. And still no war crime had taken place because the mobilized Russians were not ready to fight, at least not the majority of them. I now assume that all these troops have finished retraining and are ready for their assigned tasks. At precisely that time, Ukraine’s continuation of the conflict became a war crime. It now has zero chance of winning, politically or militarily. From now on, every person killed is murdered. By the West.
Theatres of war
I need to correct my five theatres of war.
Originally, I declared Ugledar as one vector of attrition. It seems to me, however, that Ugledar has turned for Russia into a small version of phase one of the war. Mines and artillery ambush on open fields have slowed the Russian offensive there. Pushing farther would lead to unnecessary Russian casualties. Russia is not rushing toward Berlin, as in 1945, when people were traded for time. It looks to me as if the Russians have chosen to slow the offensive there and instead to work more with artillery from a distance. This approach has the same attrition effect but preserves the lives of their troops.
Some of you have pointed out that I did not place any significance on Avdeevka in my previous analysis, and rightly so. If Marinka, Artemovsk and Ugledar fall, Avdeevka will automatically end up in a cauldron, and the Ukrainians will be forced to pull out to avoid being cut off far behind the frontline. The reality is that the Ukrainians are holding both Ugledar and Marinka with all their available resources – hence, it makes no sense to sacrifice Russian troops there, especially when the end of the war is so near.
Thus, we can see how the Russian strategy for Avdeevka has changed, which could have come as a surprise for NATO’s planners. Note that Ukraine has more or less “hard-wired” logistics routes to its main frontlines. If a new frontline or an intensification of the battle in a certain area occurs, then it is no easy task to reroute operations to such an area, especially logistics infrastructure, supply lines and frontline depots.
In brief, I see the activation of another vector of attrition, or theatre of war, to release the pressure on Marinka and Ugledar. Or, if Ukraine is able to sustain all the frontlines, then Russia will try to shorten the war with increased attrition of men and matériel.
As for the Belarussian theatre of war, we can assume that the Ukrainians’ ability to keep up the fight has been overestimated for several months. If the Ukrainians pull troops away from the northern border to replace their losses in Donbass, then the situation will be dire. I expected a vector of attrition near the border. But there might not be much left to wear down there.
As soon as the frontlines in Donbass collapse, there is a real possibility that Russia could use the Belarussian border to put pressure on Kiev and to take it in a pincer, thus forcing negotiation of a Ukrainian surrender. More about that eventuality in the last section.
Sino-Russian peace proposal
President Xi of China and President Putin will meet next week amid rumours that China will propose to Ukraine a peace deal agreed upon by the Russians.
Readers of my blog know that I see no chance on Earth that Ukraine will not entirely fall to Russia. Yes, some parts of it could be given pseudo-independence after denazification and demilitarization, especially parts of Western Ukraine. My assessment has not changed in any way.
So, what could the Chinese offer be? And why is it being offered at all?
Why is it being offered? Well, I could explain it politely but I won’t. In a nutshell, it’s a public relations exercise.
What could the offer be? I have no way of knowing but I will make an assumption. Given that all of Ukraine will have to surrender, and then some parts could be given pseudo-independence, I can speculate that the question is whether Kiev will be part of Russia or of the new pseudo-independent country. If Kiev is still part of it, it would mean the preservation of “Ukraine”, despite its dependence on Russia.
If Kiev is incorporated into Russia, Ukraine is done for. And with it the Western dream of restarting the whole adventure and infiltrating the pseudo-independent state again to bring it back under the West’s influence. If Kiev is not part of the farce, then there will be nothing viable or interesting for the West, except the land bridge to Hungary and Serbia, which of course is a geopolitical necessity for Russia in order to break up NATO.
Do you think China will formulate its proposal as bluntly as I have here? That’s not how diplomacy works. There will be an X-point plan that is beautiful but meaningless. The real terms of surrender will be communicated behind closed doors. Do I expect the Ukrainians to accept such an offer? Well, given that the Ukrainians have nothing to say (only the Americans do), I have two different considerations:
The West wants to fight to the last Ukrainian. See the “Scorched earth” section. Hence, any ceasefire that would save even a single Ukrainian life is unacceptable to the leaders of the United States. By the way, I don’t blame the people of the US.
Since keeping Kiev out of Russia could be seen by the United States as a chance to preserve NATO by sabotaging all efforts of this new dependent entity to create a land bridge to Hungary and Serbia, it still could be an interesting offer for the United States.
Is it a huge risk for Russia and China to allow a vulnerable corridor to Hungary? Yes. I’m sure that the calculation is that Ukraine will reject it anyway or that the ability of Russia and China to protect this land bridge is assured.
Or I could be totally wrong. Perhaps the Sino-Russian proposal is something totally different, or there is no proposal at all. 😊
Why are the Russians and the Chinese meeting now? And why is there (presumably) a proposal NOW? As I said, with the Ukrainian army on the verge of collapse (which means in two or three months) and Russia’s main force, mobilized and trained, now in place, I assume we are in a do-or-die situation.
What does it mean? The Ukrainian forces have been almost defeated, and a Russian force that is far larger than the one that has defeated four iterations of the Ukrainian army is ready to deliver the final blow. The Sino-Russian proposal could be something along the lines of “Sign this conditional surrender now or face defeat and unconditional surrender in the near future.”
Here, I’d like to make a brief point: Russia and China will sign various agreements quite apart from the Ukrainian question. It doesn’t matter for these agreements whether an agreement on Ukraine, if it exists, is accepted. But what are the other agreements under discussion? I will cover this question and many more in my coming major article about Asia.
Further developments
What does that mean actually? “Big Arrows”? 😊
As I’ve said, the Ukrainian army is on the verge of collapse. I give it two or three months. As soon as this happens, I can see Russia’s well-trained, armoured motorized tank and rifle divisions pushing from Belarus through undefended positions in the north to place Kiev in a pincer. You could perhaps argue that this would, indeed, be a big-arrow offensive. But because ever more Ukrainian troops are being pulled from the northern border regions and moved to Donbass, there won’t be many left who could put up a fight against such a large armoured force.
Hence, it wouldn’t be a big-arrow offensive; rather, it would involve positioning forces around Kiev to reinforce negotiating efforts.
You don’t see troops, logistics and equipment in Belarus yet. Nor do I. I assume that such a build-up would happen if the proposal for surrender were rejected. Nevertheless, storming Kiev would be madness. Kiev is a Russian hero city, like Odessa. I could imagine an encirclement, though. Negotiations would take place so long as the Donbass front advances to Zaporozhye and the Belarus front to the south. Every day that these fronts move forward increases the probability that Kiev will surrender if it comes under siege. But Ukraine will suffer a complete military defeat if it isn’t allowed to surrender. Which would be regrettable. While reading these lines, keep the “War crime” section in mind!
Casino: House of the rising sun
RUSSIANS GRAB UKRAINE DRONE – OPERATING VIA STARLINK!
The Russian Army has downed an attack Drone, operated by Ukraine, but not by direct radio control; this drone is operated through Elon Musk’s STARLINK Internet Satellite Service! Musk has previously said his company would not be party to any war operations. Now the world sees otherwise.
In the photo above, taken today, 26 March 2023, the square shaped panel atop the drone is the STARLINK antenna.
For months, Ukraine has been using radio controlled drones to attack and kill Russian soldiers. Russia engaged electronic warfare, which jammed those radio signals.
Clearly, Ukraine decided to provide drone control not by radio signal, but by means of the satellite Internet terminal Starlink.
The drone has a rather compact design, however, despite all the efforts of the Armed Forces, the drone was still successfully hit by the anti-drone gun and is now the trophy of the Russian military.
Now the drone can be carefully studied by the Russian military to develop more effective means of counteracting UAVs of such design.
Geopolitical Rumblings Leave U.S. Behind
Over the last month we have seen astonishing geopolitical developments.
For the last 30 years the U.S. considered the Middle East as its backyard. Twenty years ago it illegally invaded Iraq and caused 100,000nds of death and decades of chaos. Now China, by peaceful means, changed the balance in the Middle East within just one month.
It is likely that Putin will publicly endorse the Chinese peace plan while the U.S. is paranoid that peace might indeed happen. It may even want to sabotage the Saudi Iranian deal.
China’s people are by the way the most happy people in the world.
Xi and Putin are now running the multilateral global show. Biden and the hapless ‘unilateral’ people around him are left aside.
Posted by b on March 20, 2023 at 10:21 UTC | Permalink
Nacho’s Death | Rock And Hard Place | Better Call Saul
Russian Su-35 Fighter Jet Intercepts Two US B-52 Bombers Over Baltic Sea – Defense Ministry
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian fighter jet Su-35 prevented two US strategic bombers B-52 from reaching the Russian border on Monday over the Baltic Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry's National Defense Control Center (NDCC) reported on Monday."On March 20, 2023, the radars of the air defense forces of the Western Military District on duty detected two air targets flying in the direction of the state border of the Russian Federation over the Baltic Sea. The targets were identified as two strategic bombers B-52N of the US Air Force," the NDCC said.In order to identify and prevent breach of the state border, a Su-35 fighter from the air defense forces of the Western Military District was scrambled. After that, the crew of the fighter occupied the established zone of duty in the air."After the removal of foreign military aircraft from the Russian state border, the Russian fighter returned to its base airfield," the center said.[.]The latest scramble comes days after the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on March 14 that a US MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed in the Black Sea as a result of its own extreme maneuvers after violating airspace and carrying out its flight with transponders turned off.
The chickenhawks are Testing, Testing. These diversions will not make the banking crisis disappear. And Xi is on a visit to Moscow
Posted by: Likklemore | Mar 20 2023 21:19 utc | 137
French Gov’t BANS Cartoon Video About Ukraine War – The Cartoon is “Spot-on”
The government of France has officially BANNED the one minute video below, which describes the Ukraine War perfectly, calling it “Russian Propaganda.” Sorry Macron, the truth hurts!
Here’s the cartoon by a French independent journalist group called “BarracudaS”
Meanwhile, the world grows weary of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, and his alleged Cocaine use. It’s becoming public mockery now, as evidenced by this “Mobile Tribute to Volodymyr Zelensky”:
And when the world isn’t poking fun at President Cocaine, they’re mocking his alleged Money Laundering:
ZelenskyLaunderingMoney
I hear rumors that schools are even teaching this in Geometry:
Ukraine yourMoneyGone
While we’re all laughing, this Zelensky has now resorted to having Priests arrested, in church, DURING MASS:
The state of Israel is literally on the verge of political and social collapse tonight (Sunday) after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Gallant who opposes changes in the country’s Judicial Powers. The Israeli Army is already suffering DESERTIONS as the Army sides with the fired Defense Minister!
Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies. But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition.
This has become far more than a political/legal matter. The citizenry and institutions of state are engaging in almost outright rebellion against these proposed moves. Here’s how serious things have gotten TONIGHT:
“There Is No Way Out For You!” (2023)
Iran Moving MUCH More Military Gear to Azerbaijan Border
Iran has increased the pace of moving military hardware toward its border with Azerbaijan.
All the latest type of military gear are now quite visible on the Iranian side of the Border.
Meanwhile, the Russian Southern Military District announced crews of army aviation helicopters Mi-8MTV-5 and Ka-52 performed training flights in the mountains of Armenia.
Russia and Iran are preparing to defend Armenia from Azerbaijan, which wants to grab the southern portion of Armenia so as to cut Iran off from Armenia, and cut Armenia off from the rest of the world.
Neither Russia nor Iran will allow that.
Breaking bad Tuco
African Nation CHAD has “Nationalized” Assets of Exxon-Mobil
The government of Chad has decided to nationalize all the assets of the American oil and gas company Exxon Mobile located in the country. The decision to nationalize the assets of the American company
was made by the interim President of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby.
The nationalization of a private company means that all assets are now owned by the government. While this used to happen in the 1960s and 1970s, it hasn’t happened recently and doesn’t conform to usual legal frameworks in the sector, say energy experts.
Chad began producing oil in 2003 and Exxon has been operating in the country for several decades. It was running the Doba oil project in Chad.
The move could scare away investors from West Africa at a time of growing global energy demand and a decline in foreign investments in the region, said Olufola Wusu, a partner and head of the oil and gas desk at Megathos Law Practice based in Nigeria.
“Expropriation of any sort without compensation is not a step in the right direction, because it is going to erode investor confidence in that particular country and once investors are jittery, they pull back their investment, so regulators and leaders in Africa need to play by the rules,” he said.
The government’s decision came after a long dispute between Exxon and Chad, which rejected the sale of the company’s operations last year.
Tensions have risen in the West African nation in recent months with unprecedented protests mounting against the government of President Mahamat Idriss Deby.
Deby was declared the head of state after his father’s death in April 2021. The son’s succession did not follow Chad’s constitutional line of succession. Opposition political parties at the time called the handover a coup d’etat, but later agreed to accept Deby as interim leader for 18 months.
Chad is about to learn the reality of America: Capital (money) follows return. The Flag follows the money. Troops follow the flag.
The new young “president” of Chad should prepare for 500 and 1000lb democracy installments. I advise the interim President that air travel is not recommended. American special forces are in at least 9 African countries.
Norwegian Navy Commander: We have detected very modern Russian submarines with very advanced missiles in their arsenal in the North Sea, and this threatens the security of Europe and the United States.
Norway has not yet given further details about which submarines, but the “rumors” say Borei Class.
Borei class includes a compact and integrated hydrodynamically efficient hull for reduced broadband noise and the first ever use of pump-jet propulsion on a Russian nuclear submarine.
Russian news service TASS claimed the noise level is to be five times lower when compared to the third-generation nuclear-powered Akula-class submarines and two times lower than that of the U.S. Virginia-class submarines. The acoustic signature of Borei is significantly stealthier than that of the previous generations of Russian SSBNs, but it has been reported that their hydraulic pumps become noisier after a relatively short period of operation, reducing the stealth capabilities of the submarine.
The Borei submarines are approximately 170 meters (560 ft) long, 13 meters (43 ft) in diameter, and have a maximum submerged speed of at least 46 kilometers per hour (25 kn; 29 mph). They are equipped with a floating rescue chamber designed to fit in the whole crew.
Smaller than the Typhoon class, the Boreis were initially reported to carry 12 missiles but are able to carry four more due to the decrease in mass of the 36-ton Bulava SLBM (a modified version of the Topol-M ICBM) over the originally proposed R-39UTTH Bark. Cost was estimated in 2010 at some ₽23 billion (USD$734 million, equivalent to US$863 million in 2020 terms. In comparison the cost of an Ohio-class SSBN was around US$2 billion per boat (1997 prices, equivalent to over US$3 billion in 2020 terms.
Each Borei is constructed with 1.3 million components and mechanisms. Its construction requires 17 thousand tons of metal which is 50% more than the Eiffel Tower. The total length of piping is 109 km and the length of wiring is 600 km. Ten thousand rubber plates cover the hull of the boat.
Each Borei submarine is armed with 16 × RSM-56 BulavaSLBMs with 6 MIRV warhead. Those 16 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) missiles with 6 warheads each, equals 96 total nuclear bombs, each of which is independently targetable. Each warhead is believed to be either 100 or 150 kiloton blast yield.
‘We’re dividing the world’: NZ no fan of AUKUS submarines
A senior New Zealand politician has raised concerns about Australia’s plan to acquire a fleet nuclear-powered submarines, saying the AUKUS pact will make the region less safe and limit military co-operation between the two allies.
Defence Minister Richard Marles told parliament on Tuesday that nuclear-powered submarines would form part of Australia’s “contribution to the collective security of the neighbourhood in which we live” and would improve relations with its Asia-Pacific neighbours.
Gerry Brownlee, foreign affairs spokesman for New Zealand’s centre-right National Party, said he was concerned AUKUS was painting China as an “enemy” that needed to be contained.
New Zealand is a proud nuclear-free state that has formally declared its airspace and territorial waters as nuclear-free zones.
Asked if the nuclear-powered submarine fleet would make the region safer, Brownlee told AAP: “No, I don’t think it does.
“What I don’t like is the concept that we just seem to be dividing the world
Labor MP questions AUKUS deal
The Member for Fremantle Josh Wilson’s concerns include construction taking longer and costing more and what to do with nuclear waste.
He said he was concerned Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines would not be able to dock in New Zealand under its nuclear-free policy.
“We’ve only got one alliance. It is with Australia,” said Brownlee, who previously served as foreign minister and defence minister.
“Our position is that we should remain as interoperable with the Australians as we possibly can.
Democracy
Global Timesannounced the publication by China’s MFA of a scathing document, “The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022”, only available currently in Chinese, although my translator worked quite well. Its aim is to provide truths about what “democracy” is in reality within the Outlaw US Empire as Biden prepares to hold another propaganda summit on the topic at the end of March. What follows are the document’s concluding remarks:
Democracy is a value shared by all mankind, but there is no model of political system in the world that applies to all countries. The gardens of human civilization are rich and colorful, and democracy in all countries should also bloom. The United States has American-style democracy, China has Chinese-style democracy, and each country also has a unique model of democracy suited to its own national conditions. Whether a country is a democracy and how to better realize it should be judged by the people of that country, not by a few self-righteous countries.
Under the guise of democracy, harming others and disrupting the world should be unanimously opposed, and simply dividing the countries of the world into two categories, democracy and authoritarianism, lacks modernity and science. What the world needs today is not to create division in the name of democracy and to promote de facto unilateralism, but to strengthen solidarity and cooperation on the basis of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and to adhere to genuine multilateralism. What the world needs today is not to interfere in other countries' internal affairs under the guise of democracy, but to promote true democracy, abandon pseudo-democracy, and jointly promote democracy in international relations. What the world needs today is not a "democracy summit" that exaggerates confrontation and is not conducive to working together to address global challenges, but a solidarity conference that does more practical things and focuses on solving the outstanding problems facing the international community.
Freedom, democracy and human rights are the common pursuit of mankind and the values that the Communist Party of China has always pursued. China adheres to and develops people's democracy in the whole process, and concretely and realistically embodies the people's mastery of the country in the governance of the country by the Communist Party of China. China is willing to strengthen exchanges and mutual learning with other countries on the issue of democracy, carry forward the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom for all mankind, promote democracy in international relations and make new and greater contributions to the cause of human progress.
Hopefully, China will quickly translate this into numerous languages and distribute it through its embassy’s globally.
Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Australia
“If the Pacific has become an area of military contest, the question will be, how does that manifest itself?
“Where would we be if the Australians decided they wanted a sub to visit? We can’t do that. We won’t change our laws. So there’ll be potentially a little bit of an issue around that.”
New Zealand will hold a general election in October, with a close contest expected between the governing Labour Party and the National Party.
New Zealand’s foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, is currently visiting China for the first such visit since 2019.
Mahuta said her nation’s relationship with China – which accounts for 30 per cent of New Zealand’s total exports – was “our most important, complex and wide-ranging”.
During a visit to Canberra last month New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the three AUKUS nations – Australia, the US and the UK – were “incredibly important security partners for New Zealand, but our nuclear-free policy hasn’t changed either”.
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark posted on Twitter: “New Zealand interests do not lie in being associated with AUKUS. Association would be damaging to independent foreign policy.”
Pointing to supportive comments from Fiji and Japan, while nations such as Indonesia and Malaysia were willing to discuss their concerns, Marles told parliament: “The response from our region to the announcement that we made last week has been gratifying. Australia draws our security from being a part of Asia and being located in the Indo-Pacific.”
Both CNN and FOX News Do Stories about “De-Dollarization” – If MSM is covering this; it’s because FedGov KNOWS what’s coming
For literally decades, people scoffed-at “conspiracy theorists” talk about the US Dollar collapsing. They laughed at “the tin foil hat crowd” when it screamed from the rooftops that rampant over-spending would kill our currency. The responses to the conspiracy theorists and tin-foil-hat-crowd was simple: “The dollar is the world’s reserve currency; the world can’t do without it.” Turns out, the responses were wrong.
Within the past 24 hours, far left-wing CNN and far right-wing FOX NEWS have both begun airing stories about “De-Dollarization.” For both the far-left and the far-right main-stream-media to be airing such stories is no coincidence. That the MSM is now airing this means the powers-that-be in the US know – as a matter of absolute fact – the world __is__ turning its back on the Dollar, and that means trouble is coming to the US. Trouble on a scale that literally NONE of us has seen in our lifetimes.
We begin with the piece aired on FOX NEWS, which featured an interview with former Assistant US Treasury Secretary Monica Crowley. As you will see in the brief, 4:45 video below, she clearly mentions “Weimar Republic-type inflation” . . . . she’s talking about here. HERE! In the United States! Watch:
Folks, they’re beginning to tell the general public what’s coming.
CNN’s piece talked about the dollar suffering “a death by a thousand cuts.” THAT is what is going on. As the Dollar “bleeds-out” our cash will buy less and less. And CNN’s piece makes clear “America will face a reckoning like none before.”
You have to prepare. You have to get the things you will need, NOW. The you must begin changing how you hold assets and wealth. You need to put your “dollars” into something which is not “dollars” but will hold its value no matter what changes take place: things like real estate, shelf-stable foods, tools, and, of course, precious metals . . . . but be careful about those precious metals.. You can’t eat gold or silver. And since no aspect of our economy is moving toward the acceptance of either gold or silver in COMMERCE, having all your assets tied up in those metals would be a recipe for starvation.
The de-dollarization of the world is not going to happen overnight. Yet, it __is__ happening.
I am NOT a licensed financial expert. I do NOT have any special training or knowledge in matters financial and I cannot give financial advice.
What I _can_ do is tell you what’s actually taking place in the world so you can decide for yourselves about what — if anything — to do with your assets. You should consult with a Licensed financial expert before making any financial or investment decisions.
Having said that, for myself, I and members of my family choose to start making moves now with pension plan, IRA, 401-K and the like. Because having all our assets (what few we have) in “dollars” is suddenly becoming a very bad idea.
“Stay Out Of My Territory” | Over
They listened to me!
. . .from Global Times China releases report that removes facade of American democracy
On the day that marked the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released a report on Monday further unveiling the decline of American democracy and the chaos it has brought to the world under its disguise.
Analysts called the report, along with an increasing number of developing countries' growing discontent over US' hegemony, a "slap in the US face" and it helps remove the facade of American democracy, especially when the Biden administration is so keen on touting the "democracy versus authoritarianism" narrative for the second Summit for Democracy on March 29 and 30.
The report, titled "The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022," contains four parts, and by collecting a multitude of facts, media comments and expert opinions, it presents a complete and real picture of American democracy over the year - not only revealing American democracy in chaos at home but also presenting the havoc and disaster the US has brought by peddling and imposing its democracy around the world. . .here
Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 20 2023 19:41 utc | 103
Sweet Chili Meatballs
Round out your game-day lineup with an amazing flavor combination they won’t see coming – something sweet, tangy and savory that brings just the right amount of heat: Sweet Chili Meatballs.
sweet chili meatballs
Bite-size meatballs made with ginger, fresh cilantro, green onions and sweet chili sauce are baked before getting doused in even more sweet chili sauce, making them an irresistibly tasty addition to any game day spread. If the game heads into overtime, no need to worry because these meatballs will say warm in the slow cooker all game long.
Ingredients
1 pound lean ground turkey or ground beef
1/3 cup Japanese panko crumbs or bread crumbs
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely minced
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounces Frank’s RedHot Sweet Chili Sauce, divided
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix ground meat, panko crumbs, cilantro, green onion, ginger, egg, salt and 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce. Form into one-inch meatballs.
Place meatballs on lightly greased baking sheets.
Bake 20 minutes, turning once halfway through. Put meatballs in slow cooker on warm.
With slow cooker on low to keep meatballs warm, pour remaining sweet chili sauce over meatballs. Gently stir to coat.
I am completely at a loss as to why the UK should seek to join in with the US in considering China an enemy, and in looking to build up military forces in the Pacific to oppose China.In what sense are Chinese interests opposed to British interests? I am not sure when I last bought something which wasn’t maufactured in China. To my astonishment that even applies to our second hand Volvo, and it also applies to this laptop.I have stated this before but it is worth restating:I cannot readily think of any example in history, of a state which achieved the level of economic dominance China has now achieved, that did not seek to use its economic muscle to finance military acquisition of territory to increase its economic resources.In that respect China is vastly more pacific than the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain or any other formerly prominent power.Ask yourself this simple question. How many overseas military bases does the USA have? And how many overseas military bases does China have?Depending on what you count, the United States has between 750 and 1100 overseas military bases.China has between 6 and 9.
The last military aggression by China was its takeover of Tibet in 1951 and 1959. Since that date, we have seen the United States invade with massive destruction Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
The United States has also been involved in sponsoring numerous military coups, including military support to the overthrow of literally dozens of governments, many of them democratically elected. It has destroyed numerous countries by proxy, Libya being the most recent example.
China has simply no record, for over 60 years, of attacking and invading other countries.
2023 03 27 20 18
The anti-Chinese military posture adopted by the leaders of US, UK and Australia as they pour astonishing amounts of public money into the corrupt military industrial complex to build pointless nuclear submarines, appears a deliberate attempt to create military tension with China.
Sunak recited the tired neoliberal roll call of enemies, condemning: “Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, China’s growing assertiveness, and destabilising behaviour of Iran and North Korea”.
What precisely are Iran and China doing, that makes them our enemy?
This article is not about Iran, but plainly western sanctions have held back the economic and societal development of that highly talented nation and have simply entrenched its theological regime.
Their purpose is not to improve Iran but to maintain a situation where Israel has nuclear weapons and Iran does not. If accompanied by an effort to disarm the rogue state of Israel, they might make more sense.
On China, in what does its “assertiveness” consist that makes it necessary to view it as a military enemy? China has constructed some military bases by artificially extending small islands. That is perfectly legal behaviour. The territory is Chinese.
As the United States has numerous bases in the region on other people’s territory, I truly struggle to see where the objection lies to Chinese bases on Chinese territory.
China has made claims which are controversial for maritime jurisdiction around these artificial islands – and I would argue wrong under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. But they are no more controversial than a great many other UNCLOS claims, for example the UK’s behaviour over Rockall.
China has made, for example, no attempt to militarily enforce a 200 mile exclusive economic zone arising from its artificial islands, whatever it has said. Its claim to a 12 mile territorial sea is I think valid.
Similarly, the United States has objected to pronouncements from China that appear contrary to UNCLOS on passage through straits, but again this is no different from a variety of such disputes worldwide. The United States and others have repeatedly asserted, and practised, their right of free passage, and met no military resistance from China.
So is that it? Is that what Chinese “aggression” amounts to, some UNCLOS disputes?
Aah, we are told, but what about Taiwan?
To which the only reply is, what about Taiwan? Taiwan is a part of China which separated off under the nationalist government after the Civil War. Taiwan does not claim not to be Chinese territory.
In fact – and this is far too little understood in the West because our media does not tell you – the government of Taiwan still claims to be the legitimate government of all of China.
The government of Taiwan supports reunification just as much as the government of China, the only difference being who would be in charge.
The dispute with Taiwan is therefore an unresolved Chinese civil war, not an independent state menaced by China. As a civil war the entire world away from us, it is very hard to understand why we have an interest in supporting one side rather than the other.
Peaceful resolution is of course preferable. But it is not our conflict.
There is no evidence whatsoever that China has any intention of invading anywhere else in the China Seas or the Pacific. Not Singapore, not Japan and least of all Australia. That is almost as fantastic as the ludicrous idea that the UK must be defended from Russian invasion.
If China wanted, it could simply buy 100% of every public listed company in Australia, without even noticing a dent in China’s dollar reserves.
Which of course brings us to the real dispute, which is economic and about soft power. China has massively increased its influence abroad, by trade, investment, loans and manufacture. China is now the dominant economic power, and it can only be a matter of time before the dollar ceases to be the world’s reserve currency.
China has chosen this method of economic expansion and prosperity over territorial acquisition or military control of resources.
That may be to do with Confucian versus Western thought. Or it may just be the government in Beijing is smarter than Western governments. But growing Chinese economic dominance does not appear to me a reversible process in the coming century.
To react to China’s growing economic power by increasing western military power is hopeless. It is harder to think of a more stupid example of lashing out in blind anger. It is a it like peeing on your carpet because the neighbours are too noisy.
Aah, but you ask. What about human rights? What about the Uighurs?
I have a large amount of sympathy. China was an Imperial power in the great age of formal imperialism, and the Uighurs were colonised by China. Unfortunately the Chinese have followed the West’s “War on Terror” playbook in exploiting Islamophobia to clamp down on Uighur culture and autonomy.
I very much hope that this reduces, and that freedom of speech improves in general across China.
But let nobody claim that human rights genuinely has any part to play in who the Western military industrial complex treats as an enemy and who it treats as an ally. I know it does not, because that is the precise issue on which I was sacked as an Ambassador.
The abominable suffering of the children of Yemen and Palestine also cries out against any pretence that Western policy, and above all choice of ally, is human rights based.
China is treated as an enemy because the United States has been forced to contemplate the mortality of its economic dominance.
China is treated as an enemy because that is a chance for the political and capitalist classes to make yet more super profits from the military industrial complex.
But China is not our enemy. Only atavism and xenophobia make it so.
————————————————
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Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Breaking Bad – Gustavo Fring’s Revenge
The Chinese leader’s visit comes at a time when bilateral relations are at an all-time high, according to Russian officials
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on Monday for a three-day state visit to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. During the summit, the two sides will discuss strategic cooperation in the energy and military spheres, as well as the Ukraine conflict. (emphasis added here)
Xi said he was happy to be back in Russia after landing at Vnukovo Airport, and stressed the importance of strong relations between Beijing and Moscow, not just for the nations themselves but also for the wider international community.
The Chinese leader asserted that together with Russia, his nation is ready to “defend with resolve the UN-centric international system.” The two countries would endeavor to “abide by true multipolarity and foster a multipolar world with democratized international relations, to encourage the development of global affairs in a direction that would be more just and rational,” Xi added.
Later in the day, the Chinese leader is scheduled to hold an informal meeting with Putin which will focus on “key and sensitive issues,” according to Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov.
The main round of talks, however, will take place on Tuesday, with the Chinese leader also expected to meet with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Later, the Russian and Chinese delegations will hold negotiations in an expanded format.
[.]
In total, Moscow and Beijing are set to sign a dozen documents outlining bilateral cooperation, including two major joint statements.[.] (emphasis added here)
LINK to RT
We are spectators to a global shift off the Richter scale.
Heart attacks due in D.C.
Posted by: Likklemore | Mar 20 2023 18:55 utc | 94
Astonishing!
«astonishing geopolitical developments. […] China publicly lambasted U.S. hegemony […] Moscow rolled out the red carpet for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. […] Today China’s President Xi arrived in Moscow for three days of talks with Russia’s President Putin. […] Xi and Putin are now running the multilateral global show. Biden and the hapless ‘unilateral’ people around him are left aside.»
This is nothing astonishing, just a repeat of Cold War news, almost unchanged, with the “second world” made of PRC and RF and a few others (Korea-North, Iran, Mongolia, Cuba, …) is again “contained” behind the Iron Curtain, just as
The “first world” has expanded enormously (eastern Europe, most of south-east Asia and western Asia, most of Africa), and the “third world” led as usual by India is as usual playing both sides, but mostly pro-USA.
Sometimes our bar host “b” sounds to me quite fond of wishful thinking, like the others who overplay the “multilaterality” and “collapse of the USA hegemony” claims.
Realistically speaking the USA are still enormously powerful, they have kept most of the huge gains made during the past 30-40 years, and they are successfully isolating RF and PRC behind a new Iron Curtain to prevent their vassals from defecting.
The United States Embassy in Jerusalem has told Americans to “Leave Israel Immediately.” The country of Israel is descending rapidly into what some have called “Civil War.”
Unions have gone on strike. The airports have all shut down. Restaurants, banks, shopping malls, have all joined in a national strike against proposed changes to the government that would basically gut the Judiciary of Israel.
Members of the Israeli military are openly DESERTING after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu FIRED the Defense Minister for opposing judicial reforms.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barack says Netanyahu and his “gang” are “acting insane and bringing civil war to the country.”
Israel’s Counsel General in New York has resigned.
For almost a whole week, hundreds-of-thousands of protestors have taken to the streets in every major city of the country.
There are now open calls from the far right inside Israel, for people to “take up arms” against left-wingers in the country.
Israel is descending into chaos . . . . just days after introducing legislation that would make it a criminal offense, punishable by two years prison, for discussing . . . Jesus. . . anywhere in the country or online. (Story HERE)
Interesting turn of events.
Ukraine Troops Training inside UK with — DEPLETED URANIUM TANK PROJECTILES
The United Kingdom is, in fact, training Ukrainian Soldiers on the proper handling and USE of Depleted Uranium tank projectiles. The image below was secreted out of a UK training facility . . .
Back on March 21, the Deputy Defense Minister of the United Kingdom publicly acknowledged that the UK will be supplying Depleted Uranium Ammunition to Ukraine forces to utilize in certain weapons platforms supplied to Ukraine by NATO. (Story HERE)
Russia has made clear that if Depleted Uranium ammunition is given to Ukraine, this will be viewed by Russia as an attack with “Dirty nuclear bombs” and Russia will respond accordingly.
Here now, an image secreted out of a UK training facility where Ukraine troops are, in fact, being given training on how to handle and use such ammunition:
When I was married to my first wife, I started to notice some odd behaviors as she sunk into the madness of her illness. They were subtle, and after a brief spell of madness, she went back to normal.
Over time, her crazy behavior become longer in duration, and more frequent.
It took me time to realize that she was slowly losing her marbles. But eventually I started to notice that some of her behaviors (independent of her bouts of crazy-town) were fixed. And very, very unusual.
The very first thing that I noticed was she no longer knew how to pose for a picture.
Every time I would try to take her picture, she would face the camera and give me the “deer in the headlights” look. I’ll tell you it really pissed me off.
Even when I took the time to pose her, the moment, when I picked up the camera, she would face it, lose her pose and give me that “deer in the headlights” look.
Sheech!
So… the United States is now in serious long-term psychosis. And we (as generally sane people) see this every moment the “news” reports on some event…
China cut off lithium supplies when the United States sanctioned it. That means no batteries for cars, and cell phones, and all those nice cheap “green technologies”. The oligarchy class int he USA then decided to make a quick buck by seizing by hostile takeover, the lithium mines and operations in Mexico.
Nope. Said the President of Mexico.
So then what happened?
Oh, yeah! Congress is now pushing for the Untied States to invade Mexico.
Man, this is getting to be a cross of a horror movie, and a Tim Burton surreal movie. It’s all fucking wacked. Check this out…
‘Mexico is not a US colony!’: AMLO condemns invasion threats, honors nationalization of oil, lithium
President of Kenya Urges Citizens To Get Rid of U.S. Dollars – soon (Operation Sandman????)
The President of Kenya today announced to all citizens they should get rid of any U.S. Dollars they may be holding because they will become worth less within weeks.
William Kipchirchir Samoei Arap Ruto, Ph.D, CGH; is a Kenyan politician who is serving as the fifth and current president of Kenya since 13 September 2022.
Prior to becoming president, he served as the first deputy president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022.
Today, in a nationally televised speech in Kenya, Ruto said “Those of you who are holding dollars, you shortly might go into losses. So you better do what you have to do because this market will be different in a couple of weeks.”
This stunning announcement gives credibility to a RUMOR that has been circulating for over a year, that 142 countries around the world have secretly agreed to what they call “Operation Sandman.”
According to the RUMOR, Operation Sandman will “put the US Dollar to sleep” by having all 142 countries repudiate the currency on the same day, and refuse to continue accepting it for payment in Trade.
Countries around the world began planning this when they witnessed the then-Democrat-Controlled US Congress, go on a spending spree of several TRILLION Dollars in Omnibus Bills. Those countries realized there is nothing backing the value of US Dollars and they saw that the US Congress has no plans at all to reign-in spending.
One country’s Finance Ministry recently told the US, “We are no longer willing to accept ones and zeros in a bank computer as actual payment for real goods.”
The countries agreed that holding US currency was becoming foolish because it was becoming worthless on its face, thanks to all the rampant over-spending by the US Government.
Now, it appears those countries may actually take action “within a couple weeks.”
If countries around the world repudiate the Dollar as payment for goods in trade, then they would halt providing manufactured goods or raw materials unless paid in some currency OTHER THAN DOLLARS.
Since the U.S. barely does any manufacturing at all anymore, thanks to the business nitwits who thought it was a good idea to convert the US economy to a “service economy” then products we buy in stores will simply run out and we will be unable to re-stock because no one will want our money.
Among the business nitwits are also those who pushed for “Free Trade” claiming it would improve sales of American-made goods overseas if America agreed to halt Tariffs on all imported items. The government bought-into the idea, not realizing – or not caring – that these very businessmen weren’t at all interested in selling more American goods overseas. What they were interested in was shipping American JOBS overseas, taking advantage of cheap labor, then shipping those exact same products back to the USA to sell at the same high prices . . . . while pocketing the profit from the new, foreign, cheap labor without having to pay Tariiffs.
The Businessmen, their corporate Boards of Directors, and Commerce Organizations who touted “Free Trade” were the ones who moved American jobs overseas and now, the country barely manufactures anything, anymore.
So here we are, years later, and thanks to those businessmen, and the federal politicians who foolishly believed their lies about “Free Trade,” we have almost no manufacturing. Countries around the world seem to be actually planning to stop accepting the US dollar as payment, so we won’t be able to buy anything because it’s all made overseas now!
Retaliation against the people who did this should be swift and ferocious when Americans can no longer buy even life’s basics because corporate titans and certain others stripped our country of manufacturing.
PREPARE NOW!
Readers should make a list for themselves of all the “Basics” we take for granted, and make certain you have a bunch stocked up. Things like:
Underwear
Undershirts
Socks (White and colored)
Shoes (Dress and casual), Sneakers, Boots (Hiking & Work)
Belts (dress and casual)
Sweaters
Coats and jackets
Hats
Bathing suits/swimwear
Jeans / Dungarees / Pants
Casual and dress shirts
Ties
Suits and Sport Coats
Head out to your kitchen and see if you need any new:
Pots
Pans (Cast iron and non-stick)
Mixing bowls
Dishware (Plates, Dishes, Bowls)
Utensils (Knives (Carving, Steak, and butter), forks, spoons, spatulas, etc.
Drinking glasses, cups, coffee mugs
Cutting boards for use with slicing meats or breads
POWER TOOLS !!! (Drills, saws, nail guns, and the like)
EXTENSION CORDS (For both inside a house, and long ones for working outside)
Gas can(s)
The list of everyday things we all take for granted is almost never-ending. I’m certain I missed a whole slew of things, but you get the idea.
Almost NONE of these things are made here anymore and if you’re running low or your stuff is old and wearing out, you need to get these things in your possession while you still can!
If these foreign countries do what it seems the President of Kenya has hinted they ARE GOING TO DO, then all these things become scarce overnight and will remain scarce for . . . . YEARS!
I’m sure there are many more things that you can think of. What ever they are, GET THEM. FAST!
China’s 3nm phototransistor development breakthrough with brand new technology never thought of.
The United States is trying to block the development of China’s technology starting from Huawei 5G sanctions to chip sanctions upon most Chinese companies. Facing the technological hegemony of the United States, China is also looking for a way to change lanes and overtake!
Recently Dai Ching’s team at the China National nanoscience Center has made an important achievement in the field of Polaritons based on the efficient excitation and long-distance transmission of polaritons. The team successfully created a photo transistor which realized the regulation of positive and negative refraction of light at the nanoscale and significantly improved the ability to manipulate light at the nanoscale.
You must know that phototransistors are the main basis for the development of photonic chips and China’s continuous breakthroughs in the field of phototransistors have made China a leader in the field of photonic chips and has led to the world’s leading level.
Earlier the Chinese Academy of Sciences also officially announced that it has broken through the research and development of 3nm Optical chip transistors and a tube chip production line has been built in Beijing ready to start production.
This news soon caused shocks in the industry. This is undoubtedly a qualitative breakthrough for domestic chips and it also verifies the possibility of China changing lanes and overtaking in the chip field.
So what are the characteristics of optical chips why will Optical chips become the main Lane for China’s semiconductors to change lanes and overtake. Even Huawei’s Rin Zhengfei said that Optical chips are the future of chips.
There are four reasons. First Optical chips have speeds that silicon-based chips cannot match if a photon and an electron are allowed to hit a clock at the same time the result is obviously that the photon must arrive first after all the speed of light is close to 300 000 kilometers per second which is unmatched by electrical signals, the optical chip uses light waves as the carrier of signal transmission and calculation unlike traditional silicon-based chips.
Photonic chips use Global new semiconductor materials such as InP and GaAs substrates which almost completely outperformed silicon-based materials in terms of cost and performance. According to the data given by the Chinese Academy of Sciences under the same conditions the computing power of optical chips will reach more than one thousand times that of silicon-based chips which can be described as an existence against the sky.
Second the optical chip has lower energy consumption less heat generation and stronger information carrying capacity, photons not only generate less heat electrons but can also achieve considerably higher data transfer rates than electrons in this way the volume of the optical chip device will be greatly reduced.
Third, Optical chips no longer need to rely on expensive EUV lithography machines, this means that in the field of optical chip development China does not have to worry about being stuck by the United States because in terms of aspects China and the United States are on the same starting line in the field of optical chips.
Even many Technologies in China have surpassed the US solving the problem of high-end chip shortcomings. China can produce high-performance chips by itself which is undoubtedly a disaster for American Semiconductor companies after the release of the U.S chip act U.S chip Giants Qualcomm Intel and Texas Instruments all suffered backlash and their performance fell sharply.
If China succeeds in the research and development of high-end ships it means that China will no longer rely on the U.S market in the future, the loss of the Chinese market is even more of a disaster for U.S companies, the excess chip production capacity cannot be sold and in the end they can only beg China to buy.
Although the optical chip has many advantages it also faces a new problem in the current development one is how to commercialize it and the other is how to make it smaller and use it in terminal equipment.
China has already started commercialization and assembly line production of quantum chips and quantum computers it will not be too far to solve the problem of optical chips.
China is vigorously promoting the substitution of domestic chips this stems from the tremendous progress made by Chinese Chips in just a few years China has made breakthroughs in memory chips analog chips GPU chips etc..
Recently Bill Gates once again stated in an interview with the British financial times that the US’s approach cannot stop the advancement of Chinese Chips but will instead cause more losses to U.S chips American chip companies.
Chinese chip industry has not flinched and has further cultivated its own chip system promoting the development of risk V architecture is exactly China’s approach to further enhance its independent research and development capabilities of chips, this will fundamentally get rid of the U.S chip system in the end of this race.
Western world with paltry 15% global population slice wont be able to withstand against the rest – most of whom are well entrenched in Asia which includes two great powers, namely; Russia and China.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council (Senate) Dmitry Medvedev made remarks today that seem to confirm war with the West is the choice that has, in fact, been made.
When analyzing public remarks of any leader, one must always take into account errors in translation, and more importantly, nuances in culture/language that may exist in one culture, but do not precisely translate to other cultures. So interpreting remarks of foreign officials is a delicate task that must be undertaken with very great care.
Having said that, sometimes the meaning of a foreign officials remarks translate very precisely, and say what we actually think is meant. Such was the case today.
Today, Dmitry Medvedev said the following: “The consequences of the collision of the world’s most powerful armies will be terrible and there will be no victor at all.”
Pretty hard to not understand the plain meaning of that. Let’s dissect:
“The consequences of THE collision . . . .” Not “a collision” but rather “THE” collision. His use of the word THE rather than “a” indicates to me that a collision IS, in fact, coming.
“. . . WILL be terrible . . .” Not “would” or “could” but rather “WILL.” His use of the word “WILL” rather than “would” or “could” reinforces my interpretation above that the decision to go to actual war has been made.
Lastly, “. . . there WILL be no victor at all.” Again, his use of the word “WILL” is now double reinforcement of the reality that the decision for an actual shooting war is already made, and worse, since “. . . there will be no victor” that tells me it is also decided that the coming war WILL be nuclear. After all, a nuclear war is the ONLY war that has no victor.
Medvedev is not in any way careless with his use of language. He is clearly a highly educated man, who says what he means and means what he says.
He went on: “Russia is not fighting the Ukrainian regime, but rather the 3.6 million-member NATO army.”
That. That right there . . . is the hideous, ugly reality. Medvedev knows what’s what, and he just said it publicly. When a top elected official of a country, publicly declares that war is being waged against his land by an identified combatant, the only expected course of action is for his country to engage that combatant directly. So this remark reinforce my interpretation of earlier remarks above.
Medvedev’s choice of words today, terrifies me. Not because I am afraid to die — I’m not. But because his words seem to indicate (to me) that tens of millions of us are going to die, and our world will __never__ be the same. The good will perish with the evil. Cities and towns will be flattened. Disease and death will run rampant.
This is a catastrophe that does not have to be. Yet our U.S. government, and its NATO vassals, are pursuing this course to the exclusion of almost all else. It seems like insanity to me.
In related news, Estonia’s Foreign Minister has decided to expel one Russian diplomat. Moscow will respond to Estonia’s decision to expel Russian diplomat — Russian Foreign Ministry.
So what little is left of “Diplomacy” is also being intentionally wrecked by our NATO vassals.
AC/DC – Highway to Hell (Live At River Plate, December 2009)
Huawei update
Huawei Technologies Co said it has successfully developed electronic design automation, or EDA tools, for chips above 14 nanometers process by partnering with domestic partners, marking a crucial breakthrough for China’s semiconductor industry amid the US government restrictions.
Nicknamed the “cradle” of integrated circuits, EDA is software widely used in the sector and is of great importance to the entire process of designing chips.
Xu Zhijun, rotating chairman of Huawei, said the company has completed the localization of EDA tools above 14nm in the chip field and will complete comprehensive verification this year.
Huawei confirmed to China Daily on Friday that Xu made the remarks in a late February meeting.
China has long relied on US companies such as Cadence and Synopsys for high-end electronic design automation tools. EDA for 14nm chips are middle-end products, but it still marks a breakthrough.
The progress is part of a broader push by Huawei to develop domestic development tools for hardware, software and chips amid the US government’s lingering restrictions.
Xu said the company has replaced 78 software tools affected by Washington’s ban, which can basically ensure the continuity of its research and development efforts amid US restrictions.
Xu said that although the company has achieved many breakthroughs in product development tools over the past three years, it still faces formidable challenges.
Huawei will redouble its efforts to attract more global talents in order to achieve a strategic breakthrough in the area, he added.
Major Chinese insurance companies have also tailor-made insurance services to promote the use of domestically developed chip products such as EDA tools, people familiar with the matter told China Daily.
Such insurance services, which have already been used to support homegrown auto chip companies in 2021, can help Chinese semiconductor enterprises lower research and development costs, and accelerate efforts to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies, they said.
Silent Hill Promotional Event In Tokyo
Models dressed as bandaged nurses take part in a promotional event for the film “Silent Hill” on June 22, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan.
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Numerous Stratotankers Just Went Up Over Iraq . . . 20 Missiles Just Struck 3 US Bases in Syria
Iran may be about to get hit. Three Strato-tankers just went airborne over Iraq. LIVE UPDATES BELOW . . .
-USAF KC135R 60-0365
-USAF KC135R 62-3533
-USAF KC135T 58-0069
Putting that much air refueling capability into action signifies a big air operation is about to take place. Something big is happening.
2023 03 26 18 02
UPDATE 5:24 PM EDT —
Receiving Intel that upwards of Twenty missiles have struck at three different US Bases inside Syria:
the US Conoco Oil Field base in the outskirts of Deir ez-Zor
Three more US bases have been targeted rockets and artillery, including: Al-Tanf, Homs governorate Koniko Gas Field, Deir Ezzor governorate
MORE:
Missile strike continues at this moment and it is targeting the American base in the Koniko and Khasham field near the town of Al-Jafra, northeast of Deir Ezzor, which is used by US army.
US military official confirms to Al Jazeera that one of the American military bases in Deir_ez-Zor has been targeted by about 6 to 8 rockets, adding that “American forces are assessing casualties and damage”
UPDATE 5:28 PM EDT —
US AND Coalition war planes are now striking back.
“Strong and successive explosions were heard at the entrances to the city of Al-Mayadin in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, coinciding with the flight of the international coalition aircraft over the area”
MORE:
Apache helicopters and US warplanes are flying in the sky of Deir Ezzor countryside now
UPDATE 5:31 PM EDT —
Warplanes are said to be taking off from the US base in Qatar. Planes are heading towards Syria. to hit Iranian militias
MORE:
U.S. and Iranian/Militia Forces in the Deir ez-Zur Region have reportedly been exchanging Rocket and Missiles Fire between each other for the last few hours; Coalition Aircraft have also been attempting to Strike the Iranian Launch Sites.
Heavy US Air Force activity over parts of eastern Syria after rockets were launched at a US base
UPDATE 5:40 PM EDT —
The 3 US bases in Syria are currently UNDER ALMOST CONSTANT artillery fire. Reports of damage and fire at the bases.
American planes are in the airspace of eastern Syria, some of which took off from the Persian Gulf, including the B52.
*****BULLETIN *****
5:42 PM EDT —
Preliminary reports indicate that some units of the Syrian Arab Army may be engaging US forces. It has also been reported that Syrian Armed Forces carried out attacks against Turkish forces in Syria
HAL TURNER INTEL — Speaking to some sources in Syria, the attack tonight on the US base is devastating by the sounds of it. High possibility of numerous American casualties…
Pro-Iran forces in Syria warn they may ‘respond to more US strikes’
UPDATE 5:52 PM EDT —
Pro-Iranian forces evacuated all of their HQs as they attacked several U.S. bases in eastern #Syria, fearing severe retaliation.
BREAKING NEWS: Russia Moves Ten (10) Aircraft to Belarus “Capable” of Carrying Tactical Nukes; WILL ALSO STATION NUKES IN BELARUS!
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a shocking surprise announcement today that “Russia has now positioned ten (10) aircraft inside Belarus capable of carrying Tactical nuclear weapons.” He declined to say if such weapons are already on those aircraft.
Putin also announced that actual nuclear bombs “will be stationed in Belarus from now on.”
Developing . . .
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Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
2023 03 19 16 56
Ingredients
Flaky Crust
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoon chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk, beaten, to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)
Instructions
Combine flour, sugar and salt in a food processor or blender. Using the pulse feature, cut in shortening and butter until a coarse meal forms. Blend in enough ice water, 2 tablespoons at a time, to form moist clumps. Gather dough into a ball; cut in half. Flatten each half into a disk. Wrap separately in plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl; toss gently to blend.
Roll out 1 dough disk on a floured work surface to a 13-inch round. Transfer to a 9-inch diameter glass pie dish. Trim excess dough, leaving a 3/4-inch overhang.
Roll out second dough disk on a lightly floured surface to a 13-inch round. Cut into fourteen 1/2-inch wide strips. Spoon filling into crust. Arrange 7 dough strips atop filling, spacing evenly. Form lattice by placing remaining dough strips in opposite direction atop filling, trim ends of dough strips even with overhang of bottom crust. Fold strip ends and overhang under, pressing to seal. Crimp edges decoratively.
Brush glaze over crust. Transfer pie to a baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
Bake pie until golden and filling thickens, about 1 hour 25 minutes.
Transfer pie to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Oasis – Wonderwall (Official Video)
Is the US practicing fearmongering by banning TikTok?
This is the problem with TikTok:
it is a Chinese company making a better product than its American equivalent
over 150 million Americans now used it ignoring their government warning of being spied on
amongst its MANY contents, it provided information that debunks the state narratives
it tells of corruption at the highest level of the American Government, provide concrete examples of how they are being manipulated and question why Americans are not living better lives – universal health care, better infrastructure, better education, etc
most of ALL it tells of the American public revulsion’s at the constant death, war and destruction that is waged against others in their name by the military industrial complex.
Therefore TikTok is a threat to those who are in power in the United States. They should fear for what they had done to the country and its people.
The attempt to ban TikTok in the United Stated have now galvanized the American TikTok community which makes up about half the American population AND this are younger Americans. More consequently and making their anger worst, as reported by the Washington Post, this action to banned TikTok was orchestrated and paid for by Meta
So it will be interesting if the State will proceed with banning TilTok.
Tacony dungeon: Linda Weston gets life plus 80 years for locking up and starving disabled people
A 55-year-old woman in the US has been sentenced to life plus 80 years in jail for locking up disabled people in basements and attics in order to steal their social benefit cheques. Linda Weston, the main accused, was convicted of keeping her victims locked in different US states from 2001 to 2011.
According to NBC News, when Judge Cynthia Rufe sentenced Weston to life in prison, she said: “Your acts were unconscionable. You are evil.”
She further said: “Ironically, in prison you will get three meals a day and medical and psychological services . . . something you didn’t do for your captives.”
Weston was saved from the death penalty following a plea bargain in September.
Weston was saved from the death penalty following a plea bargain in September. She pleaded guilty to 196 federal counts during the hearing and apologised for what she had done: “I am sorry. I believe in God and God knows what happened.” To which the judge, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, replied: “There are a lot of people in this courtroom who know what happened, too.”
Two of Weston’s associates — Eddie Wright and Weston’s daughter, Jean McIntosh — have pleaded guilty, while two others are awaiting trial. According to prosecutors, the group ran their operations in three other states. Back in 2011, four disabled adults were discovered locked inside a boiler room in an apartment building in a Tacony neighbourhood in Philadelphia. They were rescued by the police.
According to the prosecutors, Weston’s group tortured six disabled adults and four children by starving them. Some were even forced to drink their own urine and eat human waste. Others were encouraged to have children so the group could collect more benefits cheques.
Back in 2008 in Virginia, a woman in the group’s captivity died after suffering from meningitis, after being kept starving and locked in a kitchen cabinet for months.
Another victim died due to starvation in 2005. “You are evil and done a bad job on me. I’m trying to get over this and get this part behind me,” one of the victims, Drwin McLemire was quoted as saying by NBC.
Weston’s group stole more than $200,000 (£131,939) in social security benefits from victims, some of who were forced into prostitution, prosecutors said. “When the individuals tried to escape, stole food or otherwise protested their treatment, Weston and others punished them by slapping, punching, kicking, stabbing, burning and hitting them with closed hands, belts, sticks, bats and hammers or other objects, including the butt of a pistol,” US District Attorney Zane Memeger said in a statement quoted by The Washington Post.
The USA is gradually losing against China and Russia. Almost all countries are starting to lean on Russia and China. Is the USA on the way to game over?
This is absolutely correct.
Let me note which country is fully and unconditionally with the U.S. For me it is UK and Canada.
Next which country are trapped into fully supporting the U.S. For me it is the former colonial powers, France, Spain, Belgium and Netherlands.
Then there are those countries using the U.S. to balance and threaten Russia. For me these countries are Poland, Scandinavian nations. Sweden, Finland, Norway, Lithuania and some small Eastern European mainly former Soviet satellites nations needing counterbalance having poke Russia’s eyes constantly.
There are Anglo nations that has some blood bonds such as Australia and New Zealand. And finally there are 3 slave vassal states that essentially has no rights of their own effectively.
These countries today represent 13% of the worlds population and add up to 2 dozen nations or a mere 12% of world’s nations.
The rest of the world which represents 87% of the world’s population are totally aware of the evil nature of the U.S.
The U.S. game of impoverish these countries while hypocritically lying about human rights, democracy, freedom while ganging up with their cronies to threaten the world.
The Ukraine war is the one that break the camel back.
Today these 150–160 nations are openly and publicly opposing the U.S. hegemony. And fully backing the multi polar world.
To the world this is the only way forward to contained the US from threatening the world.
To me even these 13% of the world is also not fully supporting the oppression of the developing world. A good 50% of them don’t even support their government. Frankly the U.S. command less than 5% of the worlds opinion.
True these countries are rich but also true is that all these nation are failing and stagnating.
For me it us game over for the U.S.
Of course the U.S. and their hang ons partners won’t admit it and to me the harder they fight it the more they will be hurt. And more of their allies will leave them.
I don’t credit Russia or China.
They did not win it.
The U.S. lost it. By over interference, over exuberance, overspending, over estimating itself, over warmongering and underestimating the rest of the world.
I Went To The Poorest County In America
The gathering storm
The crisis of American national power has begun. America’s economy is tipping over, and Western financial markets are quietly panicking. Imperiled by rising interest rates, mortgage-backed securities and U.S. Treasuries are losing their value. The market’s proverbial “vibes”—feelings, emotions, beliefs, and psychological penchants—suggest a dark turn is underway inside the American economy.
American national power is measured as much by American military capability as by economic potential and performance. The growing realization that American and European military-industrial capacity cannot keep up with Ukrainian demands for ammunition and equipment is an ominous signal to send during a proxy war that Washington insists its Ukrainian surrogate is winning.
Russian economy-of-force operations in southern Ukraine appear to have successfully ground down attacking Ukrainian forces with the minimal expenditure of Russian lives and resources. While Russia’s implementation of attrition warfare worked brilliantly, Russia mobilized its reserves of men and equipment to field a force that is several magnitudes larger and significantly more lethal than it was a year ago.
Russia’s massive arsenal of artillery systems including rockets, missiles, and drones linked to overhead surveillance platforms converted Ukrainian soldiers fighting to retain the northern edge of the Donbas into pop-up targets. How many Ukrainian soldiers have died is unknown, but one recent estimate wagers between 150,000-200,000 Ukrainians have been killed in action since the war began, while another estimates about 250,000.
Given the glaring weakness of NATO members’ ground, air, and air defense forces, an unwanted war with Russia could easily bring hundreds of thousands of Russian Troops to the Polish border, NATO’s Eastern Frontier. This is not an outcome Washington promised its European allies, but it’s now a real possibility.
In contrast to the Soviet Union’s hamfisted and ideologically driven foreign policymaking and execution, contemporary Russia has skillfully cultivated support for its cause in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The fact that the West’s economic sanctions damaged the U.S. and European economies while turning the Russian ruble into one of the international system’s strongest currencies has hardly enhanced Washington’s global standing.
Biden’s policy of forcibly pushing NATO to Russia’s borders forged a strong commonality of security and trade interests between Moscow and Beijing that is attracting strategic partners in South Asia like India, and partners like Brazil in Latin America. The global economic implications for the emerging Russo-Chinese axis and their planned industrial revolution for some 3.9 billion people in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are profound.
Inside presidential administrations, there are always competing factions urging the president to adopt a particular course of action. Observers on the outside seldom know with certainty which faction exerts the most influence, but there are figures in the Biden administration seeking an off-ramp from involvement in Ukraine. Even Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a rabid supporter of the proxy war with Moscow, recognizes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s demand that the West help him recapture Crimea is a red line for Putin that might lead to a dramatic escalation from Moscow.
Backing down from the Biden administration’s malignant and asinine demands for a humiliating Russian withdrawal from eastern Ukraine before peace talks can convene is a step Washington refuses to take. Yet it must be taken. The higher interest rates rise, and the more Washington spends at home and abroad to prosecute the war in Ukraine, the closer American society moves toward internal political and social turmoil. These are dangerous conditions for any republic.
100 Items You Need, That DISAPPEAR FIRST During War
This list was made by a person who survived the Bosnian War. It shows the 100 items to disappear first in war. As Americans decide whether or not the government of the State of New York should be allowed to continue to exist, over the pending Trump arrest, perhaps this list may come in handy if Civil War erupts.
It was written by a survivor of the war, they shared it with the world, now I share it with you.
Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy…target of thieves; maintenance etc.)
Water Filters/Purifiers
Portable Toilets
Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 – 12 months to become dried, for home uses.
Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!)
Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much.
Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots.
Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks.
Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar
Rice – Beans – Wheat
Vegetable Oil (for cooking) Without it food burns/must be boiled etc.,)
Charcoal, Lighter Fluid (Will become scarce suddenly)
Water Containers (Urgent Item to obtain.) Any size. Small: HARD CLEAR PLASTIC ONLY – note – food grade if for drinking.
Mini Heater head (Propane) (Without this item, propane won’t heat a room.)
Grain Grinder (Non-electric)
Propane Cylinders (Urgent: Definite shortages will occur.
Survival Guide Book.
Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.)
Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula. ointments/aspirin, etc.
Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry)
Cookstoves (Propane, Coleman & Kerosene)
Vitamins
Propane Cylinder Handle-Holder (Urgent: Small canister use is dangerous without this item)
Feminine Hygiene/Haircare/Skin products.
Thermal underwear (Tops & Bottoms)
Bow saws, axes and hatchets, Wedges (also, honing oil)
Aluminum Foil Reg. & Heavy Duty (Great Cooking and Barter Item)
Gasoline Containers (Plastic & Metal)
Garbage Bags (Impossible To Have Too Many).
Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels
Milk – Powdered & Condensed (Shake Liquid every 3 to 4 months)
Garden Seeds (Non-Hybrid) (A MUST)
Clothes pins/line/hangers (A MUST)
Coleman’s Pump Repair Kit
Tuna Fish (in oil)
Fire Extinguishers (or..large box of Baking Soda in every room)
First aid kits
Batteries (all sizes…buy furthest-out for Expiration Dates)
Garlic, spices & vinegar, baking supplies
Big Dogs (and plenty of dog food)
Flour, yeast & salt
Matches. {“Strike Anywhere” preferred.) Boxed, wooden matches will go first
Writing paper/pads/pencils, solar calculators
Insulated ice chests (good for keeping items from freezing in Wintertime.)
Workboots, belts, Levis & durable shirts
Flashlights/LIGHTSTICKS & torches, “No. 76 Dietz” Lanterns
Journals, Diaries & Scrapbooks (jot down ideas, feelings, experience; Historic Times)
Garbage cans Plastic (great for storage, water, transporting – if with wheels)
Men’s Hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc
Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient)
Fishing supplies/tools
Mosquito coils/repellent, sprays/creams
Duct Tape
Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes
Candles
Laundry Detergent (liquid)
Backpacks, Duffel Bags
Garden tools & supplies
Scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies
Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc.
Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite)
Canning supplies, (Jars/lids/wax)
Knives & Sharpening tools: files, stones, steel
Bicycles…Tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc
Sleeping Bags & blankets/pillows/mats
Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered)
Board Games, Cards, Dice
d-con Rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, Roach Killer
Mousetraps, Ant traps & cockroach magnets
Paper plates/cups/utensils (stock up, folks)
Baby wipes, oils, waterless & Antibacterial soap (saves a lot of water)
Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc.
Shaving supplies (razors & creams, talc, after shave)
Hand pumps & siphons (for water and for fuels)
Soysauce, vinegar, bullions/gravy/soupbase
Reading glasses
Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers)
“Survival-in-a-Can”
Woolen clothing, scarves/ear-muffs/mittens
Boy Scout Handbook, / also Leaders Catalog
Roll-on Window Insulation Kit (MANCO)
Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, Trail mix/Jerky
Popcorn, Peanut Butter, Nuts
Socks, Underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras)
Lumber (all types)
Wagons & carts (for transport to and from)
Cots & Inflatable mattress’s
Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc.
Lantern Hangers
Screen Patches, glue, nails, screws,, nuts & bolts
Teas
Coffee
Cigarettes
Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc,)
Paraffin wax
Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc.
Chewing gum/candies
Atomizers (for cooling/bathing)
Hats & cotton neckerchiefs
Goats/chickens
U.S. Is Lying About China Being A “Threat!” – Says Fmr Australian Prime Minister
The Tiktok hearings are the beginning of the end of domestic contentment…
Watching the hundreds of videos all point to an element of great unrest.
The Congressmen and Senators are idiots who don’t understand the basics of life.
They want to ban a Chinese app that everyone uses, event though the CEO has been trying to accommodate their desires.
The app is bringing American together and this entire event is causing people to argue that the government does not represent the people.
The Spot Price of Gold Bullion jumped $64.30 per ounce today (+3.34%), reaching a cost of $1987.30 per ounce during regular market-day trading. Once the market closed, Gold continued to rise, reaching $1993.70. as of 5:42 PM eastern US Time (+3.68%).
This is taking place because people are pulling cash out of Banks and out of Stock Markets, and rushing to WHAT THEY ***THINK*** is the “safety” of Gold. In fact, what most of them are doing is buying “Paper” Gold . . . . allowing someone ELSE to hold the actual metal for them. If things in the financial markets continue NEXT WEEK, as they’ve been going this week, all those “Paper” Gold holders . . . . may find out the hard way, they have nothing. Only people who took actual delivery and have the gold in their own hands, are safe.
According to a new study reported by the Wall Street Journal, one-hundred eighty-six (186) additional banks have the same issues that faced Silicon Valley Bank before it collapsed.
Given that this is now being publicly reported – albeit DELIBERATELY after the markets closed on Friday — this weekend could result in an actual “Black Monday” when markets re-open on the 20th. (We will all have to watch pre-market conditions when futures trading opens up Sunday night.)
Fed BigBanks RegionalBanks
Given all the government activity last weekend, as Silicon Valley Bank and then Signature Bank collapsed, it is entirely feasible that government action may also take place this weekend.
What will YOU do if the government orders a “Bank Holiday” next week, and none of the banks can open? What will YOU do if all the ATM’s, credit, and debit cards are OFFLINE for a Bank Holiday? That could mean every store would be CASH ONLY; No credit, Debit, or even EBT cards! How will you eat? How will you put fuel in your car?
You had better prepare while you still have a slim window to do so: This weekend.
I Went To The Most Liberal Place In West Virginia
RUSSIA TO “PRACTICE” SUB-LAUNCHED NUKE STRIKE AGAINST U.S.A. FROM SUBS IN PACIFIC OCEAN
The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy said tonight his government will “launch salvos of missiles from submarines . . . in the neutral waters of the Pacific Ocean, relatively close to the coast of the United States, equipped with imitation nuclear warheads.”
The date of this ‘exercise” is not yet known.
This will be Russia’s response to the United States sending B-52’s to within ten miles of Russian territory (an island in the Baltic Sea) wherein they practiced launching nuclear cruise missiles at St. Petersburg, Russia, earlier this week. That incident, earlier this week, was reported HERE
From the Russian Foreign Ministry: “We urge the United States to think about the consequences of its increasingly aggressive actions fraught with direct military confrontation with Russia.”
Hal Turner Analysis
Things are not getting better, folks. They’re getting very much worse.
1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapeno peppers, drained (optional)
3/4 cup water
1 (1 1/4 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
Salsa and sour cream
Crust
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow corn meal
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles
Instructions
Filling: In 10-inch skillet, brown and cook ground beef; drain thoroughly. Return meat to pan. Add onion; return to heat and cook until tender. Add mixed vegetables, beans, jalapeno peppers, water and taco seasoning. Cook over medium-high heat until most of liquid is gone.
Crust: In medium bowl, combine flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add milk, egg, oil and chiles; stir until flour is moistened. Spread evenly over top of meat mixture in skillet. Cook, covered, over low heat for 30 to 35 minutes or a wooden pick inserted into crust comes out clean.
Serve hot with salsa and sour cream.
Serves 4 to 6.
You can also bake this in the oven. Using an ovenproof skillet, bake at 375 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until crust is lightly browned.
The Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony
Peach Pie
This is a wonderful way to prepare pie the old-fashioned way in a cast iron skillet.
2023 03 19 16 58
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk
8 fresh peaches
Instructions
Sift flour; measure and add salt and baking powder. Sift again. Cut in shortening as for pastry. Add milk all at once, just enough to make a soft dough. Turn out on a floured board and roll a round piece 1/4 inch thick and several inches larger in diameter than the skillet used. Place dough in bottom of skillet, letting edges hang over the outside. Then fill with sliced peaches and sprinkle with a mixture of 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon flour. Dot with butter. Fold edges toward center to partially cover the pie. Leave center of pie uncovered.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes.
Serve warm or cold.
U.S. Air Force Attacks Allegedly IRANIAN Assets Inside Syria; Numerous Dead
A U.S. Government Press Release reads as follows: Earlier today, a U.S. contractor was killed and five U.S. service members and one additional U.S. contractor were wounded after a one-way unmanned aerial vehicle struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. local time.
The intelligence community assess the UAV to be of Iranian origin.
“At the direction of President Biden, I authorized U.S. Central Command forces to conduct precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III. “The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC.”
—————-
Hal Turner Remarks
And there’s your “False Flag” that now gives a green light to US Forces to attack Iran itself (perhaps along with Israel).
Did you catch the paragraph which read “The intelligence community assess the UAV to be of Iranian origin.” OHHHHHHH! The “Intelligence Community?” Do they mean the same nitwits that came to a consensus that President Trump got elected through “Russia Collusion?” Yea, that’s them. The same nitwits who couldn’t figure out that the entire Russia Collusion nonsense came from the Hillary Clinton Campaign! That’s the level of dingbat, and asshat, presently infesting the US “Intelligence Community.” Soy boys and girly men most all of them, I think.
Here we go. The US will use this as a pretext for attacking “nuclear sites” inside Iran. Just watch.
What has just taken place in Moscow is nothing less than a new Yalta, which, incidentally, is in Crimea. But unlike the momentous meeting of US President Franklin Roosevelt, Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in USSR-run Crimea in 1945, this is the first time in arguably five centuries that no political leader from the west is setting the global agenda.
It’s Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin that are now running the multilateral, multipolar show. Western exceptionalists may deploy their crybaby routines as much as they want: nothing will change the spectacular optics, and the underlying substance of this developing world order, especially for the Global South.
What Xi and Putin are setting out to do was explained in detail before their summit, in two Op-Eds penned by the presidents themselves. Like a highly-synchronized Russian ballet, Putin’s vision was laid out in the People’s Daily in China, focusing on a “future-bound partnership,” while Xi’s was published in the Russian Gazette and the RIA Novosti website, focusing on a new chapter in cooperation and common development.
Right from the start of the summit, the speeches by both Xi and Putin drove the NATO crowd into a hysterical frenzy of anger and envy: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova perfectly captured the mood when she remarked that the west was “foaming at the mouth.”
The front page of the Russian Gazette on Monday was iconic: Putin touring Nazi-free Mariupol, chatting with residents, side by side with Xi’s Op-Ed. That was, in a nutshell, Moscow’s terse response to Washington’s MQ-9 Reaper stunt and the International Criminal Court (ICC) kangaroo court shenanigans. “Foam at the mouth” as much as you like; NATO is in the process of being thoroughly humiliated in Ukraine.
During their first “informal” meeting, Xi and Putin talked for no less than four and a half hours. At the end, Putin personally escorted Xi to his limo. This conversation was the real deal: mapping out the lineaments of multipolarity – which starts with a solution for Ukraine.
Predictably, there were very few leaks from the sherpas, but there was quite a significant one on their “in-depth exchange” on Ukraine. Putin politely stressed he respects China’s position – expressed in Beijing’s 12-point conflict resolution plan, which has been completely rejected by Washington. But the Russian position remains ironclad: demilitarization, Ukrainian neutrality, and enshrining the new facts on the ground.
In parallel, the Russian Foreign Ministry completely ruled out a role for the US, UK, France, and Germany in future Ukraine negotiations: they are not considered neutral mediators.
A multipolar patchwork quilt
The next day was all about business: everything from energy and “military-technical” cooperation to improving the efficacy of trade and economic corridors running through Eurasia.
Russia already ranks first as a natural gas supplier to China – surpassing Turkmenistan and Qatar – most of it via the 3,000 km Power of Siberia pipeline that runs from Siberia to China’s northeastern Heilongjiang province, launched in December 2019. Negotiations on the Power of Siberia II pipeline via Mongolia are advancing fast.
Sino-Russian cooperation in high-tech will go through the roof: 79 projects at over $165 billion. Everything from liquified natural gas (LNG) to aircraft construction, machine tool construction, space research, agro-industry, and upgraded economic corridors.
The Chinese president explicitly said he wants to link the New Silk Road projects to the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU). This BRI-EAEU interpolation is a natural evolution. China has already signed an economic cooperation deal with the EAEU. Russian macroeconomic uber-strategist Sergey Glazyev’s ideas are finally bearing fruit.
And last but not least, there will be a new drive towards mutual settlements in national currencies – and between Asia and Africa, and Latin America. For all practical purposes, Putin endorsed the role of the Chinese yuan as the new trade currency of choice while the complex discussions on a new reserve currency backed by gold and/or commodities proceed.
This joint economic/business offensive ties in with the concerted Russia-China diplomatic offensive to remake vast swathes of West Asia and Africa.
Chinese diplomacy works like the matryoshka (Russian stacking dolls) in terms of delivering subtle messages. It’s far from coincidental that Xi’s trip to Moscow exactly coincides with the 20th anniversary of American ‘Shock and Awe’ and the illegal invasion, occupation, and destruction of Iraq.
In parallel, over 40 delegations from Africa arrived in Moscow a day before Xi to take part in a “Russia-Africa in the Multipolar World” parliamentary conference – a run-up to the second Russia-Africa summit next July.
The area surrounding the Duma looked just like the old Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) days when most of Africa kept very close anti-imperialist relations with the USSR.
Putin chose this exact moment to write off more than $20 billion in African debt.
In West Asia, Russia-China are acting totally in synch. West Asia. The Saudi-Iran rapprochement was actually jump-started by Russia in Baghdad and Oman: it was these negotiations that led to the signing of the deal in Beijing. Moscow is also coordinating the Syria-Turkiye rapprochement discussions. Russian diplomacy with Iran – now under strategic partnership status – is kept on a separate track.
Diplomatic sources confirm that Chinese intelligence, via its own investigations, is now fully assured of Putin’s vast popularity across Russia, and even within the country’s political elites. That means conspiracies of the regime-change variety are out of the question. This was fundamental for Xi and the Zhongnanhai’s (China’s central HQ for party and state officials) decision to “bet” on Putin as a trusted partner in the coming years, considering he may run and win the next presidential elections. China is always about continuity.
So the Xi-Putin summit definitively sealed China-Russia as comprehensive strategic partners for the long haul, committed to developing serious geopolitical and geoeconomic competition with declining western hegemons.
This is the new world born in Moscow this week. Putin previously defined it as a new anti-colonial policy. It’s now laid out as a multipolar patchwork quilt. There’s no turning back on the demolition of the remnants of Pax Americana.
‘Changes that haven’t happened in 100 years’
In Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350, Janet Abu-Lughod built a carefully constructed narrative showing the prevailing multipolar order when the West “lagged behind the ‘Orient.’” Later, the West only “pulled ahead because the ‘Orient’ was temporarily in disarray.”
We may be witnessing a similarly historic shift in the making, trespassed by a revival of Confucianism (respect for authority, emphasis on social harmony), the equilibrium inherent to the Tao, and the spiritual power of Eastern Orthodoxy. This is, indeed, a civilizational fight.
Moscow, finally welcoming the first sunny days of Spring, provided this week a larger-than-life illustration of “weeks where decades happen” compared to “decades where nothing happens.”
The two presidents bid farewell in a poignant manner.
Xi: “Now, there are changes that haven’t happened in 100 years. When we are together, we drive these changes.”Putin: “I agree.”Xi: “Take care, dear friend.”Putin: “Have a safe trip.”
Here’s to a new day dawning, from the lands of the Rising Sun to the Eurasian steppes.
Romania Moving to “Annex” Moldova and Parts of Ukraine ! ! !
The Romanian Senate is debating a proposal tabled by Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă to annex the former Romanian territories occupied by present-day Moldova and Ukraine under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (1939).
According to article 3 of the draft bill: “Romania will annex the historical territories that it owned, respectively, Northern Bukovyna, Hertsa region, Bugeac (Cahul, Bolgrad, Izmail), historical Maramures and Snake Island.”
These territories are inhabited by 1 million people.
Ukraine would thus LOSE much of its present southwest, including “Snake Island!”
UPDATE 1:05 AM EDT (FRIDAY)
Word is coming in that the “Annexation” of “formerly Romanian territory” (i.e. Moldova”) would allegedly include the independent autonomous area of . . . . Transnistria! And upon the Annexation, Russian troops in Transnistria would allegedly be ordered to leave!
That would put a large weapons depot storage from the Soviet era, firmly into the hands of (NATO Member) Romania, and the amount of weapons in that depot would be enough to supply Ukraine for a full year in its fight with Russia!
Suppose the Russian troops are told by Moscow to stay? Will a fight erupt between Romania (NATO) and Russia?
This is getting very dirty, very fast.
Her parents locked her in the basement for 10-years. This is how it ended…
Which is the world’s richest country and poorest country?
China is richer than the next 9 richest countries in the world! …
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Famous Music Hits Turned Into Vintage Ad Posters
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David Redon wanted to take music hits and treat them like they were vintage ads, that the artist was the product and the title was the baseline. We can highlight the fact that David Redon adapted wonderfully every visual code of the first printed ads.
It’s Fake Nikes, Fake Reeboks, Fake Rolexes but Original Shoes
It’s the Brand that is Counterfeit
main qimg 00c4ed36e15a3358c84ea6ea6b43f7f5
A Nike Factory works on the SAME MOULD and MATERIAL as a Factory making non branded shoes.
The Feet Energy Shock Absorber Pad is patented design from Nike and that’s the difference
Nike also has special color pattern dyes that are unique and custom made from Ohio
Nike also has Industrial stitch fasteners that are patented designs (Stitching the threads) and custom made threads
This FESA Pad costs 50% of the Manufacturing cost.
In China, they make Pads that are around 60% -70% of Nikes quality and the Pattern Dyes are 90% similar and made in China
China makes 90% of the Worlds Stitch Fasteners and Threads for shoes barring a few big brands like Nike Or Adidas. So they can easily get a fastener and thread at maybe 1/3 to 1/4 the price
Difference is the Cost per Pair for this Non Branded Shoe is 1/6th of what it costs to manufacture a Nike.
So a Nike costs 225 -400 Yuan to manufacture in China and retails for 650–1200 Yuan
A Fake Nike costs 62 Yuan to manufacture in China and retails for 190–270 Yuan
The Fake Nike is 70–75% the Quality of Nike
main qimg 0ccfbaca2b58d21dab8f81aaf1fedc48
It has a roaring market of practical Chinese teens who want cool brands but dont want to pay the brand premiums or the cost of design related R&D
No Issues
It’s even encouraged
So Fake Nikes are pretty easy to make
The Same Mould , Materials, Similar Pads and Similar Dyes (Local Produce and not Imported from Akron Ohio) at 16–20% of a Nikes manufacturing cost
China has NO ISSUES
The Problem will come when the Fake Nikes ARE SOLD AS ORIGINAL
That is a Crime and Counterfeiting is charged and you face 3–7 Years Jail for First Offence and 5–15 Years for subsequent offense
So if a Fake Nike retails for less than 300 Yuan, no issues. Even Cops will buy some grinning. You have a problem? Go to the copyright commission
If a Fake Nike retails for 600–800 Yuan, that is the same or close to the retail price of an Original Nike, YOU ARE DEAD!!!
Our Chinese friends are very practical but they have their own codes when it comes to trade
They may cut corners but CHEATING is something they cannot stand
An Exporter who sells you Lead containing toys for 9 Yuan Retail ($ 1.20) that the Importer in US will retail for $ 4.99 , doesnt bother anyone in China
An Exporter who sells a Toy for 157 Yuan Retail ($ 24.40) with a ‘Special Fee’ and a No Lead additive guarantee, that the Importer in US will retail for $ 69.99 , will be Blacklisted and Jailed and fined massively
China Just EXPOSED the US Failure in the Middle East
GIANT, SEA-BASED, EARLY-WARNING, NUKE MISSILE RADAR PLATFORMS DEPLOYING FROM HAWAII
Something’s up. Several UNIQUE and very important vessels for early-warning-detection of nuclear missile launches, have been suddenly deployed from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX-1) a floating, self-propelled, mobile active electronically scanned array early-warning radar station.
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The Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX-1) is a floating, self-propelled, mobile active electronically scanned array early-warning radar station is designed to operate in high winds and heavy seas. It was developed as part of the United States Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Ballistic Missile Defense System.
The radar is mounted on a fifth generation CS-50 twin-hulled semi-submersible oil platform. Conversion of the vessel was carried out at the AmFELS yard in Brownsville, Texas; the radar mount was built and mounted on the vessel at the Kiewit yard in Ingleside, Texas.
It is nominally based at Adak Island in Alaska, but has spent significant time at Pearl Harbor in test status. When it departed Pearl Harbor today, it was ***NOT*** on any heading back toward Alaska. It seems to be heading out into the Pacific toward . . . Asia.
MORE
Yesterday the U.S. Navy Mobile Aerial Target Support System (MATSS-1) IX-524 towed barge also left Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – March 22, 2023 as seen below:
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The MATSS systems aboard this particular vessel provide advanced remote telecommunications capability that extends the reach of the 42,000 square-mile Pacific Missile Range, the world’s largest instrumented multi-environmental range capable of supported surface, subsurface, air, and space operations simultaneously.
AND THIS . . .
SS Pacific Tracker (WQVZ) ballistic missile test tracker leaving Honolulu, Hawaii – March 22, 2023.
These types of vessels, there are only five of them in the world, are maintained in ROS-5 status and this one has been activated by TOTE Services in response to a no-notice mission activation.
OUR MOST SERIOUS FIREPOWER TOO!
Lastly, an Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine left Pearl Harbor directly from the Beckoning Point Deperming Facility – March 22, 2023, shown below:
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Deperming, or degaussing, is a procedure for erasing the permanent magnetism from ships and submarines to camouflage them against magnetic detection vessels and enemy marine mines.
The Ohio class of nuclear-powered submarines includes the United States Navy’s 14 ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) and its four cruise missile submarines (SSGNs). Each displacing 18,750 tons submerged, the Ohio-class boats are the largest submarines ever built for the U.S. Navy.
They are the world’s third-largest submarines, behind the Russian Navy’s Soviet-designed 48,000-ton Typhoon class and 24,000-ton Borei class. At 24 Trident II missiles apiece, Ohio-class boats carry more missiles than either the Borei class (16, 20 by the Borei II) or the Typhoon class (20).
Like its predecessor Benjamin Franklin- and Lafayette-class subs, the Ohio-class SSBNs are part of the United States’ nuclear-deterrent triad, along with U.S. Air Force strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The 14 SSBNs together carry about half of U.S. active strategic thermonuclear warheads.
Although the Trident missiles have no preset targets when the submarines go on patrol, they can be given targets quickly, from the United States Strategic Command based in Nebraska, using secure and constant radio communications links, including very low frequency systems.
All of these unique and dangerous systems departed Pearl Harbor suddenly, within the past 24 hours. Something BIG is up. This is no joke.
Hal Turner Remark: Seeing this, I am convinced we are in the endgame and things are coming to an explosive end. We are all living on borrowed time now.
New Attack: U.S. Army Logistics Convoy Blown Up in Iraq
A strike drone attacked a US logistics convoy in Babil Governorate (Iraq).
No word yet on deaths or injuries. No indication if this is the start of large new attack(s).
Word from Intel circles is already saying “Iran.”
More if I get it, but not too much more is expected tonight.
“I Want More Squirrels in Gwent”: Fantasy Illustrations by Anna Podedworna
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Anna Podedworna is a Polish artist, primarily known for her series of works for Gwent, Cyberpunk 2077, League of Legends and Magic: The Gathering. For fans of the “Witcher” universe Anna is a native person in general – she has drawn so many cool illustrations for the cards that they have long become icons of the series of games.
In a recent interview Anna shared an interesting story related to Gwent: “My favorite card is the recently released Squirrel. It was the last card I illustrated for Gwent. There’s even a little story about it. The first director of Gwent had a strong dislike for squirrels. After discovering this fact, I set out to collect as many squirrels in the game as possible.
My first attempt at implementation was the “Iorveth: Meditation” card, but of course that wasn’t enough. Unfortunately, many of my attempts were tragically thwarted. Later, when I already knew I was leaving the company, a decision was made: it was now or never. I illustrated the damn squirrel and left it to the developers. They did not disappoint.
Anna summed up the interview by saying, “I want more squirrels in Gwent.
“China’s hyperspectral detection satellites oversee the Western Pacific battlespace and airborne lasers detect waves and temperature variations generated by moving targets.
The West Pacific Surveillance and Targeting satellite, along with fifteen Yaogan-30 satellites in low-earth orbit, operating as triplets positioned in close proximity, geo-locate military platforms by measuring the angular or time difference of arrival of their intercepted electromagnetic signals.
Below them, the Caihong-T4, a massive, solar-powered drone, loiters for months at a cloudless altitude of sixty-five thousand feet, while below, the fifteen-ton, one-hundred fifty-foot wingspan Divine Eagle High Altitude Stealth-Hunting Drone reads electronic signals from aircraft long before they approach their targets.
Below the drones are AWACS, whose solid-state detectors have twice the range of US rotating domes, relay targeting information to domestic and Russian-built S-400 anti-aircraft/anti-missile batteries.
Jin Canrong, the PRC’s senior defense policy advisor, says China has deployed weapons that can destroy in minutes every military base in its region, see all stealth bombers and submarines, and take out every aircraft carrier within two thousand miles of shore.
"The first salvo of 1,000 CJ-10 missiles would cripple seventy percent of US bases in the region and create a strategic dilemma for the White House. "Since no Chinese missile struck the United States, an American retaliatory strike on a target within China would be an escalation "Within hours, Seattle or Los Angeles would be destroyed – knowing that the US has no missile defense while both Russia and China have advanced systems".”
China Is Playing Her Hand, Moving to Save the World from the Satanic American Empire
Please ignore the racist comments in this article. -MM.
Basically, there is a looming crisis of the US dollar at the same time that the Chinese are taking their place as the dominant world power.
China is moving rapidly now, playing cards they’d been holding in their hand. The importance of the Iran-Saudi peace deal cannot be overstated. The US media is downplaying it, saying that this simply restores 2016 norms. In actual fact, if you read about the details of what has been agree to (which I just had the time to finally do today), this deal takes relations between these two countries to a level they haven’t been at since before Khomeini’s 1979 revolution.
It is incredible that this was effectively a kind of surprise announcement. The US has been taking the alliance with Saudi Arabia as a given, even though it has been collapsing ever since the American media made such a massive deal about Saudis killing one single terrorist-supporter journalist. After the US put those lunatic sanctions on Russia, it was obvious that the relationship was over – but somehow, the US didn’t act as though they understood that, just as when they did the sanctions, they didn’t act as though they understood that China and India would refuse to sign on to the
The China deal with Iran means that Saudi is solidly on China’s side.
In the larger context, what this shows is that China is able to solve problems that were previously considered unsolvable in order to form strong alliances and is able to counter the US system of violence and threats by uniting people under a common goal of national independence underlined by a cooperative system of global trade.
Along with constantly threatening war and sanctions, the US functions by playing nations off against each other. If you look at the history of US involvement in the Islamic world over the last 4 decades, the entire strategy has been keeping Shiite and Sunni at each others throats. The US will switch sides back and forth, supporting whichever is perceived as the underdog, in order to prevent one side from becoming dominant. The US also insists on manipulating the domestic politics of its victims, given that the US is guided by a Jewish agenda of total global domination – a world world government supported by a one-world culture of mixed multitudes of peasants with no national or religious identity.
The Chinese counter strategy hits every weakness of this system by reinforcing the rights of national identity and culture, respecting national sovereignty, and basing global cooperation on the positive goal of universal prosperity rather than the negative goal of undermining human instincts.
This is lining up with an emerging banking crisis. Yesterday, I wrote that I don’t necessarily agree with predictions of immediate doom, but the claim that the banking system has backed itself into a corner is absolutely true. These people thought they were invincible and acted like they were invincible and as it turns out, they are not invincible. They are now forced to attempt to shore up their books while the Saudis and others draw knives.
If the Jewnited Snakes begins firing shots, they will do so in a panic as a last gasp. They’ve walked straight into their own demise. No one forced them to do these Russian sanctions and prove all of the Chinese prophecies of lunatic mania. No one forced them to do the coronavirus hoax and follow it with an orchestrated collapse of the market that brought the US banking system to the brink. They acted haughtily, like the enemies of King David, and God turned their evil to good.
No one can predict how long this will take to play out, but the game is already over, and has been for some time. There is no longer any series of moves the Jews can make and win.
What it looks like now is that Emperor Xi is going to start rapidly laying cards on the table, creating a situation where the Whore or Babylon and her slaves are isolated in America and Europe.
It will be like that emo song we all hate.
Very bad things could start happening in these places as the Jews realize that their global agenda is over and then completely turn on the populations of these countries and just try to hurt the people as much as possible in a sadistic way.
What is going to happen is going to happen, and that is all that is going to happen.
China is now the global peace broker. They announced this last week with the incredible Saudi-Iran deal, now they are going to present their peace plan for the Ukraine, and the US is going to be forced to say “no, we want this war to continue until we can collapse the government of Russia, we don’t care how many people die or what it does to the global economy.”
They’ve already said this, in fact. John Kirby was out there this weekend, and he said that any cessation of hostilities is “completely unacceptable” because Russia must be destroyed and prevented from acting in the world in the future.
Xi is in Moscow now. This is the big play. There is zero chance that the US is going to allow Zelensky to do peace. He tried to do it in March of 2022 and they told him no.
After the US is forced to make a big show of “war at any costs,” China then has a blank check from every allied country to do whatever it takes to put down this mad brute.
If the US falls into the trap – and they almost certainly will, given what we’ve seen – and sanctions China with the same sanctions they’ve put on Russia, the house of cards falls. Further, China will be in a position to declare a formal blockade against the US.
It’s all perfect timing, as the US has been indicating it wants to end the war anyway – but they can’t end it on China’s terms, or they’re just openly bowing to the Emperor.
European countries will begin breaking off soon enough and siding with the East. The US has been planning this world war, and they are going to be in a situation where they are at war with the entire world.
Xi this week published an op-ed about his Glorious Mission to save the earth for Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
In the piece, he declared the dawn of a new world order, led by Russia and China, where nations have independence and the right to self determination and are not bullied by pigs. Lauding the unbreakable bonds between Russia and China, he announced “the formation of new types of international relations and a community of shared destiny for humanity” and noted that Russia China relations are strong enough to withstand any pressure.
Xi called for mutual respect between nations, writing that “the international community is aware that no country in the world surpasses all others.” In a clear reference to the US assertion that they represent an absolute moral order to the universe, he writes: “there is no universal model of governance, and there is no world order where the decisive word belongs to a single country.”
He continues with his criticism of the Jewnited Snake:
Profound changes are taking place in the modern world. Peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit are an unstoppable historical trend. Multipolarity, economic globalization, and democratization of international relations are an irreversible trend.
At the same time, both traditional and non-traditional security challenges are rapidly increasing. Actions of hegemony, despotism, and bullying cause serious harm to the world. It will take a very long way to restore the world economy. The international community is deeply concerned and in desperate need of ways to get out of the crisis.
…
In the past decade, universal values such as peace, development, equality, justice, democracy, and freedom have taken deep root in people’s hearts. More and more countries are united in their common aspiration to build a clean and beautiful world where durable peace, universal security, shared prosperity, openness, and tolerance prevail. The international community is fully aware that no country in the world is superior to others. There is no universal model of governance, nor is there a world order where one country has the final say. Solidarity and peace on the planet without rifts and upheavals serve the common interests of all mankind.
Every problem on earth is coming from the same place.
Xi then outlines his plans for peace, which are of course, very obvious, and could only ever be denied by Jewish lunatics intent on using the conflict to push a globalist and satanic agenda on the world.
Further, he made reference to a “long and tortuous global economic recovery,” clearly indicates that China is prepared to deal with whatever fallout results from open opposition to the Western world order.
Xi closes with a statement of intent: he writes that China has spent the last decades getting its own house in order, and they are now ready to take on global challenges, the primary problem, as he’d already explained, being US global hegemony.
Meanwhile, the media is flipping out, saying China is moving to take over the world. The Guardian published a fascinating op-ed by celebrated former Moscow correspondent Jonathan Steele that effectively outlines everything I just wrote above with slight moderation.
From it:
Now, 30 years after the demise of the Soviet Union, there are signs that the unipolar world of US dominance may be coming to an end. The main challenger is not Putin’s Russia, but an increasingly confident China. Leaders in the global south are also stirring. In the first flush of shock over Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in February last year, more than 140 UN states voted to condemn it. But only around 40 countries in total have joined the US in imposing sanctions on Russia. As the west floods Ukraine with military hardware, the notion that it is merely helping to defend Ukraine looks questionable to many Asian, African and Latin American states who suspect the end goal to be regime change in the Kremlin.
A survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) reveals a significant shift in public opinion in several key countries. People want to see a quick end to the war in Ukraine, even if it means Ukraine giving up western-supported aspirations to victory and accepting the temporary loss of some territory. It is not only citizens of authoritarian China who think this way. So do citizens in India and Turkey.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, told the Munich Security Conference last month: “I see how powerful the Russian narrative is, its accusations of double standards.” France’s Emmanuel Macron said he was “shocked by how much credibility we are losing in the global south”.
Some fear a new cold war, this time between the west and China. Looking 10 years ahead, others expect to see a multipolar world in which states will not be pressured to align themselves with one side or the other. Either way, in spite of the resurgence of US power in Europe as a result of the war in Ukraine, the era of US supremacy in the rest of the world may soon be over.
Just so you understand: I am far from the only one saying all of this. In fact, it is difficult to find any serious people anywhere disagreeing with my basic assertions. The only thing you can find is vulgar American propaganda made for morons. This is the same media which makes claims like “the Ukraine is a democracy” and claims that the US is dumping all these weapons on the country for humanitarian reasons. This media portrays the US as invincible, and effectively argues that there are no problems on earth at all beyond the annoyance of Chinese, Russians, and the entire third world not being gay enough.
I don’t think you will be able to find anything written at an adult level that does not concur with the conclusion that following the events of the last three years, the US empire has backed itself into a corner and really has no clear way out. The only difference between these mainstream analyses and my own is that I take these things to to their logical conclusions – the most important of which being that if the US does not maintain global hegemony, the US financial system collapses, which will make the nation nigh entirely irrelevant on the world stage. There is an “all or nothing” dynamic to the US system which would be admitted in other contexts, but is too scary for most to admit in the context of this present decline of the empire.
Hold Tight
It’s happening now. Moves are being made. China goes all in. Cards on the table.
It feels so wonderful to see it all finally coming crashing down. The Jews and their anti-Christ culture of filth and degradation destroyed my family. As an adult, I have been hounded by these people relentlessly. They destroyed my company, costing me tens of millions of dollars, and ran me out of my home country. But much more than this, they completely destroyed the nation my ancestors built, and they succeed in destroying most of the people in it with their revolutionary ideologies, sexual perversions, drugs, and spiritual rot.
But God is good and everyone is going to get what they deserve.
The only thing I ever wanted in my life was to see this whole system come crashing down, and here it is.
What happens next is all but irrelevant, given that it can’t possibly be worse than what is happening now.
But what will happen is that Nick Fuentes will become dictator of America and Ye will sing at my homecoming event.
4 Non Blondes – What’s Up (Official Music Video)
What is the biggest waste of electricity you’ve seen in a home you visited, were a guest in, or even in your own home?
A co-worker of mine figured out why her electric bill had tripled with the help of their neighbor’s cats. For three months one summer their electric bill suddenly went through the roof. They checked out all their appliances, air conditioning, etc. and couldn’t find the problem. Then one cool evening she looked out the window and noticed there were several neighbor cats lying on her driveway. This was an “Ah Ha!” moment. She had a driveway heater with a switch in the basement that was used very briefly when the driveway was icy in the winter. Turns out a workman who was doing a job in her basement was looking for a light switch and flipped on the driveway heater switch. When no light came on, the guy figured that light was broken and found a different light, The driveway switch wasn’t labeled (at least not then). So her driveway had been continuously drawing electricity all summer. Only the neighbor cats could detect the difference in temperature on the driveway and would “chill out” there on cool evenings. It took her 3 months to notice the abundance of cats lying on her driveway and connect that with the driveway heater and the high electric bill.
Head of Ukraine Central Bank Buys new Rolls Royce “Ghost”
Firstly, it will NOT occur in the South China Sea.
Secondly, it will be a missile war.
Thirdly, Aircraft carriers will not play a major role.
Fourthly, mainland America will get to become participants in the war.
BABYMETAL – METAL KINGDOM (OFFICIAL)
What makes China’s educational system successful? What lessons can the United States learn from China’s example?
I taught in the UK, in state schools back in the 90’s and a lot of time was wasted in pandering to the worst behaved students. The management teams were trying to avoid being too “autocratic” and focusing on rewarding the badly behaved students to bribe them to not misbehave. The well behaved and smart students were often neglected. There was a lot of politically correct propaganda too. Moving to China to teach adults was like Heaven in comparison.
In China, in general, society is more advanced and evolved than in the west. I don’t mean just based on infrastructure, technology or wealth. In Chinese society there is much more respect for humanity, family, community and society as a whole. There is a respect for sensible, considerate behaviour and not this egoistic, narcissistic extreme individualism that is prevalent in the west. Responsibility is championed. In the west, it is rights first, responsibility second.
In the west, and you can see it with the dreadful politicians, there is so much time wasted on self centred, emotional drama. It is as if society learns from the awful soap operas. “Me, me me” mentality.
In China; it is “Us, we can work together and achieve” and with no pathetic self centred, emotional drama. Look at the state of the west now; war and weapons all over the world. I am 100% certain that Chinese education, culture and society is far more advanced than the western ones; especially the UK and USA.
Saudi Arabia Unloading U.S. Treasuries; Lowest level in 7 years!
Loss of confidence in the US Dollar is growing. Saudi Arabia has begun earnestly dumping US Treasuries, with the Oil-rich nation now having fewer US Treasuries than anytime in the past 7 years.
This trend with Saudi Arabia is being mirrored by many other countries which are fearful the US has already over-spent itself (into oblivion) and will NOT be able to actually repay the money it owes.
Other countries have also been unloading US debt notes.
As the US sees it’s hegemony over the world slipping away, they are becoming more and more warlike; seemingly TRYING TO START WW3.
Also known as "suicide by cop" -MM
Such a war would result in tens of millions of Americans killed, which is exactly, precisely what the US NEEDS TO HAPPEN, so they can cry for debt relief and get out of the debts they owe.
I’ve watched snippets of the Congressional “hearings” in Tictok being banned. What a “horse show”. Forget about the context. Look at the hatred and anger spewing from Congress. This is America today.
Aching. Ready for a fight.
Helpless. Impotent. Frustrated.
Gonna get bad before it gets better.
The NYT’s Ed Lee calls TikTok CEO’s congressional testimony ‘brutal’
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Anti-chinese hysteria, pure and simple.
Reality 2023
Swiss abandoned neutrality and confiscated Russian assets. Threatens to do the same to China if she sides with Russia.
Swiss banks’ clients, new and existing, are scared. Funds run to Singapore and Hong Kong, etc. HSBC (HK & Shanghai Banking Corp) needed to arrange extra staff working over weekends to handle the transactions.
Now Swiss’ own working group declares the confiscation unconstitutional and unlawful. Will the Swiss ruling party or politicians be responsible for the illegal acts?
See Reuters below:
ZURICH, Feb 15 (Reuters) – The confiscation of private Russian assets would undermine the Swiss constitution and the prevailing legal order, the Swiss government said on Wednesday, citing the findings of a working group set up by the Federal Office of Justice.
A working body set up to discuss the issue said the expropriation of private assets of lawful origin without compensation was not permissible under Swiss law.
“The confiscation of frozen private assets is inconsistent with the Federal Constitution and the prevailing legal order and violates Switzerland’s international commitments,” the Swiss Justice Ministry said on Wednesday.
Switzerland’s banks had also been against the confiscation. “There is no legal basis for confiscation today,” the Swiss Bankers Association said last month.
Evanescence – Bring Me To Life (Official Music Video)
Brothers in tech, trade, currency and military arms, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
It spells the death knell for the West's 500-year colonial rape and plunder of Planet Earth.
During their multi-day talks in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate in building a world no longer centered on Washington, DC, or Europe.
However, that world order won’t simply be one that replaces the United States as the global hegemon, but one that is built upon multipolar relations and a rapidly developing Global South, Fabio Massimo Parenti, a PhD in geopolitics and geoeconomics and associate professor of international political economy and geopolitics at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
Noting that Putin told Xi he supports using Chinese renminbi (RMB) or yuan as an international means of payment and reserve currency, Parenti said it was part of a larger effort to de-center the US dollar in the global economy.
“The yuan is already the fifth international currency in the world, in terms of global circulation and official reserves. The China-Russia rapprochement has gone hand in hand with global economic transformation towards multipolarity, which passes through a monetary system shift,” he explained.
“However, we should bear in mind that ‘multipolarity’ applied to the monetary system means promoting the usage of a variety of currencies, one of which is already the yuan, avoiding replacing US dollar centrality with another single currency.”
Parenti noted that Beijing “does not want to become a US successor in this sense, but it wants to promote a new form of international relations, based on equality, mutual respect and democratization of international relations. This thing is not only related to a Chinese specific worldview but it is also rooted in the pragmatic interest to avoid the problems and structural weaknesses of a unipolar world order, rejected theoretically and practically by China.”
The two world leaders have also helped launch new international payment systems that can serve as an alternative to SWIFT, which is centered in Brussels and highly subject to Western sanctions.
“Simply, after building the new platforms, exchanges cannot be blocked by western unilateral actions and international cross-border settlements can be easily done in currencies other than the dollar,” the expert explained, adding that “SWIFT was set according to technical characteristics politically oriented, to defend and exploit the dollar tyranny.”
He further added that all “Third World countries are and will be in line with this new monetary-financial course,” calling it “another sign of a kind of ‘multipolarity building process.’”
Parenti said he agreed with Putin’s statement about the importance of China and Russia combining their information technology and artificial intelligence efforts as a sort of “tech alliance,” saying such cooperation is going to be key in the future, especially as the West tries to target both nations’ tech sectors.
“China is already a world leader in many fields and Russia can benefit a lot from its partner’s ability and development,” he said. “At the same time, China can benefit from Russia’s new open market left by Westerners, from Russian raw materials and TLC education and expertise.”
“Combining financial resources with raw materials, talents and market size, both countries can find mutual advantages by bolstering bilateral relations at an even higher strategic level,” he asserted. “It goes without saying that all of these developments will increase both countries’ independence from every sort of Western sanctions.”
“First, I think that Western sanctions are an abuse and generally detrimental for people’s daily lives. Therefore, whilst the West attacks political systems and leaders, it is actually attacking the people of entire countries. Second, the Western abuse of unilateral sanctions is surely accelerating other powers’ reorganization, [who are] searching for a greater level of independence and autonomy. Under this respect, I believe that both China and Russia can take advantage of this sanctions crisis/impact.”
Turning to Beijing’s proposal for peace in Ukraine – and Washington’s rejection of such a deal – Parenti said that time and again, “the US has confirmed itself as the biggest threat to humanity, the main promoter of wars, the most irresponsible country, incapable of promoting peace talks and peaceful coexistence.”
“They look only at hegemony and unipolarity, rejecting a democratization of international relations. Herein Russia-China ties find their quite recent historical roots. Only starting from this consciousness can we understand these two great countries’ will to build a multipolar world system, along with many other countries of the ‘Global South’ historically enslaved by the West. All of this, in the Chinese view, means building a community with a shared future for humanity.”
Jeff J. Brown, author of The China Trilogy, editor at China Rising Radio Sinoland and co-founder and curator of the Bioweapon Truth Commission, told Sputnik that China and Russia “clearly” know that “the West’s historical ability to rape and plunder the world’s resources for the last 500 years has been enforced by an imposed reserve currency, earlier the British pound and postwar, the US dollar.”
“Among non-Western currencies, the Chinese yuan [RMB] is the most sought after to de-dollarize global trade, due to the size and scope of its [China’s] economy. With Russia’s SPSF [System for Transfer of Financial Messages’] interbank wire system, any use of the RMB is going to enhance the ruble,” he noted.
“If India and Brazil buy Russian oil and gas in yuan using the SPSF, it can use them to trade with China, whose bilateral total will easily surpass US$200 billion this year.”
Brown noted that for more than five years, the US dollar has faced “death by a thousand cuts” around the world.
“Russia and China trading in their national currencies is more than a cut, it is a gash,” he said.
He explained that when it comes to SPSF, “countries are lining up to participate, including China, India, Iran and even Germany and Switzerland. Little known is that China has its own payment system, the Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System (CIPS). Now that the West’s SWIFT has cut off Russia and China knows it could be next, there are plans to integrate these two anti-SWIFTs,” he predicted.
Among those that could join such a Russian-Chinese financial “coalition” are the BRICS nations, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and oil giant Saudi Arabia, the lattermost of which he said was “probably the most disconcerting for Western empire.”
Brown said that “Westerners underestimate Russia’s historical and broad technical prowess. While there is some overlap with China (nuclear, military and aerospace), they have much to offer each other to cooperate in high-tech industries. Why not a combined ‘Manhattan Project’ for microchips, a big problem for both countries? The opportunities are endless.”
The expert also noted that China has benefited “plenty” from Western sanctions against Russia, pointing out that China has been “a win-win partner” for countries around the globe by helping them address trade imbalances in the energy, agricultural, and tech sectors.
“After what the USA and its vassals have done to both Russia and China, in terms of onerous, hegemonic sanctions in the recent years, China and Russia are benefitting tremendously with all their initiatives to enhance bilateral, Asian and African trade,” Brown said. “Over time, sanctions have never worked, especially against two big, powerful and rich countries.”
“All of these Western imperial sanctions are already a huge catalyst for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to seek synergies, as well as China’s SCO and Russia’s Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). ASEAN is tired of US subterfuge, BRICS is expanding and Latin America’s anti-colonial CELAC all have much to offer for continuing multipolar, mutually beneficial integration,” he added.
Buffalo Chicken Pie
Love Buffalo wings? Pack a punch of Buffalo flavor in an easy-to-make chicken pie.
Prep Time: 15 min | Total Time: 45 min | Yield: 6 servings
2023 03 19 17 15
Ingredients
2 cups cooked chicken strips*
1/2 cup Buffalo wing sauce
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled blue cheese
1 cup (about 2 1/2 stalks) chopped celery
1 cup Original Bisquick® mix
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2/3 cup blue cheese dressing
* Use refrigerated cooked chicken strips (from two 6 ounce packages) or any cooked chicken for this recipe.
Instructions
Heat oven to 400 degrees F. In large bowl, toss chicken and Buffalo wing sauce until well coated.
Stir in cheeses and celery.
Pour into ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate.
In medium bowl, mix Bisquick mix, cornmeal, milk and egg. Pour over chicken mixture; spread to cover.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown.
Cut into wedges; drizzle with blue cheese dressing.
I Went To The Most Republican County In America
What’s the most embarrassing thing your father caught you doing?
When I was 14 or 15, my dad found a playboy magazine under my bed. I was summoned, and he yelled at me for 15 minutes. I couldn’t tell you a word he was saying because he was that mad, that loud, and I was simply terrified. You have to understand that my father was hard-core Christian and did NOT brook with any such thing as pornography. He spent a long time in that tirade talking about the evils of porn.
At the end of the tirade, he finally demanded, “WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU EVEN GET SUCH A THING!?”
I was way to terrified to lie, so I told him the truth, “Under *your* bed.”
At which point he turned beet red, stood there for several seconds, and then walked out of my room and never said another word about it.
After that he started hiding the Playboys in his closet.
US considering barring Chinese airlines using Russian airspace
The arrogance! I suppose that will stop Xi Peng’s visit to Moscow, eh?
The Transportation Department of the United States of America is considering imposing a ban on Chinese airlines which use of Russian airspace. On Friday, three officials from the Biden administration told The New York Times that the US is eying to impose a ban on Chinese airlines and other competitors who are using Russian airspace to fly passengers to the United States. The decision came in the midst of the raging Russia-Ukraine war. After the war broke out in February last year, several allies of the Ukrainian bloc decided to stop using Russian airspace in fear for the safety of the passengers. Meanwhile, China and the US have strained relationships over wide-ranging issues.
Last Monday, a proposal was submitted to the national security team about pushing an order obliging China to follow the same restrictions followed by US airlines and others. After the catastrophic war broke out, countries like the United States, the UK, Canada, etc not only decided to fly over Russian airspace, but they also banned Russian aircraft from flying over their airspace. However, many countries are still using Russian airspace for convenient travel. According to The New York Times, these restrictions have impacted the business of American airlines to a great extent. “Foreign airlines using Russian airspace on flights to and from the U.S. are gaining a significant competitive advantage over U.S. carriers in major markets, including China and India,” a US official asserted last month. “This situation is direct to the benefit of foreign airlines and at the expense of the United States as a whole, with fewer connections to key markets, fewer high-paying airline jobs, and a dent in the overall economy,” they added.
The Monkees – Daydream Believer (Official Music Video)
What are the lessons people most often learn too late in life?
Steve Jobs, Jobs’s last words.
He died a billionaire at 56 years old from pancreatic cancer, and here are his last words on a sick bed:
′′I reached the peak of success in the business world. My life is the epitome of success in the opinion of others.But, I have nothing to be happy about except work. In the end, wealth is just a reality of life that I am used to.It was then, lying on a sick bed reminiscing my whole life, I realized all the recognition and the wealth that I was very proud of, became pale and meaningless in the face of the impending death.You can hire someone to drive for you and make money for you, but you can't make someone else take the illness from you. Lost substance can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when lost -”life".When a person enters the operating room, he will find that there is a book that has not yet been read - ′′ The Healthy Living Book ". No matter what stage of life we are in right now, over time we will face the day when the curtain falls.Cherish the family that loves you, love your spouse, love your friends... be kind to yourself.As we age, we gradually realize that wearing a $300 or $30 watch - they tell the same time.Whether we carry $300 or $30 purse / handbag - the money inside is the same.Whether we drive a $150k car or a $30,000 car, the road and distance are the same and we reach the same destination.Whether we drink a $300 bottle or a $10 bottle of wine - hangover is the same.The house we live in 300 sq ft or 3000 sq ft - loneliness is the same.You will realize that your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world.Whether you take a plane on first or on economy class, if the plane collapses - you'll go with the flow.Therefore, I hope you can recognize that when you have a partner, buddy, old friend, sibling, you talk, laugh, talk, sing, talk about North East Southwest or Heaven and Earth... that is true happiness!!”
Four undeniable facts of life:
1. Don’t educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy. Therefore, when they grow up, they will know the value of things, not the price.
2. words for the best reward in London……”Take your food as your medicine. Otherwise you have to take medication as your food.”
3. The person who loves you will never leave you to someone else because even if there are 100 reasons to give up on him or her, they will find a reason to hold on. There are huge differences between people.
4. Only a few really understand it. You were loved when you were born. You will be loved when you die. In between, you have to manage!
Note: If you want to go fast, go alone! But if you want to go far, go together!
“wisdom doesn’t automatically come with old age. Nothing does, except wrinkles. It’s true some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place”
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning is young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young”
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed” -Mahatma Gandhi
“Poor are those who need too much, because those who need too much are never satisfied” -Jose Mujica, Former President of Uruguay
“If you really think the environment is less important than economy, try holding your breath while you count your money” -Dr. Guy McPherson, an environmental, health and industry activist.
There are 4 types of wealth:
1. financial wealth (money)
2. social wealth (status)
3. time wealth (freedom)
4. physical wealth (health)
be wary of job that lure you in with 1 and 2 but robs you with 3 and 4.
Six top doctors in the world
1. Sunshine
2. Rest
3. Exercise
4. Healthy diet
5. Confidence
6. Friends
Veruca Salt – Seether
We are headed into Collapse. Been this way for over 3,000 years.
We do not learn from history because our studies are brief and prejudiced.
In a surprising manner, 250 years emerges as the average length of national greatness. This average has not varied for 3,000 years.
The stages of the rise and fall of great nations seem to be:
The Age of Pioneers ,
The Age of Conquests ,
The Age of Commerce ,
The Age of Affluence ,
The Age of Intellect ,
The Age of Decadence.
Decadence is marked by:
Defensiveness,
Pessimism,
Materialism,
Frivolity
An influx of foreigners
The Welfare State
A weakening of religion.
Decadence is due to:
Too long a period of wealth and power,
Selfishness,
Love of money ,
The loss of a sense of duty.
"The life histories of great states are amazingly similar, and are due to internal factors. Their falls are diverse, because they are largely the result of external causes."
- Sir John Glubb The Fate of Empires
We are at the end of the Age of Decadence, heading into COLLAPSE.
Frankly, we’re ahead of schedule.
Kansas – Carry on Wayward Son (Official Video)
People Who Compete For The Title Of The Worst Boss Ever
We all look for a real leader in our boss. The one who can have our backs, who motivates and inspires. It’s a person you can thoroughly trust, learn from, and grow together with professionally.
The truth is, in reality, exactly the opposite can happen. Our managers, bosses and supervisors can downright make our life a living hell. And having in mind that we spend 40 hours a week and 2,080 working hours a year with them, this is a huge lump of our life to spend in misery.
Journey – Any Way You Want It (Official Video – 1980)
Why would the US ever even consider getting into an armed conflict over Taiwan knowing the potential implications and how deadly serious they are?
Here, we will discuss the REAL and actual reason. If you want to read about what others think, there’s around nine other pontifications on this question.
Around the late 1990’s, it was becoming increasingly obvious to the United States “leadership” that the original plan to “tame China” and make it into a proxy nation was not going so well. China was growing too fast. It remained incorrigible. And injected operatives were having a difficult time impressing “American thoughts, ideas and values” on the Chinese people.
After the failed color revolution (NED sponsored event known in the West as the TianAnMen massacre”), the United States turned to RAND to come up with policy projections. They saw the “crystal ball” and read an uncomfortable future.
The RAND studies can be broken down into groupings of policy.
Taiwan seizure
First Island Chain basing
Second island chain basing
Recapture of HK
Recapture of TIbet
Destabilization of Xinjiang along the Afghanistan model
Farming destruction and famine
Psyops
Bioweapon suppression Events
Blockade
Sanctions city
AUKUS
India (Southern flank attack)
As you can see, the plans constructed by RAND were detailed and substantive. They also came (early on, mind you) to the conclusion that a direct conflict with China was very dangerous. Thus, their plans has been, and still are, to weaken China in many ways, and then break it up into parts for greater American control.
Now, there has been a lot of things that has happened in the last 25 years regarding China. But like it, agree with it or not, one thing is very clear. China has dealt with each and every RAND operational plan adroitly. Most of the implementation policies have been interrupted, and in many cases stopped completely. Making China stronger, and now, quite a formidable power.
For purposes of this discussion, let’s look at the individual efforts, and what happened.
Taiwan seizure
In process. In 2014, American backed separatists took control of the DPP, and took control of Taiwan’s government. They outlawed opposition parties, held purging efforts, and followed the Ukraine model. As it stands today, the major opposition party the KMT has a large enough block to counter balance the current DPP regime, and the United States is fearful of a complete take over, so they are accelerating the timetable for full seizure of Taiwan and turning it into a proxy nation. An “aircraft carrier” from which to launch the invasion of China like what happened in the 1930’s with japan.
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First Island Chain basing
Failed. China has complete and utter control of the waters in and around the “first island chain”. This control is complex and very detailed, but an ONI review presented to President Trump in early 2017 was so convincing that war-mongers John Bolton and Mike Pompeo reluctantly advised a tactical retreat to “second island chain” basing policy.
Second island chain basing
In process. The plan is still to maintain American basing on the “second island chain”. However, ONI has advised that China has an “incredible” force of “near invisible” “attributes” that would be severely problematic when a war occurs. I am unaware of what these advisements refer to. As it stands, the USN believes that it can effectively suppress them with little effort.
Recapture of HK
Failed. The NED “color revolution”, known as the “pro-democracy movement” in HK during the 2018–2019 riots was effectively and absolutely suppressed. Making HK stronger, and closer to China than ever before.
Recapture of TIbet
Failed. Another NED (attempted) “color revolution”. Failed abruptly and suddenly, and the mop up operation was quick. No Western coverage.
Destabilization of Xinjiang along the Afghanistan model
Failed. Took more time than one would expect. The United States had been arming and radicalizing the local Uighur Muslims for decades. China had to clamp down, make substantive changes in the region and wiped out the NED pockets of control.
Farming destruction and famine
Failed. From 2016 through 2019, there were eight bio-weapons targeting livestock. And over thirty different kinds of (in some cases genetically modified) pests that devastate crops. Because pig farms were so widely scattered, swine flu needed to be sprayed from drones. This effort caused an increase in food prices, and a spike in access, but that all recovered. In addition, the Chinese confederates to the CIA turned sides in 2020 and provided a wealth of information to the PLA.
Psyops
Failed. Psyops promoting American-style “democracy” and a hatred of Communism pretty much collapsed. The antics of the Trump administration erased any gains in whatever pockets that the effort had attained.
Bioweapon suppression Events
Failed. There were three bio-weapons unleashed on China. The first was the “B” strain of Covid during 2020 CNY. The second was the “death by vomiting” Tick virus in July 2020, and the third was the nasty “death by diarrhea” virus unleashed in August 2020. Chinese anti-viral measures caught all attempts, secured the infected individuals and suppressed the assaults.
Blockade
Reduced threat. The RAND studies were written at a time when the primary bulk of trade (conducted by China) was sea route reliant. Since then, the BRI land route through XinJiang opened up and now, a sizable percentage of trade goes by overland routes to Asia, Europe, and Africa. The sea lanes are still susceptible to blockade, but the primary nations affected by this kind of blockade are the United States, UK, and Britain.
Sanctions
Neutered. China has effectively been partnering up with a vast majority of nations to use other currencies instead of the USD. In addition, it has been selling off it’s treasury holdings. In addition, China has developed a tit4tat reverse-sanctions policy that would cause great damage to any nation trying to sanction China.
AUKUS
In process. Both Japan and Australia with some participation with the Philippines, are gearing up to become the next “Ukraine” battle zones. The United States is sending weapons, training, and American military leadership to fortify these areas so that they can “hold out” and wage a war of attrition against China. Media control in these nations are readying the population to acceptance of dying for the “American way of life”.
India (Southern flank attack)
Battleground. India is torn between the East and the West. There are elements that hate China. Elements that love Russia. Elements that want American statehood, and everything in between. India is playing the “neutral card” as best that it can. And American assets are working behind the scenes to push India to obey American policy dictates.
And so…
This is the situation. So to answer this question if “America would ever…”. Do not be naive. The Untied States is actively engaging China. It’s not going as well as the “leadership” hopes, but it could be worse. I do not have a crystal ball as to what will happen. But I can make predictions.
No matter what happens, the United States will continue falling into a dark pit of decay. The only question, at this point of time, is how many other nations will it drag down with it?
Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Pie
ec9922929a2e3c490838c797afed779c
Ingredients
12 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Chopped onion to taste
4 eggs
1 cup Bisquick
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Butter a 9-inch pie pan.
Layer bacon crumbs on bottom and cheese on top.
Beat remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour over top.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes.
Garnish with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and bacon.
Why do transgenders say they’re being persecuted when in reality they’re given more rights than most people?
I am sure there are places where transgenders are actively being persecuted, but over here in China this is 100% not the case.
Trans people are also not given more rights than normal people. Here we go by meritocracy, where you are judged only on prior and current performance. If you are smart, you will do well, if you are moral, you will do well, if you love our country, you will do well. But if you are a narcissist and or a corrupt and or a China hater, you will not do well here.
This is how we normally think in China. I don’t know why the American ‘transgender activists’ are so obsessed about this trans stuff.
We consider the US obsession with these cluster B personality disorders and the trans activists’ war on society to be a joke in and of itself, and we will soundly reject any of these unscientific rubbish from ever coming to our country.
I really hate that people think that this shit is so called communist, because we are actual communists over here and we will never let this shit fly in our country.
I am grateful my country bans Facebook and Twitter, if this is the shit they peddle every single day.
Trans trans trans trans trans… like wtf? Actual trans people are like 0.1% of the population and just want to live their own lives in peace without being bothered by these stupid activists.
I have a feeling most trans activists are not even transgender people, but rather just dick riders, trans chasers, and woke girls seeking not to get excommunicated from their cliques. Of course there are transgender people who are also trans activists, no shit there, but most of the people I see who dare not define what a woman is on the Western internet are stupid woke girls age 15–25 that are not even transgender.
You guys are trying to destroy your own society. I’m Chinese and we have learned the lessons of Cultural Revolution. It’s crazy how I am seeing shit similar to Cultural Revolution (and fascism from both the Democrat and Republican Party) unfold in the US at the same time.
I think it goes to show that once a trend is created, the people who are too scared to have any moral principle and integrity of their own, these people with no backbone are going to do the worst damage to society. The real billionaires funding this trans movement are just going to sit back and laugh.
And they will hop on the next trend, because they don’t actually care for trans people and they will do the next trendy thing.
At the core this trans activism issue can only be solved by solving the underlying issues of why men are treating women wrong, and why girls and women are going to stupid trend groups instead of following legitimate groups who want to be intellectual and cool at the same time.
Meanwhile, we continue to advance, and judge people by their merits.
Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer 2012 Live Video FULL HD
Chinese Elections
Herewith is an overview of the newly appointed or confirmed politicians by the National People’s Congress on 10.03.2023
2023 03 20 11 53
These are the 7 members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party China:
2023 03 20 11 54
Van Halen – Panama (Official Music Video)
How does China build so many massive infrastructures so quickly without any bureaucratic hurdles? What is special about China’s bureaucracy?
The Reasons?
Here are some reasons
(a) Eminent Domain – This is one of the main reasons. When a Committee in China decides to build something – it takes over all the surrounding land without one seconds hesitation no matter how many residents live there or what else exists (Unless it is environmental). Its called Eminent Domain.
You will have some officials visit you and tell you to vacate your flat within 90 – 180 days (Depending) and that you will be paid market value of your flat times 1.4 – 3.1 depending on Area (Upto 2018) and if you dont vacate – the demolishing begins on the 91st and 181st day.
On the 84th or 85th day – you get the amount deposited into your account and you are asked to leave as planned by the 91st or 181st day.
Even if you dispute this amount (You believe you should be paid more) you can go to a special court to ask for higher value but you have to leave your flat.
If you dont – the authorities will either arrest you or demolish the building with you in it after 24 hours of manual checks.
As a result – China gets a Clear area of even upto 10 Hectares in 6 – 7 months flat.
No Stay Orders, No PILS, No Opposition Dharnas, No Residents Protests – nothing. Sheer and Brutal Efficiency.
Who can resist Eminent Domain? If you registered your land prior to 1.1.1972 then you can avoid Eminent Domain but then your rights are revoked. You can no longer claim insurance for damage to your property or even file for civil or criminal claims. (Say a Car runs off this round ring road and crashed on to this building and 7 people die – their bodies will be treated as Dog bodies and tossed out without any Civil or Criminal charges against the Driver or the Authorities or Insurance agencies)
(b) 99 / 999 Year Lease – Thats for Freehold Land. Most of the land in Village areas are Leased Land where you lease land with the Govt for 99 / 999 years. This means the Govt can simply take back their land and offer you another land.
One fine day – the Party rep comes and tells you – all your leases have changed. You will be given similar quality land in another part of the province (The Law is within 50 Kilometers radius) and you are to leave in 90/180 days. Thats all. You may have spent 20 years but sorry. You will be given a compensation for moving and a compensation for building a house.
To be fair you dont get shafted – you get similar land and same size and you will get houses built by the Public Housing Authority at standard rates with good efficiency.
And when they come to clear the Village – you have 10 – 20 Buses and you board with luggage for your new life.
No Protests, No PILs, No Stay Orders, Just Sheer Brutal Efficiency.
In 7 months you have the land you need for a Major infrastructure project.
This Village was cleared for a Dam Project in a mere 42 Days. The residents were built a new Village around 38 Miles away with better houses.
(c) Engineering Quality and The Construction Blitzkrieg
Have you heard of a Blitzkrieg? Where Germany would march at 10 times the normal speed and take over territories in days.
The Blitzkrieg was originally developed in South Korea but China is now a master having stolen the art from the Singaporeans beautifully.
It is like a full force. Geotechnical Engineers studying the soil and designing the foundation, Structural Engineers, Construction Engineers, Professional Engineers (Handling the Management), Consultants from Britain or Canada or Israel and a huge number of Cranes of various sizes equipped to handle weights of even 25 -50 Tonnes.
Quality testing on site through a dedicated team.
High Quality Steel or RC, High Quality Skilled Workers, First rate scaffolding – It looks like an Army at work.
(d) Finest Materials – Roads are Graded G4 Rubber Asphalt Composite. Only Japan, Malaysia and South Korea and Singapore use them in Asia. Our own Bharat uses the far more inferior Fractional Distillaton Grade Refined Asphant (FDGR Asphalt) for Highways and Crude Tarring Stone for Local roads that cannot survive the next two rains
Excellent Steel with Ore imported from all over the world to make up for a shortfall, Impinging Technique being revolutionary in the world (Right now better than any other nation)
(e) Finest Engineers – Deng sent students in the 1970s and 1980s to Universities all over the world in Canada, UK, Singapore, Europe, USA – and they learnt everything they had to learn – worked for 10 – 15 years for European companies and returned to China and began to lay the foundations for the best Engineering Design in the world.
By 2005- Chinese Engineers were among the best. Only Israelis and Canadians could be said to be better in Construction and Civil Engineering.
It is to be noted that Chinese engineers who attended prestigious Soviet Institutions also contributed massively to the country.
(f) Power Decisions
There is a Crystal Clear structure of Power. Every 5 years each Region has a 5/9/14 member Reorganization Committee or Infrastructure Committee constituted by the CCP responsible for reconstruction and awarding licenses. Licensing is transparent and bidding is done by Hidden Tender Method (Name and Details are wiped out).
This Committee cannot be impeded by a Court Order which they can tear up in 10 seconds, by the local leadership whose interference they can stop in 10 minutes or by the local police law authority whose interference they can stop in 10 seconds.
Imagine such a power committee in India. The Local MLA can be booted out or even arrested for interference. The Minority leaders can be arrested or beaten to pulp for interference or even shot. The Judges will be told to get lost. The MPS will be kicked on their rump for interfering
The Result – Sheer Brutal but Brilliant Efficiency.
But the constant whining says “Democracy…..Freedom…..Peoples Rights…..”
People get compensated at least 5 times faster than countries like India
People get re-allocated at least 5 times faster than countries like India
An Engineer who screws up is held responsible and accountable and the Committee assumes responsibility unlike India where the Poor engineer is alone whereas the Corrupt MP or MLA or Politicians or Officials are left well alone.
100% of machinery is locally made and readily available unlike India where at least 43% is imported and 19% is made exclusively by foreign technology.
Mr.Kitty • After Dark || Jennifer Connelly • Career Opportunities
Reject modernity. Embrace Jennifer Connely.
What is it like to be discreetly wealthy?
It’s painful.
I used to work at Mercedes Benz when I was young – and one day the CEO/Owner calls me to his office and ask me to teach his son computers & software ( after work hours , for extra money of course ).
His son was only a few years younger than me and eventually we became friends.
After his college he started working at his father’s company.
Now, this is a silver spoon guy that was born into a very wealthy family…yet, his father wanted him to work everywhere in the company, so he gets familiar with all parts of the company and eventually utilizes this information to improve things.
First year he was sent to work in the warehouse… worse place to work in by far; very hard physical labor – dirty & noisy – and just very tough people to work with too… he was not used to it.
Now, those were different times … where warehouses were not yet automated – it was not Amazon… so it was not a nice place to work at, and was regarded hard work even for a regular Joe.
None of the employees knew who he was – they did not know he will own that company in just a few years, and they did not know how wealthy he was.
I talked to him a lot in those days – he was suffering, no doubt.
He could not stop complaining to me…every single day.
He hated the uniforms he had to wear, the food in their cafeteria… he hated people screaming at him, he hated the “smell” there… he just hated everything.
He kept saying – “I didn’t know people like this exist… why do we hire them?”, as he never really met “poor people” before (that’s what he called them though those were not really poor people but hard working people with jobs…).
He always talked about wanting to go back home… leaving… he missed his home constantly… terribly , and he was not even allowed to use his new car, so other employees don’t treat him differently.
But that’s what his father wanted… and though he did not understand why – he respected his father. He feared him.
About a year later he was moved from there to upper management – not before 3 guys from warehouse were fired… coincidence ? I think not.
Taiwan
2023 03 24 11 56
Poison – Nothin’ But A Good Time
The ‘Junior Partner’ Meme Gives No Insight To Real Changes
It is quite interesting how ‘western’ political memes are created and spread.
Fatalism is not an option for addressing China-Russia relations – Mar 17, 2023 – Brookings
> China’s leaders appear guided by three top objectives in their approach to Russia. The first is to lock Russia in for the long term as China’s junior partner. <
White House knocks Russia as China’s ‘junior partner’ – Mar 21, 2023 – Washington Post
> Is Russia now a client state of China, a reporter asked National Security Council spokesman John Kirby at the daily White House briefing. “They certainly are the junior partner,” Kirby replied, a line sure to echo inside the Kremlin and at Chinese Communist Party headquarters. <
From an older piece in Foreign Affairs to an MSNBC opinion writer, then through warmonger Bolton and the librul Brookings think tank to the White House.
And from there it is all over the synchronized media:
Blinken dismisses Xi-Putin ties as ‘marriage of convenience’ – Mar 23, 2023 – AlJazeerah Blinken said Russia is “very much the junior partner” in the relationship and noted that China had so far declined to provide weapons to Moscow for its war in Ukraine.
> But what Xi’s visit mostly underscored, experts say, is how imbalanced the China-Russia relationship is becoming.
“It certainly shows Russia needing Beijing far more than the other way around,” said Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, who specializes in Chinese foreign policy. <
But is this really true? Is there really a ‘junior partner’ in the Russian Chinese relations? Does Russia really need China more than China needs Russia?
Well, who of two, Russia and China, has all the stuff that is needed for a modern life?
I mean energy, minerals, commodities, foodstuff plus the abilities to retrieve and process all of them into useful products. It is obvious that Russia has all this stuff right within its borders. China, on the other side, is mostly importing these things through rather fragile sea routes. China has a naval problem that can only be solved with Russian weapons. So who is really in need of whom?
China has obviously more people than Russia. But for all the Chinese riches these are still less well off than the people in Russia.
On purchase power parity base (PPP) Russia’s GDP per capita in 2022 was $31,962 while China’s was $21,291. When the Russian GDP per capita is 50% higher than the Chinese one can it really be a ‘junior partner’ in this?
I don’t think so. I believe that Russia and China see themselves as equals. That is certainly true for the relation between President Putin and President Xi. Two equals who together do great things:
As he left a state reception at the Kremlin on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping turned to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and said the world was undergoing changes “the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years.”“And we are the ones driving these changes together,” he said.
“I agree,” Putin replied, shaking hands with the Chinese leader in an exchange that was captured on camera.
A hundred years ago the world had just seen off a big war. Four big empires, the Russian, German, Austria-Hungarian and the Ottoman had suddenly vanished. The U.S. had stepped onto the international scene. In China the Kuomintang and the Communists founded the United Front to beat the rampant warlords the imperialists had created. (Russia helped with that.)
Those were indeed times of great changes. We now see similar changes in this word. The U.S. empire and its proxies are in decline. The BRICS countries, led by Russia and China and rising, now have a bigger GDP(PPP) than the G7.
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Times have changed. The arrogance of the ‘west’ has ruined its own position in the world. A multitude of other powers have established themselves and are taking over. Russia and China together will see to that.
Can the ‘west’ do something about this. I could. If it became humble and truly aware of its own position and of those of the rest of the world. But I for now see no way that it is going to happen. Certainly not anytime soon. Certainly not as long as its political discussions are made up from unfounded memes.
Posted by b on March 23, 2023 at 16:18 UTC | Permalink
Beautiful honey, lime, and cilantro flavors come together is this tasty salmon rice bowl. Slightly sweet cilantro lime rice topped with juicy salmon roasted in honey, lime, cilantro glaze and fresh cilantro avocado.
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Avocado Salmon Rice Bowl
Have you ever taken a bite of something delicious and just melted into the chair?
Well, that is exactly how this Avocado Salmon Rice Bowl is going to make you feel! This sweet and citrusy flavor experience is a treat for your taste buds. Honey, lime, and cilantro flavors are carried throughout the whole dish and works beautifully with salmon, avocado and rice.
I’m such a sucker for seafood, especially when it comes to salmon and shrimp…and scallops, and calamari, and crab. Okay, there is really not much seafood that I don’t like. The only thing I have not tried and loved yet is the raw oysters. I just can’t get passes the texture there, no way. Taking the raw oysters aside, all seafood is wonderful, and especially salmon. That’s my favorite fish and I would eat if every day if I could.
2023 03 19 17 18
Aside from being delicious, the second best thing about salmon is how fast and easy it is to prepare. It takes a couple of minutes to come up with the glaze or a seasoning for the salmon and into the oven it goes. After 12-15 minutes in the oven, you have a juicy, delicious piece of salmon.
Did you know that salmon is really good for you too? It is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein. It’s also a great source of vitamin B12 and vitamin D. Many people actually have a deficiency of Vitamins B12 and D, myself included, so salmon is a great thing to be added to the menu as often as possible.
Top if off with some fresh avocado topping and you have a delicious, and really healthy dinner.
Cook rice in salted water per package instructions. Take off heat when it’s just done.
Preheat a medium cooking pan over medium-high heat. Mix stock, lime juice, honey, and cilantro together. Pour the mixture into the preheated pan and let it simmer for about a minute. Take the pan off heat and mix rice into the liquid. Season with a little bit more salt, mix well, and set aside.
Salmon:
Preheat oven to 425 and cover a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and grease it.
Rub the salmon skin with some oil and place the fillets skin down on the prepared baking sheet.
Mix lime juice, honey, and cilantro together and rub salmon fillets with it on all exposed sides. You can pour more glaze over the top and season with some salt. (Some glaze will likely run down onto the baking sheet, it will most likely get quite scorched in the oven. Don’t be scared it’s not your salmon burning, it’s the glaze that ran down.)
Bake salmon for 12-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your salmon fillets.
Avocado:
Cut avocado in half, take out the pit, and take off the skin. Chop avocado and add it to a small bowl. Add lime juice, cilantro, chili powder, and salt. Gently mix.
To assemble the rice bowls: divide rice among two bowls, top it off with a salmon fillet, and top each bowl with half the avocado mixture.
This recipe can be found HERE along with other great and delicious things.
14 Red Flags To Look Out For When It Comes To Dating
I made a general list of red flags in women. Every situation is different. Not every red flag necessarily means the relationship is doomed, sometimes you need to just work around it. This isn’t an all inclusive list, and can usually work for both genders, but I was requested to make one specifically for women.
1. If she isn’t responding/engaging in conversation – She’s most likely not interested, and if she is, is it really worth it? If a girl wants to talk to you, she WILL. Nobody waits days to answer someone they’re genuinely interested in.
2. If she’s obsessed with you – This might seem great at first, but can turn south quick. Codependency is not healthy, and can create a foundation for control, manipulation, and abuse later on. It’s better to have a life outside of your relationship, rather than let your life revolve around it.
3. Always expects you to pay/bad with money – This might not be an issue right away, but can come back to bite you in the ass in the long run. How can you build a future if your partner can’t stop spending? How do you feel about being the breadwinner? Why should it be your responsibility to pay for everything?
4. My exes are psycho – This one take with a grain of salt, because sometimes people legitimately just have bad luck dating and reading people. But in a lot of situations there’s one common denominator and a reason their relationships ended badly. So stay on your toes.
5. She slaps/hits you if she’s upset – Physical violence is NEVER okay in a relationship, man or woman. If your date/SO hurts you in some way, run. If they do it once, it’s likely it will happen again, and could be much worse. Not to be confused with play fighting or BDSM in the bedroom, which if consented to by both parties, is okay.
6. She makes her mental health your problem – A lot of people legitimately have mental health issues, but it is not okay to make them someone else’s responsibility. You shouldn’t have to tiptoe around them all of the time. If they can’t handle their emotions on a day to day basis, they have no business being in a relationship. If they ever ever ever say “if you leave me, I’ll kill myself”, run like the wind. Contact police, family, whoever you need to, to get them the help they need. But that’s the end of your responsibility. That is nothing but an abuse/control tactic and is never okay.
7. Showers you with gifts and affection, but uses it against you – This one is tricky. Have you ever heard of “love-bombing”? Basically, someone will shower you with affection, but use it against you later. “I did XYZ for you, and you can’t appreciate it?” You didn’t ask for it, you don’t owe them anything. It’s manipulation.
8. Makes fun of you for humor – She’ll joke about your flaws or make rude comments, but say “babe it was just a joke”. There’s always some truth behind every one, and a lot of people will use humor as an excuse to make fun of you/complain about you. If it hurts your feelings, it was probably meant to even though she said it wasn’t. Don’t encourage those mind games. If it’s a one off situation it might be an honest mistake, but if it’s reoccurring, run.
9. She’s always picking a fight – As much as people like to say “relationships are work”, they shouldn’t be like this. Relationships really should be a source of stress relief. If everything you do is a problem to her, you need to find someone where it isn’t. You shouldn’t have to fight for a relationship, it should come naturally.
10. She doesn’t say what she means – This is a big issue I hear talked about a lot. “Women never say what they mean”. That just means she has poor communication skills and expects you to just read her mind. Nobody is a mind reader, and relationships don’t work without communication. I promise you that the women out there who are worth it, will tell you exactly what they want. How are you supposed to know unless she tells you? That’s not fair to you.
11. She plays the poor me act – Some people are truly down on their luck. But for some they use it as a tool to manipulate you. They just need some help back on their feet, but never seem to actually get back on their feet. They’re usually just using you as a meal ticket.
12. She only talks about her ex – Sometimes this is unavoidable if they’ve spent years of their life with an ex. However, this is often a sign they are not over them or might be comparing you to them. You shouldn’t have to compete for your partner.
13. She isn’t consistent – If some days she’s super interested, and other days she’s not. She might be working, might have other commitments, but watch for patterns. If she’s hot and cold all of the time, you might not be the only one on her radar. If she does have other commitments, are you okay with working around those?
14. She has cheated, or indicates she’s cheated in the past – If your partner has cheated, there’s a very good chance they may do it again. A lot of cheaters just become sneakier once caught, and will tell you whatever you want to hear to not lose you. You can never erase that memory from the relationship. If she’s cheated in the past, what were the circumstances? Use your best judgement, people do grow and change, but some never will. If she cheated on someone with you, use caution.
You might be thinking, well how do I find a woman that doesn’t have any of these red flags? If it were easy, everyone would be in great relationships. But it’s not. Sometimes you need to sift through hundreds of women before you find her. It is not worth dating someone who doesn’t give you the love and affection you deserve. Again, this list does not include all red flags, but just some major ones I see come up a lot.
I can’t link anything here, but look of different types of emotional abuse tactics. Read them, get familiar with them, and save yourself some hurt in the future.
Remember, you never are obligated to stay in a relationship. Their life is NOT your responsibility. Take care of yourself first. And communicate, communicate, communicate.
Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ (Live 1981: Escape Tour – 2022 HD Remaster)
Make no mistake. The Ukraine war is United States driven.
American “news”…
Silly stuff
2023 03 23 11 11
Really silly.
China “acting” like a Global Power. Say what?
Chinese credit system
The social credit system in China is premised on an assumption that everyone starts equally … at zero.
From then on, it is the decisions that they make that increase or decrease their social credit scores, and consequences follow in the form of rewards, incentives, disincentives or punishments.
The system exists in China in the way it does because it presumes everyone from the President down has an equal interest in the social, financial and economic stability and security it aims to provide.
It has nothing to do with whatever physical attributes they are born with, and physical attributes are not a good criterion on which to base economic, social or legal equality, or access to goods and services whether public or private.
You’d deny a child the right to an education because that child is smaller than other children of the same age?
Equal opportunity is premised on the notion that people should have equal legal access to resources.
Access is not incumbent on their physical appearance or attributes (or lack of particular attributes) or on past social, economic or legal background or decision-making, depending on the context.
Hoobastank – The Reason (Official Music Video)
BULLETIN: UK To Send Depleted Uranium Ammunition to Ukraine
United Kingdom Deputy Minister of Defense Annabelle Goldie publicly stated today that the UK will supply Ukraine with Depleted Uranium (DU) Ammunition for some of the weapons systems supplied by NATO. Russia has previously warned the use of Depleted Uranium will be considered an attack by a “Dirty Nuke” and will result in a nuclear response.
Annabel MacNicoll Goldie, Baroness Goldie DL (born 27 February 1950) is a Scottish politician and life peer who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2005 to 2011 and has served as Minister of State for Defence since 2019. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the West Scotland region, from 1999 to 2016.
DEPLETED URANIUM AMMUNITION
The use of DU in munitions is controversial because of long-term health effects. Normal functioning of the kidney, brain, liver, heart, and numerous other systems can be affected by exposure to uranium, a toxic metal. It is only weakly radioactive because of the long radioactive half-life of Uranium (4.468 × 109 or 4,468,000,000 years) and the low amounts of 234 U (half-life about 246,000 years) and 235 U (half-life 700 million years).
The biological half-life (the average time it takes for the human body to eliminate half the amount in the body) for uranium is about 15 days. The aerosol or spallation frangible powder produced by impact and combustion of depleted uranium munitions can potentially contaminate wide areas around the impact sites, leading to possible inhalation by human beings.
The actual level of acute and chronic toxicity of DU is also controversial. Several studies using cultured cells and laboratory rodents suggest the possibility of leukemogenic, genetic, reproductive, and neurological effects from chronic exposure. According to an article in Al Jazeera, DU from American artillery is suspected to be one of the major causes of an increase in the general mortality rate in Iraq since 1991.
A 2005 epidemiology review concluded: “In aggregate the human epidemiological evidence is consistent with increased risk of birth defects in offspring of persons exposed to DU.” A 2021 study concluded that DU from exploding munitions did not lead to Gulf War illness in American veterans deployed in the Gulf War. According to 2013 study, despite the use of DU by coalition forces in Fallujah, no DU has been found in soil samples taken from the city, although another study of 2011 had indicated elevated levels of uranium in tissues of the city inhabitants.
RUSSIA EXPLICITLY WARNED AGAINST THIS
On January 25, this web site reported that Konstantin Gavrilov, the head of the Russia Delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has just publicly thrown down the nuclear gauntlet to the collective west, in an official statement:
Gavrilov said that he has been instructed by his government to announce “We know that the Leopard-2 tank, as well as the Bradley and Marder infantry fighting vehicles, are armed with uranium-core armor-piercing projectiles, the use of which leads to [radioactive] contamination of the area, as happened in Yugoslavia and Iraq.
If such shells are delivered to Kyiv, we will consider this as the use of dirty nuclear bombs against Russia, with all the ensuing consequences.” (Original Story HERE)
UPDATE 12:58 PM EDT — URGENT —
Russian President Putin stated today that Russia will “Directly Respond” to the U.K. if they decide to send Depleted Uranium Rounds to Ukraine. (i.e. If The UK sends Uranium over here, we will send Uranium over there.)
During a Joint Press Conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Putin said “Russia will have to react accordingly, bearing in mind the collective west is already beginning use use weapons with a nuclear component.”
RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTER: THERE ARE FEWER AND FEWER STEPS LEFT TOWARDS A NUCLEAR COLLISION – TASS
UPDATE 2:10 PM EDT —
Russia and China issued a statement from Moscow: “There will be no winner if a nuclear war breaks out.”
.
Baked Spaghetti Pie
Spaghetti Pie 9
Ingredients
2 pounds spaghetti
2 pounds ricotta cheese
1/2 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
1 pound ground beef
1 pound spicy Italian sausage
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
1 pound Provolone cheese, sliced thin
1/2 cup Romano cheese, grated
Instructions
Heat oven to 475 degrees F.
In a large pan, boil spaghetti for 20 minutes; drain and set aside.
Mix ricotta, milk and eggs together in a small bowl; add to spaghetti and stir together.
Press into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan until compact and even.
Cook ground beef and sausage in a large skillet.
Drain fat, removing as much as possible.
Stir in spaghetti sauce. Spread evenly over spaghetti base in pan.
Layer slices of Provolone over meat mixture, then add the grated Romano on top of that.
In remarks prepared for the American Bankers Association, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the U.S. banking system is “sound” but more rescue arrangements “could be warranted” if new failures at smaller institutions pose a risk to financial stability. here’s the “rub” . . .
Yellen’s small bank comments were released under embargo at 7am. Treasury wanted them out before markets opened, as Yellen speech isn’t until 10am.
That tells everyone that Yellen and company still see the ongoing Banking “crisis” as dangerous, and they are deliberately trying to calm markets.
Trouble is, Jerome Powell over at the Federal Reserve has a meeting this week about raiding interest rates again. His choice is now stark:
2023 03 23 10 38
Tucker: Zelenskyy is demanding you send your kids to war
Send Graham to the front lines in Ukraine immediately.
I am 61 years old today. Wow! Seems so weird even writing that. I don’t perceive myself to be 61; it’s like . . . . how did this happen? Where did all the years go? And how the heck did they go so fast?????
It’s like . . . . it all lasts only . . . . 5 minutes.
Yet here I am.
My son came up here to the Pennsylvania house last night. Arrived a little after 8:00.
He’s going to his job from here and will return here tonight after work.
I got a new Behringer MDX-2600 Audio expander/gate/compressor/peak limiter as a Birthday present from him and my wife, to replace the one that I’ve used since setting this house up as a backup broadcast facility after my mom died in November 2021.
The audio gear that I’ve been using seems to have suffered a strange but now recurring audio failure, causing audio levels to randomly change. Weird.
My son will install the new gear after work tonight.
It a little frustrating to be getting up in my years. There’s physical changes that I don’t like . . . at all.
For certain, the heart attack I suffered in April 2019, which forced me to get open heart surgery and quadruple bypasses for clogged heart arteries, was a big deal. But it was small compared to the SECOND heart attack I suffered seventeen months later, in October, 2020 after two of the four cardiac bypasses clogged with blood clots.
That second heart attack was very much worse than the first, and it was during that incident that I went into heart failure on the cardiac catheterization lab operating table, and felt myself dying.
I have told this story a number of times; I had never experienced “dying” before, yet the feeling is so utterly distinct, you KNOW IT when it’s happening. It’s not painful, or scary . . . it just . . . happens.
Thankfully, the Doc was able to fit a stent under my clogged left circumflex artery opening and restore blood flow. That artery had been bypassed but its bypass was one of the ones’ which had clogged with blood clots. So if he wasn’t able to get a stent to move arterial plaque away from the opening and restore blood flow, I would have been dead.
Fast forward to about a month ago, I felt the same types of “twinges” in my chest that I had felt before my first heart attack. I told the Doc, he scheduled me to go in for another cardiac catheterization and when they were in there, they saw that the walls of my left anterior descending artery were wilting inward and restricting blood flow. So they did angioplasty to open the artery, but when they removed the inflatable balloon, the artery walls just wilted closed again. So Doc said he had to Stent that, too.
So here I am, now having had two heart attacks, open heart surgery, and now two stents. WOW!
The leg from which they took veins to use for my bypass surgery, swells-up from time to time. Docs said the blood had to find a new way to get back to my heart after they took the vein, but for some reason, the leg swelled a little for a long time after the open heart surgery.
Then, my right knee (same leg) and right hip started deteriorating. It felt like the connective tissue that hold my muscles and ligaments to my bones, was just falling apart. So the right knee swells a lot almost every day now, and it makes it very uncomfortable to walk – especially if I have to do stairs. The hip hurts when I lay down. I don’t need this shit.
I’ve also noticed lately, I seem to be getting a bit forgetful. I’m having trouble instantly recalling proper nouns. I know the word I want to say, I just stop mid sentence to have to recall it. Weird.
Yes, I take vitamins, Co-enzyme Q-10, and Straus Heart Drops. No, I didn’t take the COVID Vax . . . and I won’t. Those so-called “vaccines” are clearly dangerous and worse, they don’t work. No one is putting that shit in me.
So with all that, I’ve attained 61 years on this planet. Not too shabby, I guess.
My marriage has changed a lot. After 31 years, it’s not so good anymore. That’s why I’m up in PA while the Mrs. is in NJ. I needed time away to figure out how to proceed.
The wife and I talk several times a day, but it’s just not good anymore.
I’m too old to bother coloring my hair to get rid of the gray, hit the gym and go out to stud. Been there, done that. It’s all “wrote” for me. Besides, my son tells me that women today, are all “nuts.”
I’ll take his word for it. The last thing I need is to go out to play the field and find myself with a psycho-slut-from-hell. Too many of them around nowadays.
Anyway, I just focus on my work and my show. Pay what few bills I have, and am doing my best to get right with God and enjoy the time I have left.
Given the way things are falling apart in our world, that may be a lot less time than any of us think!
And so it goes, this fifteenth day of March, 2023.
Orange-Rosemary Butter Glazed Pork Tenderloins
Enjoy this lean and delicious premium cut of pork drizzled with a sweet and savory citrus flavored butter. With only a handful of ingredients, it’s an uncomplicated dish that’s quick and simple to prepare and full of aromatic flavor.
2023 03 19 17 12
Ingredients
Orange-Rosemary Butter
1/2 cup (1 stick) Challenge European Style Butter
2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
Orange-Rosemary Butter: In a small bowl, mix together the orange-rosemary butter ingredients. Use immediately or chill (bring to room temperature before using).
Tenderloins: Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
With a knife, make slits in tenderloins and alternately insert garlic and orange peel slivers.
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt 2 Tablespoons of the butter mixture and brown tenderloins evenly for 5-10 minutes.
Place tenderloins on rack in roasting pan. Spread a teaspoon of flavored butter over each tenderloin.
Add broth to skillet drippings and stir. Pour broth/drippings into the roasting pan and roast uncovered for 20 minutes.
Spread another teaspoon of flavored butter over each tenderloin and roast for an additional 15-20 minutes or until center of tenderloin registers 155 degrees F (use meat thermometer).
Transfer pork to serving platter and cover loosely with foil. Temperature of meat should increase to 160 degrees F while standing.
Pour liquid from roasting pan back into skillet and bring to a boil, cooking until reduced by half. Whisk remaining flavored butter into liquid and simmer about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Season with salt and pepper.
BREAKING NEWS — UBS is reportedly engaged in meetings right now, SEEKING TO TERMINATE ITS DEAL TO ACQUIRE CREDIT SUISSE!
If UBS Backs out, then Credit Swiss will fail, enter Bankruptcy, and that will mean a Bulge-Bracket-Bank (a.k.a. “too big to fail”) has gone under.
The effects on the Global Financial System are, right now, incalculable. A Credit Suisse Default would trigger Credit Default Swaps, and would put the bank in DEFAULT on all its Derivative Contracts.
This could be a “Black Swan Event” that sets in motion a Domino effect, taking out BIG banks all over the world.
More details on tonight’s Hal Turner Radio Show from 9:00-11:00 PM eastern US time (GMT -0400)
China banned the export of 24 techs to the US. The more USA needs it, the less China will sell it.
The Worst Deal Ever – Australia To Pay U.S. For Nuclear Insecurity
The the last week’s review I mentioned the AUKUS deal. It was first announced in September 2021. Back then I wrote:
Yesterday the U.S., the UK and Australia announced that the latter one will buy nuclear powered submarines to do the U.S.' bidding against China.
...
This is a huge but short term win for the U.S. with an also-ran booby price for Britain and a strategic loss of sovereignty and budget control for Australia.
It is another U.S. slap into the face of France and the European Union. The deal will piss off New Zealand, Indonesia and of course China. It will upset the international nuclear non proliferation regime and may lead to the further military nuclearization of South Korea and Japan.
Australia currently has six conventional submarines. It had ordered new ones from France but scrapped that deal for AUKUS:
The price for the new submarines Australia will have to pay will be much higher that for the French ones.
Some $3 billion have already been sunk into the French contract.
France will rightfully demand additional compensation for cancelling it.
The new contract with the U.S. or UK will cost more than the French one but will only include 8 instead of 12 boats. As three boats are needed to keep one at sea (while the other two are training or in refit), the actual patrolling capacity for Australia's navy will sink from 4 to 2-3 concurrent submarines at sea.
The much higher price of the fewer more complicate boats will upset Australia's defense budget for decades to come.
I further suggested that blackmail may have played a role in the AUKUS deal.
A few day’s after the announcement there were new details publish which suggested that Australia would lease nuclear submarines from the U.S. because the new ones will take many years to build. It would upgrade Perth harbor to be able to handle nuclear propulsion boats:
Perth will thereby be build up into a base that is compatible with the likely permanent stationing of U.S. nuclear submarines.
These carry nuclear weapons.
The 'leased' boats, or at least their propulsion parts, would of course be still manned by U.S. or British sailors.
The Australians already have problems retaining crews for their existing submarines. The few that will be available for the 'leased' boats will not be enough to run them. The Australians would pay largely for the privilege of being guests on board of doubtlessly U.S. commanded submarines.
Australia’s overall position did not look well:
Australia's extraction boom fueled by China's rise is coming to an end. The country will have to cut its budget and will need to seek a new economic model.
But why did I call this a "huge but short term win" for the U.S.?
It is a win in that the U.S. has gained a submarine base in Australia and will get paid for using it. This looks well if the intent is to wage a cold war on China. It is doubtful that this is a necessary strategy and it is equally doubtful that it can be successful. The weapons manufacturers will of course still love it.
But it is a only a short term win in the sense that the U.S. will lose many of its current and potential future partners over it. It has degraded its QUAD partner India and Japan to second tier status. It has increased suspicion in Indonesia, Malaysia and even Singapore of eventual nefarious plans against them.
In May 2022 Australia elected a new parliament.
Labor replaced the Liberals in the government. It found that the new submarines and the whole deal was extremely expensive. That was the chance to bury it:
The answers are obvious. Ditch the whole AUKUS deal and buy the German U-boats.
The real reason for the deal might well have been the U.S. wish for a port and base in Australia from where it can send its own nuclear submarines to harass China.
The offer to Australia to buy nuclear submarines was likely only made to remove Australian public resistance to the stationing of nuclear submarines (with nuclear weapons) on the continent.
Australia will be better off without those.
But Anthony Albanese, the new prime minister, did not have the courage to push for ending the deal. Last week the three involved countries announced new details:
Australia’s nuclear submarine program will cost up to [AUS]$368 billion over the next three decades, with confirmation that the federal government will buy at least three American-manufactured nuclear submarines and contribute "significant additional resources" to US shipyards.
The Australian government will take three, potentially second-hand Virginia-class submarines early next decade, pending the approval of the US Congress.
There will also be an option to purchase another two under the landmark AUKUS defence and security pact, announced in San Diego this morning.
In the meantime, design and development work will continue on a brand new submarine, known as the SSN-AUKUS, "leveraging” work the British have already been doing to replace their Astute-class submarines.
That submarine — which will form the AUKUS class — would eventually be operated by both the UK and Australia, using American combat systems.
One submarine will be built every two years from the early 2040s through to the late 2050s, with five SSN-AUKUS boats delivered to the Royal Australian Navy by the middle of the 2050s.
Most curious is the buy of second hand Virgina class boats. A leasing agreement would have been much better. Nuclear driven submarines are extraordinary expensive to scarp. Their 60% enriched Uranium fuel will have to be guarded for a very long time. Australia has no experience with anything nuclear.
The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has called the agreement the worst deal in history:
Paul Keating has labelled the $368bn Aukus nuclear submarine plan as the “worst deal in all history” and “the worst international decision” by a Labor government since Billy Hughes tried to introduce conscription.
The former Labor prime minister launched an extraordinary broadside against the Albanese government at the National Press Club on Wednesday, blasting the “incompetence” of Labor backing the decision to sign up to Aukus while in opposition and when it had “no mandate” to do so.
...
The $368bn being spent to acquire as few as eight nuclear submarines – Virginia class and next-generation SSN-Aukus submarines – was the “worst deal in all history”, he said, because it could buy 40 to 50 conventional submarines instead.
Keating also revealed that France, which lost a contract for conventional Attack class submarines in favour of Aukus, had offered “a new deal” for the “newest French nuclear submarines”.
These would require only “5% enriched uranium, not 95%, weapons grade” and came with a “firm delivery date” of 2034 at “fixed prices”, he said. The French received “no response”, Keating claimed.
James Acton, an expert a nuclear defense policy, commented on the deal:
(((James Acton))) @james_acton32 - 20:16 UTC · Mar 13, 2023
As @POTUS, @RishiSunak, and @AlboMP announce AUKUS submarine plan, here’s my assessment of the technical and proliferation risks.
BLUF: They’ve made serious efforts to mitigate those risks, but those that remain are real and significant.
Link to video of announcement
(1/n)
Here’s the plan (in brief):
1. 🇬🇧 & 🇺🇸 deploy SSNs* in🇦🇺(from 2027)
2. 🇦🇺deploys Virginia-class SSNs purchased from 🇺🇸 (from ~2032)
3. 🇦🇺deploys AUKUS SSNs, designed and produced with UK (starting in early 2040s)
*SSN=nuclear-powered attack sub.
(2/n)
...
Acton details the risks of the deal. They are huge.
Next to financial, technological and timing risks there are also the proliferation issues.
The deal is defying the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and should Australia get an exception for the deal from the IAEA others will make similar requests.
I responded Acton’s second tweet:
Moon of Alabama @MoonofA - 20:24 UTC · Mar 13, 2023
1. is what the U.S. wanted from AUKUS.
2. will be with mostly U.S. crew and under only nominal AUS command.
3. is way too costly for AUS and will never happen.
Australia will spend billions to upgrade naval base HMAS Stirling in Western Australia so the U.S. and UK can use it for their rotational stationing there. It will ‘invest’ more billions in nuclear shipyards in the U.S. and UK. It will pay billions for the Virginia class boats over which it will have little sovereignty.
Submarine designs are long complicate programs. It took 35 million labor hours design the first batch of Virginia-class boats and it took nine million labor hours to build the first one. The new SSN-AUKUS will have similar costs and issues. I for one expect that none will ever be build. Neither Australia nor the UK have the money for them.
Still – the political fallout will come from all sides.
With this deal Australia is essentially paying the U.S. an exorbitant price to confront Australia’s biggest customer, China. Its neighbors are unhappy. Indonesia is making noise about the proliferation risk as is Malaysia. Europe is miffed that Australia scrapped the deal with France and rejected the new French offer. The deal does not increase Australia’s security.
Posted by b on March 15, 2023 at 16:50 UTC | Permalink
Brine Cured Pork Roast
2023 03 19 17 10
Ingredients
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup kosher salt or sea salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (4 to 6 pound or more) boneless pork loin tied with string
Instructions
Combine sugar and salt with 1 quart hot water and stir to dissolve.
Crack the peppercorns and fennel seeds in a mortar or on a cutting board, crushing them with the flat bottom of a heavy saucepan (or grind very, very briefly in spice grinder). Add to water along with thyme and red pepper flakes. Add 3 quarts cold water and the pork. Submerge the roast and refrigerate overnight or up to 2 days.
Remove from brine and dry off the pork.
If you have fresh herbs such as rosemary, tie them onto the top of the pork.
Put the meat on a rack in a shallow roasting pan.
Heat oven to 500 degrees F.
When the oven is hot, place the roast in it and lower the heat to 325 degrees F. Bake for 1 1/4 hours. Check the internal temperature to make sure it is at 160 degrees F. If the pork is cooked, remove it and let it stand 15 minutes before carving. If not, cook a few more minutes.
The U.S. pushing for WW3 using ANYTHING they can find
The US is preparing Australia to fight its war against China
The United States is not preparing to go to war against China. The United States is preparing Australia to go to war against China.
Thank you for inviting me to address the Salon. I am greatly honoured and somewhat daunted, given the long list of eminent scholars, analysts and writers who have preceded me.
I am not a “writer”, although I have written a lot during my thirty-year diplomatic career, much of it in relation to China. None of it published and most of it buried in government archives. All I can bring to the table is my personal interpretation of current developments regarding US and China, in the light of my past experience.
One of your previous speakers, Patrick Lawrence, advocated putting the main point first. So here goes:
The United States is not preparing to go to war against China.
The United States is preparing Australia to go to war against China.
The ANZUS Treaty
A look at the ANZUS Treaty and the way it has been manipulated over time will explain why I have come to this conclusion.
Originally defensive in concept, the ANZUS Treaty was seen by Australia from its very beginning as a means to “achieve the acceptance by the USA of responsibility in SE Asia” (Percy Spender) to shield Australia from perceived antagonistic forces in its region. It has, however, developed into an instrument for the furtherance of US ability to prosecute war globally – previously in Iraq and Afghanistan, currently against Russia and potentially against China.
The ANZUS Treaty, usually referred to in reverential tones as “The Alliance”, has been elevated to an almost religious article of faith, against which any demur is treated as heresy amounting to treachery. Out of anxiety to cement the US into protection of Australia, the Alliance has been invoked as justification for Australia’s participation in almost every American military adventure – or misadventure – since WW II.
Unlike NATO or the Defence Treaty with Japan, the ANZUS treaty actually provides no guarantee of protection, merely assurances to consult on appropriated means of support in the event that Australia should come under attack.
On the other hand, the Alliance has facilitated the steady growth of American presence in Australia, to the point that it pervades every aspect of Australian political, economic, financial, social and cultural life. Australians fret about China “buying up the country”, but American investment is ten times the size.
They are unaware or uncaring that almost every major Australian company across the resources, food, retail, mass media, entertainment, banking and finance sectors has majority American ownership. Right now US corporations eclipse everyone else in their ability to influence our politics through their investment in Australian stocks.
Screen Shot 2023 01 31 at 8.59.38 am
The transfer of Australian assets to American ownership has continued unabated: In the second half of 2021 then Treasurer Josh Frydenberg approved the transfer of $130 billion of Australian assets to foreign private equity funds, benefiting Goldman Sachs who facilitated the transactions, by multimillions of dollars. Josh Frydenberg now is employed by Goldman Sachs:
Sydney Airport – Macquarie Bank led by a NY investment banker
AusNet (electricity infrastructure) $18 billion takeover by Brookfield – NY via Canada
SparkInfrastructure (electricity) $5.2 billion takeover by American interests
AfterPay financial transaction system $39 billion takeover
Healthscope, second-biggest private hospitals group (72 Hospitals) taken over by Brookfield and now controlled in the Cayman Islands.
The USA and the UK between them represent nearly half of all foreign investment. China plus Hong Kong represents 4.2%. The 4 big “Aussie” banks are dependent on foreign capital which dictate local banks’ policies and operations.
Defence and military weapons manufacturing industries in Australia are now largely owned by US weapons corporations – Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Thales, NorthropGrumman. The deep integration of Australia’s defence industries and economy into the US military-industrial complex greatly influences Australia’s foreign/defence policies.
That, plus US capture of Australia’s intelligence and policy apparatus through the “Five Eyes” network and ASPI (which has lobbyists from American arms manufacturers on a Board headed by an operative trained by the CIA) means that the US is able to swing Australian policy to support America in almost all its endeavours.
Despite the fact that it contains no guarantee of US protection of Australia, the Treaty and further arrangements under its auspices, such as the 2014 Force Posture Agreement and now AUKUS, have greatly facilitated US war preparation in Australia. This has accelerated exponentially in the past few years. The US now describes Australia as the most important base for the projection of US power in the Indo-Pacific.
Indicators of war preparations
* 2,500 US marines stationed in Darwin practicing for war with the Australian Defence Forces, soon to include the Japanese Defence Forces
* Establishment of a regional HQ for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Darwin
* Lengthening the RAAF aircraft runways in Northern Territory at our expense for servicing US fighters and bombers
* Proposed stationing of 6 nuclear weapons-capable B52 Bombers at RAAF Tindal in NT
* Construction of massive fuel and maintenance facilities in Darwin NT for US aircraft
* Proposed acquisition of eight nuclear-propelled submarines at the cost of $170 billion for hunter-killer operations in the Taiwan Strait
* Construction, at the cost of $10 billion, of a deep water port on Australia’s east coast for US and UK nuclear powered and nuclear missile-carrying submarines
* The long-established satellite communications station known as Pine Gap in central Australia has recently, and is still being, expanded and upgraded. It is key to the command and control of US forces in the Indo-Pacific (and even as far afield as Ukraine)
The Government and right wing anti-China analysts and commentators, whose opinions dominate main stream media, accept the Defence Minister’s contention that this militarisation enhances Australia’s sovereignty by strengthening the range and lethality of Australia’s high-end war-fighting capability to provide a credible deterrent to a potential aggressor.
Many analysts and commentators outside the governing elite, including myself, argue that these arrangements effectively cede Australian sovereignty to America. This is especially because of the provisions of the Force Posture Agreement of 2014, entered into under the auspices of ANZUS.
I understand that a paper has been circulated to the Committee, expounding the details of the FPA, so in summary, it gives unimpeded access, exclusive control and use of agreed facilities and areas to US personnel, aircraft, ships and vehicles and gives Australia absolutely no say at all in how, when where and why they are to be used.
All Australian analysts, whether sympathetic or antipathetic to China, agree on one point. That is, that if the US goes to war against China over the status of Taiwan, or any other issue of contention, Australia will inevitably be involved.
The Threat
All these preparations are justified by the false premise that China presents a military threat. China has not invaded anywhere. It has never proposed use of force against other countries. It has enshrined in its Constitution the ‘Three No’s – No military alliances; No military bases; No use, or threat to use, military force. China has, however, reserved the right to use force to prevent secession by Taiwan.
It has recently rapidly increased its defence capability in response to the fearsome US naval presence and war-fighting exercises just off its coastline. Its defence budget is one third that of the US and the bases that it has constructed in the South China Sea pale into insignificance compared to the hundreds of bases that the US has ranged all around China.
So, if China is not a military threat, why is it designated as the primary systemic threat of the collective West, led by the US? The answer lies in the word “systemic”. China has expressed a determination to revamp the global financial system to make it fairer for developing countries. Kissinger is reputed to have said: “If you control money, you control the world”. The US currently controls world finance and China (with Russia) is out to change that.
The US, which played the leading part in the establishment of the post-World War II institutions, has become a leading revisionist, abandoning the UN for “coalitions of the willing”. The US has declined to join important Conventions like those on the Law of the Sea and on Climate. It has refused to accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, and has exempted itself from the Genocide Convention. It has played a leading part in the weakening of the World Trade Organisation by imposing trade restrictions on other countries, while not agreeing to new appointments to the WTO’s appellate tribunal, so preventing that body from functioning.
China is the second-largest (or by some calculations, the largest) economy in the world. It is the major trading partner of over 100 countries, mainly in the global south, but including Australia and a number of other Western countries. Hence China has the clout to undermine the “international rules-based order” set up by, and for the benefit of, the West.
China has already established an alternative to the Anglo-American international financial transaction system: – the Cross-border Interbank Payments System CIPS, (in which, ironically a number of Western banks are shareholders). In collaboration with Russia and within the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) China is creating an alternative to the almighty dollar as the preferred currency for trade and for national reserve holdings.
It seems that the US has concluded that, since it can’t constrain China economically, it will have to get it bogged down in a long-drawn-out war to hinder its economic growth and hamper its infrastructure development cooperation with other countries. On 25 March 2021 President Biden vowed to prevent China from overtaking the US as the most powerful country in the world – “not on my watch” he said.
Nevertheless, the latest CSIS computer modelling, like previous modelling by the Rand Corporation, indicates that all involved in a Sino-US war would lose.
Proxy War
All of these analyses overlook one significant point. US determination to pursue the Wolfowitz doctrine of preventing the rise of any power that could challenge US global supremacy (neither Russia, nor Europe, nor China) has not diminished, but has morphed into a strategy of fighting its adversaries by proxy.
This has been clearly demonstrated by the war in Ukraine. A White House press briefing on 25 January 2022, before the Russian intervention, stated that “the US, in concert with its European partners, will weaken Russia to the point where it can exercise no influence on the international stage”.
Political leaders from Biden, through Pelosi and on to Members of Congress have told Ukraine that “your war is our war and we are in it for as long as it takes”. Congressman Adam Schiff put it bluntly that “we support Ukraine… to fight Russia over there, so that we don’t have to fight it over here”.
In the case of China, defined in the NDS as the principal threat to the US, the proxy of choice is clearly Taiwan. The strategy envisages:
• a world-wide media campaign (going on for several years already) to portray China as the aggressor;
• goading China into taking military action to prevent Taiwan’s secession;
• leaving Taiwan to conduct its own defence, with constant resupply of arms and equipment from the US, at great profit to the military/industrial complex;
• sustaining Taiwan sufficiently to keep China ‘bogged down’, thus hampering its economic development and its infrastructure cooperation with other countries;
• avoiding direct military engagement, in order to maintain the full capacity of US forces, while China’s would be significantly depleted; Although Biden has publicly re-affirmed adherence to the ‘One China’ principle, the US has been goading China by;
• stationing the bulk its naval power off the coast of China;
• ‘freedom of navigation’ and combat exercises in the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits;
• visits by senior US officials using US military aircraft;
• creation of a putative ‘Air Defence Identification Zone’ (ADIZ) extending well over mainland territory and then alleging Chinese violation of it;
• secretly providing military training personnel (whilst denying it);
• including Taiwan in the Summit for Democracy (9-10 December 2021), implying it is a separate country;
Many Australian politicians, (although not the present government), joined in goading China, by encouraging Taiwan to consider the possibility of declaring independence, which would trigger military action by China.
If Australia were to make good on its promise to ‘save Taiwan’, it would be devastated:
• The Australian navy would be obliterated, given the disparity between China’s and Australia’s forces;
* command/control centres (and possibly cities) in Australia could be wiped out by Chinese missiles. Australia has no anti-missile defence;
• To preserve its own assets, and to forestall the descent into nuclear conflict, the US would not engage directly in defence of Australia;
• US ‘support’ would be through massive arms sales to replace our losses – just as in Ukraine – at further profit to the US military/industrial complex;
• ASEAN is unlikely to support Australia. It has renewed and up-graded its Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China. Each member country has infrastructure projects under China’s BRI, which they would not want to jeopardise in a ‘no-win war’;
• Support from India is unlikely, despite its membership of the Quad – which is nothing more than a consultative dialogue. India has security commitments to China under the SCO and gets its arms from Russia, which has a “better than treaty” relationship with China.
• Australia relies heavily on China for many daily necessities. In a war, deliveries from China would be severely disrupted.
Australians generally are more than happy for the material benefits of a trading relationship with China, which constitutes more than one third of Australia’s export earnings. But, any attempt by China to improve Australians’ understanding of China’s historical, social, cultural and scientific achievements, let alone its political systems or foreign policy, are instantly feared as nefarious attempts to infiltrate Australian politics and undermine the ‘Australian way of life’.
The increasing size of China’s economic (and, by extension military) strength, to which Australia contributes important resources and from which it derives so much benefit, is portrayed as a threat to Australia’s security. This has Australia trapped in the absurd policy paradox of preparing to go to war against China to protect Australia’s trade with China.
Recent developments in Taiwan, particularly the county and municipal elections, which caused the President, Tsai Ingwen, to resign her leadership of the pro-Independence Party, suggest that Taiwan prefers the status quo and is unwilling to be the proxy of the US in a war with Beijing.
Australia thus becomes the potential proxy.
In the name of the Alliance, American service personnel (active and retired) are now embedded in Australian defence policy making institutions and in command and control positions within the ADF. All of the American military assets installed in Australia under the Alliance and the AUKUS deal, are now “interchangeable” with the ADF, making it possible to use them as putative Australian forces against China, while the US stands aside and maintains the same pretence of “no engagement”, as it is doing in Ukraine.
This is why I said at the beginning that the US is preparing to send Australia to war against China.
Whilst these are the dangers that the ANZUS Alliance poses for Australia if the US instigates a war against China, there are risks for the US also.
1. There would be crippling expense that further exacerbates the US wealth divide and related domestic political breakdown. Supplying the weaponry and everything else required for a proxy war with China would be a bigger drain on the US budget than the Ukraine conflict. The expenditure would flow back to the military industrial complex, constituting a further massive transfer of wealth from the ordinary taxpayer to the plutocrat billionaires. It would blow out the already unsustainable national debt, and either take away from expenditure on essential services and infrastructure, or, if they print money, further blow out inflation. The political and social breakdown that the US is already suffering as a consequence of its real economic decline and widening wealth gap could only intensify to breaking point.
2. The slide into a direct war would probably be inevitable. Planning a proxy war is all very well as an academic exercise, but sticking with those plans when the fighting starts will be very difficult. There are already lunatic politicians and “experts” in the US who think American can win a direct war, so when China starts bombing Australia, and good old Aussie “mates” are dying in massive numbers, the voices of those in the US advocating direct engagement will be amplified. Combined with the already extreme polarisation of US politics in which ONLY war is bipartisan, the risk that extremists will take the US into direct conflict, and a nuclear showdown with China, is very serious.
3. The folding in of Japan into the AUKUS arrangements will increase the risk that Japan would be obliged to assist Australia in any military conflict with China. The US, because of its Defence Treaty with Japan, would then be obliged to join in the fighting, vitiating its plan to avoid direct military engagement.
A point of historical irony:
I’ll wind up with a bit of historical irony, in which I was personally involved:
In the early 70’s, we had been kept completely in the dark about the secret Kissinger visits to China, until the plan for Nixon to visit was announced. Feeling blindsided by a momentous change in US policy towards China, we produced Policy Planning Paper QP11/71 of 21 July 1971.
It recognised.. “political disadvantage resulting from the manner in which the United States conducts its global policies” and argued that this would mean that. “The American alliance, in a changing power balance, will mean less to us than it has in the past.”
It went on:
“If anything, this argument has been strengthened by recent United States actions and America’s failure to consult us on issues of primary importance to Australia. Accordingly, we shall need, now more than ever, to formulate independent policies, based on Australian national interests and those of our near neighbours…”
This is even more true today than it was in the 1970’s. For example, Australia was not consulted in the precipitate US withdrawal from Afghanistan, despite our role as ‘loyal’ supporter of the US in that ill-advised conflict. Our indignant protestations were met with Biden’s statement that “America acts only in its own interests”.
Our present predicament is due largely to the failure of a succession of Australian Governments to take this analysis to heart and act upon it. Prime Minister Fraser, who replaced Whitlam, ironically came to a very similar view towards the end of his life, which he set forth in detail in his book ‘Dangerous Allies’, but too late to do anything about it. He identified the paradox that Australia needs the US for its defence, but it only needs defending because of the US.
A couple of pertinent quotes, first from the late Jim Molan:
“Our forces were not designed to have any significant independent strategic impact. They were purely designed to provide niche components of larger American missions.”
We were, in his view, abdicating our own defence and cultivating complete dependence on the Americans.
And from Chris Hedges:
“Finally, the neo-cons who have led the U.S. into the serial debacles of Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Ukraine, costing the country tens of trillions of dollars and even greater amounts of destroyed reputational capital, will claim their customary immunity from any accountability for their savage failures and cheerily move on to their next calamity. We need to be on the lookout for their next gambit to pillage the treasury and advance their own private interests above those of the nation. It will surely come.”
An (incomplete) list of some of the commentators from whom I have drawn:
Richard Tanter – military analyst, Nautilus Foundation
Brian Toohey – author (political and historical analysis)
Mike Scrafton was a senior Defence executive, and ministerial adviser to the minister for defence
Paul Keating was the prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996.
Geoff Raby AO was Australia’s ambassador to China (2007–11); He was awarded the Order of Australia for services to Australia–China relations and to international trade.
Gregory Clark began his diplomatic career with postings to Hong Kong and Moscow. He is emeritus president of Tama University in Tokyo and vice-president of the pioneering Akita International University.
Dr Mike Gilligan worked for 20 years in defence policy and evaluating military proposals for development, including time in the Pentagon on military balances in Asia.
Jocelyn Chey AM is Visiting Professor at the University of Sydney and Adjunct Professor at Western Sydney University and UTS. She formerly held diplomatic posts in China and Hong Kong. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
Joseph Camilleri is Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and President of Conversation at the Crossroads
David S G Goodman is the Director, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney.
Geoff Miller was Director-General, Office of National Assessments, deputy secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador to Japan and the Republic of Korea, and High Commissioner to New Zealand.
Cavan Hogue was Ambassador to USSR and Russia. He also worked at ANU and Macquarie universities.
Edited transcript of a speech to the Committee for the Republic, Salon, 18 January 2023
Why the Failure of Credit Suisse is such a big deal; It was a “Bulge Bracket Bank”
To average, everyday people, the failure of Credit Suisse is simply some news headline. They have no clue at all what this means: ALERT – Time’s up. Why? Because Credit Suisse was a “Bulge Bracket Bank.” You may know it better as “too big to fail.” But fail it has.
What is a bulge bracket bank?
A bulge bracket bank refers to a top-tier, multinational investment bank that has a leading role in the global financial markets. The term “bulge bracket” originally referred to the banks listed at the top of the “league tables” for securities underwriting, but it has since come to encompass a wider range of financial services.
Bulge bracket banks typically have a strong presence in both the domestic and international markets, providing a broad range of services such as underwriting, M&A advisory, equity and debt offerings, and sales and trading of securities. They also typically work with large, high-profile clients such as corporations, governments, and institutional investors.
Examples of bulge bracket banks include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank. These banks are known for their extensive resources, large-scale operations, and high-profile deals.
What banks are considered bulge bracket?
Some of the banks that are considered bulge bracket are:
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Morgan Stanley
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Citigroup, Inc.
Deutsche Bank AG
rclays PLC Credit Suisse Group AG In fact, UBS Group AG
Wells Fargo & Co.
These banks are considered bulge bracket because they typically have a leading role in the global financial markets and provide a wide range of financial services to large, high-profile clients such as corporations, governments, and institutional investors. They are also known for their extensive resources, large-scale operations, and high-profile deals.
What would happen if a bulge bracket bank failed?
If a bulge bracket bank were to fail, it could have serious repercussions on the global financial system and the broader economy. This is because these banks are deeply interconnected with other financial institutions and play a significant role in the global financial markets.
If a bulge bracket bank were to fail, it could trigger a domino effect that would lead to other financial institutions experiencing financial distress or failing. This could lead to a credit freeze, where access to credit is severely restricted, making it difficult for businesses and individuals to obtain financing. This, in turn, could lead to a slowdown in economic activity and a recession.
To prevent such a scenario, regulators have put in place various measures to monitor and regulate the activities of bulge bracket banks. For example, these banks are subject to more stringent capital and liquidity requirements, stress tests, and other regulations to ensure their financial stability and resilience. In the event of a failure, regulators may also intervene to stabilize the financial system and protect the broader economy from the fallout of a bank failure.
Credit Suisse Failed
Those measures do NOT seem to have worked. Reverberations from the Credit Suisse failure, and the utterly vicious zeroing of Credit Suisse “Tier A1” Bonds, is starting to spread.
As this story is written at 4:45 AM on 20 March 2023, Asian Stock Markets have almost completed their trading day. They’re all in the red:
AsianMarkets AllRed
Credit Suisse, $CS, was worth $10 billion a month ago and sold for pennies on the Dollar.
The government said $CS had “serious risk of bankruptcy.”
A shareholder vote was bypassed.
Regulators knew it was a matter of hours for bankruptcy.
This deal was made out of desperation.
In fact, the “rescue” was not a rescue. UBS could only work an equity trade, they themselves lacked the cash for a real buyout! That deal was total clown world.
Stock Markets know this. Stock Holders are learning of it now. The markets will begin to react TODAY.
Europe is opening shortly. That’s where we will see some of the Credit Suisse fallout.
In the Asian Markets HSBC & Standard Chartered both down 6%…. will be interesting to watch the European markets when they open.
US markets open in about 3.5 hours. As Europe goes, so will the US.
You see, those “Tier 1A “Bonds that were Zeroed for Credit Suisse . . . they totaled slightly over seventeen billion dollars. Somebody has now lost all that money. Well, a lot of somebody’s, actually.
That loss is going to have an impact. Maybe an impact on someone big. And that may take THEM out.
Moreover, the zeroing of Tier 1A Bonds just showed bondholders all over the world, that when it comes to BANKS, their “totally secure” Tier 1A bonds, aren’t nearly as secure as they were lead to believe! People are going to start dumping those bonds, because clearly, they’re now far riskier than anyone ever thought.
When you factor-in the reality that the Swiss government changed their law in real-time, to prevent Credit Suisse stockholders from having the Statutory 6 weeks to consider a merger or buyout offer, the bondholders (and Stock holders) now know they’re sitting ducks. They have NO PROTECTION of law. The “rules” went right out the window.
As these Bond holders (and maybe stock holders) run for the exits today – and this week – their selling is going to put the banks under even MORE pressure.
In the US, here’s how fragile the banks actually are:
Bank unrealized losses chart
At the far right of the chart is this year – right now. As you can see, the banks are stuck holding Bonds that are worth LESS than their face value. In the color gold, those bonds can be sold by the banks if the banks need to raise cash. Those gold-colored (sellable) bonds are worth three-hundred BILLION dollars LESS than their face value.
As long as the banks don’t have to sell them (to raise cash) the loss on the bond is “unrealized.” But as people begin to take more money out of the banks, because the general public sees the banks as untrustworthy, some banks are going to HAVE TO sell those bonds. And the moment they do, the loss becomes “realized” and the bank is in trouble.
This week may very well be historic. We just don’t know how it will turn out.
Politicians all over the world are screaming from the rooftops that “the banks are safe and secure.” Trouble is, the public long ago learned that when they tell you things are safe, that’s when you run!
Because politicians and government officials have shown themselves to be liars, over and over , and over again. Only the truly stupid believe them anymore.
With that reality, there’s no telling what will happen this week. However . . . Calamity . . . is on the menu.
This isn’t going away.
This is not your typical msm-driven race-baiting, class warfare, type of drivel designed to distract you from real problems.
This is a real problem. They’re going to try to keep your eyes – and mind – off of it with crap like North Korea nuclear threats, Trump’s impending arrest, etc. Expect some race-fueled incident to really throw everyone over the edge.
If they can keep us worked up over things like that, maybe we won’t notice all the banks failing and the economy literally crumbling around us. Maybe.
This isn’t something they can bury and hide for long, though, but they will try to keep us in the dark as long as possible. Many won’t notice until bank failures and sky-high inflation impacts them personally.
When they know you notice the real problem, like with the Credit Suisse-UBS merge, they’ll issue some statement about how all is well and good, the US dollar is strong and we shouldn’t worry. When they say this kind of nonsense is when you need to worry the most.
UPDATE 5:20 AM EDT —
European market:
UBS – 12%
Deutsche -10%
most others -8%
people do not believe their lies anymore . . . this is a bad omen for everything today . . . .
UPDATE 5:31 AM EDT —
They just talked on Bloomberg about “the possibility of UBS walking out of the deal.”
You’ve Gotta Be F**king Kidding Me
Russell is truth teller that is so needed in society- THANK YOU! It is truly unfathomable that Wasserman is given ANY time after her known corruption. The world is upside down…
Global Times editorial
Global Times has published a brutal editorial that damns everything about this event and deserves to be pasted in full:
The leaders of the US, Britain and Australia celebrated the unveiling of the AUKUS nuclear submarine plans with great fanfare at the Naval Base in San Diego, California, on Monday. It was a public humiliation to France, which was cheated by them, and a cover-up and deceit to the Australian people, and a kind of bravado to neighboring countries. It was also a blow to the already fragile international nuclear non-proliferation mechanism, and obviously a dangerous move for the entire international community.
According to the agreement, Australia will purchase up to five US nuclear-powered submarines in the next few years, which means that Australia will become the seventh country in the world to have nuclear submarines. The peace and stability of the Indian Ocean and Pacific region will expectedly bear the impact, pressure and risks brought about by this agreement for a long time. Some American media even called it a "milestone." This obvious misnomer has produced ironic effects, but the agreement may indeed become a boundary stone for the US, Britain and Australia to drag the Asia-Pacific region into a "new cold war." It is what everyone is worried about.
In order to obtain the US' nuclear-powered submarines, Australia may have to spend nearly $250 billion. Does Australia have too many mines and is too wealthy? Australia indeed has mines, but life in Australia is not rich for most, and the current economic situation is very bad, with a huge structural budget deficit. $250 billion is roughly equivalent to about two years of public healthcare expenditure of Australia. In order to pay for this huge sum of money, Australia is bound to squeeze social welfare. In other words, the 25 million Australians will eventually have to pay the bill through a certain degree of frugality.
Another question, is Australia in danger without US' nuclear-powered submarines? Can't it survive? Obviously not. Not only does Australia not need them, but it will definitely put itself at risk by buying them. Australia, which is isolated in South Pacific and far away from other hotspots in the region, has a relatively unique geographic advantage. No country will attack or even invade Australia for no reason. Australia has had the conditions to spend its main resources and energy on improving people's livelihood.
Australia's inexplicable sense of insecurity when facing China is basically the result of being spiritually controlled for many years by the US. Australia thinks that it is the "deputy sheriff" of the Asia-Pacific region under Washington, but not to mention that it has no salary, even its police uniforms and firearms have to be bought from the US at a high price. The AUKUS agreement is actually a big trick of the US on Australia. It is equivalent to asking Australia to build a nuclear submarine base to produce its own submarines, but more importantly, to maintain and ensure the nuclear submarines of the US and Britain, and hand them over to be commanded by the US Navy, moreover, the hundreds of billions of dollars need to be paid by Australia itself. The follow-up nuclear submarine equipment, maintenance, related personnel training are an even bigger bottomless hole. Australia is at best a cat's paw which helps the US to get chestnuts from the fire, and it can be regarded as one of the most representative chump in the history of international relations.
In the English context, "white elephant" usually refers to a useless but expensive and eccentric object. It could have been better if the nuclear submarines of the US were just white elephants, but they are also a big ill omen. Canberra bought them back with a huge sum of money and will turn Australia into a haunted house, bringing risk to the whole region and making the years of efforts of South Pacific Countries in building a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, which is protected by formal treaty, face the most serious impact. Not only China firmly opposes it, but Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia are also very dissatisfied. New Zealand directly denies Australia's nuclear submarines' access to its waters. Otherwise, the Australian Defense Minister and Foreign Minister would not have been running around recently, trying to dispel people's concerns about nuclear non-proliferation issues.
On the same day as the three AUKUS countries gathered together, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released a new report on global arms import and export. The report shows that the US share of global arms exports has increased from 33 percent to 40 percent, and imports to East Asia and certain states in other areas of high geopolitical tension rose sharply. All this is in Washington's calculations. Just look at what America is exporting: weapons to kill, crises of all kinds (the fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is still brewing), and the most destructive of all is geopolitical malice, which America uses to spiritually control Australia. [My Emphasis]
Not too long ago China published a long list of Outlaw US Empire crimes and its hegemonic ways. This event will be added to it even if it’s eventually rejected by Australians who the Chinese rightfully say don’t need it whatsoever. It can be said that the Australian continent’s been invaded twice–first by the British and second by the Americans and both have partnered to chain Australians similar to their convict forebearers.
There’re a lot of good Aussies here at the bar; I’m very sorry my government has done what is has done.
If you color Russia the same as China, you‘ll get the #Dragonbear power projection in the #Arctic and #IndoPacific too. #India will be key to both geopolitical constellations.
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They are suggesting this…
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I think that the map should have a LOT of light RED nations to include North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, and much of SE Asia.
The point being is that maps that originate out of the West also self-isolate China, when that is not at all a reflection of reality.
First Republic Bank Stock HALTED 7+ Times Today alone; Looks Like There’s No Saving it
Trading of the stock in First Republic Bank ($FRC) just got halted for its 7th time since the open today! Two weeks ago, the stock traded at $130. Today it is down to less than $10.
The Trading HALTS are wild; STOCK GOES LIVE AND IS GETTING HALTED WITHIN SECONDS. STOCK IS NOW DOWN 50% TODAY from its Friday Close.
We are on track to make a new record for most number of halts in a day. The regional bank system continues to lack a solution.
It appears to many observers that there’s no saving this bank. Investors are spooked and are leaving. Period. Full stop.
Over $20 BILLION in Market Capitalization has been wiped this month.
This is the Canary in the coal mine for the banking industry.
Other banks just gave $30 billion in deposits to the bank last week, to shore-it-up, and the Bank is borrowing a lot more from the Fed to stay solvent.
No business or individual with half a brain is going to keep more than 250k in their business or personal accounts in any non-mega banks for much longer. The risk of loss rises daily.
They will need to backstop all banks deposits soon or this thing is going to blow sky high.
In the time it took to write this story — FRC stock has been halted TWO MORE TIMES! Nine trading halts today alone.
We are on track to mark a record for most number of halts in a day.
You’re witnessing history.
Australia’s Defence Policy Explained
Utopia is criminally underrated.
China donated just $5.8m to assist Turkey, while the US pledged $185m and the UK $30m.
The after-effects of the tragic earthquake in southern Turkey and northern Syria are still being felt more than one month on, both literally and metaphorically. As a report mentions, global assistance has been provided – China donated just $5.8m to assist Turkey, while the US pledged $185m and the UK $30m.
A recent poll by Premise, a research technology and data company, asked 1,000 Turks from across the country for their views on the international relief effort, the contributions from various aid agencies and also for their views on causes of the catastrophic damage
The managing director of Premise, Arthur Soames, explained that “starkest finding in data is that China is perceived as being far and away the most valued country in providing disaster relief: 72% of our nationally representative sample had a positive or very positive impression of China’s contribution, while the US, despite providing more than 20 times as much cash, was perceived in a similar light by only 59% of the population.”
“Having invested historically in their relationship with Turkey, China has found it simple to project its influence as a high-profile presence in the disaster relief from the start. This has clearly struck a powerful chord with people. The US, on the other hand, has had to pay a vastly higher premium in return for credit from the Turkish people.”
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“Qatar is perhaps the most surprising outlier to have secured a powerful, positive impression amongst Turks: 26% believed that Qatar has provided the greatest support to the relief effort, the highest figure for any country.
“A lot of this must have been due to Qatar’s decision to donate 10,000 housing units to the affected area that were left over from last year’s World Cup.
“The donation received widespread coverage in the Turkish media and clearly had a powerful impact – proof that Qatar continues to receive international and diplomatic benefits from hosting the World Cup.”
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“Behind these two comes the EU. It came in third with 16% of people saying that it had provided the most support, while 11% thought it would be most capable of assisting in the rebuild.
“By contrast, the relief effort from the US and the UK does not appear to have been particularly recognised. Only 8% of the poll felt that the US had done the most. The UK falls much further behind, barely registering 1%.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said Moscow has written off the debts of African states worth more than $20 billion.
Speaking at an international parliamentary conference titled “Russia-Africa in a Multipolar World,” Putin said the trade turnover between Russia and Africa countries is growing every year, reaching almost $18 billion in 2022.
“It is unlikely that such a figure can fully suit us, but we know that this is far from the limit,” he added.
Putin also said he believed that “the development of counter-commodity exchanges will be facilitated by a more energetic transition in financial settlements to national currencies, and the establishment of new transport and logistics chains.”
He further said: “Additional opportunities are opened up by the process of establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which began in 2021, which in the future will become a continental market with a total GDP of more than $3 trillion.”
Russia, he said, is in favor of establishing ties with AfCFTA both through the Eurasian Economic Union and on a bilateral level, adding that Africa will become one of the leaders of the multipolar world.
“The states of Africa are constantly increasing their weight and their role in world affairs, they are asserting themselves more and more confidently in politics and in the economy. We are convinced that Africa will become one of the leaders in the emerging new multipolar world order,” Putin added.
He said Russia and the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America are against the neo-colonial ideology.
“Russia and African countries uphold moral norms and social principles traditional for our peoples, and oppose neo-colonial ideology imposed from outside,” he said. “Many states of Asia, the Middle East, Latin America adhere to similar positions, and together we make up the world majority.”
3 Doors Down – Here Without You (Official Music Video)
Steel barricades are being unloaded outside Manhattan criminal courthouse – TRUMP INDICTMENT?
Steel barricades are being unloaded outside Manhattan criminal courthouse as shown in the brief video below:
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Numerous metal barricades have arrived outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, located at 100 Centre St. in Manhattan, New York City, ahead of a possible Indictment of former President Trump this week.
NYPD is reportedly mobilizing up to 700 Riot Cops, Ahead of potential unruly protest.
Italian Meatballs with Peppers
Chopped red and yellow bell peppers add color and texture to these savory meatballs seasoned with Italian herb mix and enriched with mushrooms.
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Ingredients
1 pound ground turkey
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon MAGGI Instant Chicken Flavor Bouillon
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION®
Evaporated Fat Free Milk, divided
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot cooked rice
Chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
Combine turkey, onion, herb seasoning and salt in large bowl; form mixture into 24 one-inch meatballs.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add meatballs; cook, turning occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes or until browned on all sides.
Reduce heat to low; cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
Remove meatballs from skillet; keep warm.
Add bell peppers, mushrooms, garlic and bouillon to skillet; cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes.
Combine 1 tablespoon evaporated milk and flour in small bowl; add to skillet.
Gradually stir in remaining evaporated milk; cook, stirring frequently, for 5 to 8 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened.
Add meatballs to skillet; stir to coat.
Serve over rice. Garnish with parsley.
Prep: 20 min | Cook: 25 min | Yield: 6 servings
Peace In Ukraine Is “Unacceptable” Says Biden Spokesman
2023 03 23 11 06
CHINA TO OFFICIALLY ARM RUSSIA IF KIEV REFUSES PEACE PLAN
China will officially join Iran to arm Russia, “if Kyiv does not accept the Chinese peace plan.”
That is the information coming directly from the China delegation accompanying President Xi Jinping during his ongoing state visit to Russia.
Xi is expected to call Ukraine President Zelensky later this week; perhaps FROM MOSCOW during Xi’s state visit!
Washington’s response was like lightning: The Free World officially rejects China peace plan for Ukraine: “China’s ceasefire initiative is an attempt to give Russia time to launch a new offensive.” – The White House.
More info as I get it. Check back
UPDATE 10:36 AM EDT —
The Pentagon may soon announce measures for the possible delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine earlier than expected, White House spokesman John Kirby said.
Putin and China just dealt a KNOCKOUT blow to the west with this move
When I was young, my mother stayed at home and would take care of the house. We called it “domestic chores”. My father would work all day, and then when he was paid, he would give all of his pay to my mother to budget for. She in turn, would give him a small stipend for his wallet and spend the rest on our family needs.
All in all it worked out pretty good.
Then came 1974, and the “Woman’s Lib” movement (which my mother was a great advocate of – burning her bra and all the rest), as well as the advent of high inflation and credit cards forever changed the traditional household to something “better”; a more progressive family unit.
While I often miss the simplicity of those days, the things that I love about China is how “traditional” it is in regards to friends, family and relationships. You’re never going to starve or want in China.
Today’s installment…
No Need
Intelligence shows that the Biden administration has been discussing how to sabotage the Iran-Saudi Arabia relationship, the Ukraine-Russia peace talk in White House daily & nightly now. Why has the US been so terrified of the world peace?
No need to hear from you intelligence!
Just looking at the U.S. evil intentions will make the world certain that the U.S. will sabotage it no different from how they destroyed the Nordstream 2 pipelines. The U.S. never wanted peace. It never wanted a better world. It design a messy world so that it can jumped in and take advantage of the chaos. And stir up a war do that Ot can sell weapons to both parties.
The only difference today in 2023 is that the world knows now! And this is not good for the west and the U.S. Their only game in town is up. Nation by nation will stay as far away as possible from the U.S. No different from a strange bed fellow that no one wants to get near.
Very soon, the U.S. needs to steal from their fellow colonials and fellow native slaughterers. Let’s see how U.S. cons the UK!
Cheap Trick – Surrender (from Budokan!)
What was life like in the 1960s in the USA?
I’ve often wished I could pick up my kids and take them back to the 60s for a day, just so they could see what it was like.
We dressed up on Saturdays to go shopping. There was always a G-rated movie to see.
Store clerks were grown-up professionals who actually made enough to live on and really knew their products. Big department stores had elevator men with wearing uniforms with big gold braid who cheerfully did their job of getting you where you wanted to go.
You could go out in public all day and never hear a cuss word.
Ladies wore hats and gloves to church. Ladies even dressed up to come over to play cards with my grandmother.
Men wore hats and knew when it was proper to take them off, when to touch them, etc.
It was quite common to have homes and cars unlocked all day.
Moms were home in the daytime. Neighborhoods were not deserted during the day as they are now. Big groups of children in my neighborhood played outside together every day. There was no air conditioning, so it was unthinkable to play in the house on a sunny day.
It was rare for women to drive and it was very common to see older ladies rolling their groceries home in a cart. Lots of men didn’t drive, either, as we lived on a bus route.
Parents in the neighborhood watched out for everyone’s kids. If one of the kids misbehaved his or her mother knew all about before he or she even got home.
Dogs and cats roamed the neighborhood. It was common to see several dogs sitting outside the grocery store waiting on their owners.
People were friendly and polite. Always. At least in public.
On Saturdays everyone in the neighborhood ran errands and did their yard work. Ladies went to the beauty shop to have their hair done for church the next day. Men went to a barbershop and they most certainly never set foot in a beauty parlor. You had to make sure you had everything you needed for Sunday because all the stores would close by Saturday afternoon.
On Sundays most people went to church. Even if they didn’t, the neighborhood was completely quiet. Sunday was a day of rest and stores were closed. There was never a lawn mower running or any activity going on outside. Most people visited with family and had a big family dinner.
It was normal for people to have big front porches and go from house to house visiting.
There were only three TV channels and they all signed off at 11 p.m. with the national anthem.
It was common for neighbors to listen in on your telephone conversations because everyone was on a party line.
You couldn’t wash clothes last minute because nobody had a dryer. If it were raining it took forever for your clothes to dry in the house. Clothes also had to be ironed, so you really had to plan ahead.
I was surprised by some of the comments. I was born in 1963, so I am writing from the perspective of a little girl and focusing on what was most different from today. I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood in a small southern city. It was definitely not Mayberry and I most certainly did not have an idyllic childhood.
My parents were divorced and I lived with my mom, my grandmother, and an uncle. I had a babysitter with two grown daughters. My father was in prison.
My house was just down the street from the Catholic church and there were dozens of big Catholic families on our street. I never met another child with divorced parents until 1974.
I heard about Vietnam and body bags in hushed tones but I didn’t understand what was going on. I did have an uncle there, so I did recognize the fear that gripped my mother and grandmother every time they watched the news.
I vaguely understood there was racial unrest but I didn’t understand why. I attended the Catholic school through the fourth grade and was told Jesus loves everyone equally. From what I remember, grown-ups would agree with that thought, but believed there would be no trouble between races if they simply didn’t interact. It wasn’t until the 70s when things got violent. It became common to hear gunshots at night and we moved to a “better” neighborhood in 1974. In the 70s We endured forced busing for a few years, which was a huge waste of time and money and caused more racial upheaval. For the first time, there were fights every day in school.
I never realized we were poor until we moved to the “better” neighborhood and all the girls in my class had pierced ears, wore designer clothes, and had long ago given up playing with toys, in the fifth grade.
While there are things I remember fondly from the 1960s, I certainly wouldn’t want to live there. I do, however, really miss beautiful manners and beautiful clothes.
This is Uyinene Mrwetyana:
South African girl.
She disappeared on the 24th of August 2019. After her disappearance, her friends went and stood outside the Post Office and handed out missing person fliers.
She had gone to the Post Office to collect a parcel. When she got there, the man who attended to her said she should return later, as the lights were out. He told her to return at 2pm. The Post Office closes at 1pm. When she came back later, he raped and killed her.
When the friends were giving out fliers, this man apparently watched them and even took some and said he’d distribute them to people that visited the Post Office.
You know what he told the police when they caught him?
“This one really put up a fight. It took so long for her to die.”
At her funeral, her mom said “ I’m sorry I warned you about everything except the Post Office.”
It broke my heart.
She was 19 years old.
Who are some of the dumbest criminals ever to be caught?
I would like to nominate the following interesting group of guys.
In the city of Charleroi, Belgium, a group of men walk into an e-cigarette store around 3 p.m. They demand money from the owner of the shop, a man called Didier.
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Didier knows he can’t fight off six men at once, so he came up with a plan. He told the wannabe robbers that 3 p.m. was a terrible time to rob his place. If only they would leave and come back around 6 p.m, when there would be more money in the cash register. The men talked with Didier for roughly 15 minutes and then left.
Didier picks up his phone and calls the cops on the gang, telling them what happened and that they would be back in a few hours.
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The police listened to Didier and thought: “Nobody would be so dumb. They aren’t actually going to come back after this, right?”
False. Around 6 p.m., as instructed, the guys return to the store to rob it. The plainclothes officers who showed up just in case were there waiting for them in a back room.
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I have to give it to them, they do like to believe in their fellow man.
What is the difference between a Chinese and Japanese child?
The idea that Japanese children are somehow better-behaved, or simply “cuter” than their Asian counterparts, is a widely accepted stereotype that fits into the whole mythos of “Japanese superiority”. The problem with that idea, however, is that as with all forms of superiority complexes, it’s based on half-truths and even untruths.
Lemme give you an example of what I mean.
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Back in 2021, this picture of a cute little 2–3 year old girl went viral on Chinese social media. It was claimed that this was a Japanese kindergartner walking alone to school, and that Japanese people raise their kids to be independent and self-reliant at a very early age. Others claimed she was standing because she’d given up her seat to someone in need – being this cute, brave, and well-mannered, is surely a testament to the superiority of Japanese society, culture, and genetics.
Internet commenters simply couldn’t stop talking about the greatness of Japan, and the sheer inferiority of China. Due to oppressive politics, a subpar culture, and hopelessly flawed genetics, Chinese children will never look as cute and confident as this!
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Except if you looked at the posters on the train, you can see the photos of her were clearly taken in mainland China. Specifically, Hangzhou.
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↑ The girl’s (very Chinese and very patriotic) mother was furious about people stealing and mislabeling photos of her daughter, just to further an anti-Chinese narrative.
But people still couldn’t (or wouldn’t) believe such a cute child could possibly be Chinese. So her mother dressed her up like this, which shut everyone up for good:
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So there you go. Children everywhere are all the same. They’re snotty, stinking, screaming balls of flesh who are only occasionally adorable. Anything to do with “cuteness” and such is mostly a reflection of a family’s level of wealth and care, as well as a society’s level of development. The same way house-cats in a rich household tend to look better than strays on the street.
, children are probably only going to look even cuter than before.
There are already enough double standards out there, with the specific aim of keeping the Chinese down. It is important not to let them affect children, and how adults perceive of them.
Tiffany – I Think We’re Alone Now (Official Music Video)
What are the most important psychological facts that everyone should know?
We all know the unavoidable Karens, but there’s also the Ritas, and they are much worse and definitely more dangerous. Unfortunately we all trust them, due to a simple but simultaneously very sophisticated psychological trap.
And that trap is called trauma.
We all know those women who once had an eating disorder (think anorexia), and then later became “professional” diet coaches. Without any medical degree whatsoever. The Goop herself is a dangerous example.
She is the basic Rita with a capital “R.”
Given people diet tips while she barely eats anything.
Just weeks ago I read about this woman who is famous in The Netherlands, who proudly stopped drinking alcohol, and suddenly is a self-proclaimed anti-alcohol advocate. How convenient when the advocacy begins after you stopped using.
She also declared that she had had an alcohol problem for many years — although she never said a word about any problem before she quit. And nobody else did.
In hindsight, our problems always become much worse, since then our heroism (of quitting) becomes much greater. In my opinion, she might have had a problem, but that does not mean other people do.
Again: Rita with a capital “R.”
I even know a professional stillbirth coach. The woman in question has three healthy kids, but a fourth died at birth, and suddenly she became an expert — and not much later a paid professional — coaching couples who end up in the same situation. Without any psychological expertise.
But still, we believe such people, as if trauma makes us wiser, which it does not.
Having experienced trauma does not mean you can professionally help other people suffering from similar trauma.
Suffering from psychosis does not make you a psychologist. Suffering from anorexia in your childhood does not make you a diet coach in later life (while you still suffer from anorexia, by the way). Being a victim does not make you suited to be a professional guide.
Being a patient does not make you a doctor.
Expertise requires a much greater effort, much wider and deeper knowledge, much more theory and much more experience. It takes years and years and years of guided study. And Ritas can and will hurt vulnerable people even more (even if they think they are doing the right thing).
So please stop following Ritas, stop consulting them and stop paying them. Stop watching them, and stop reading them. They are using trauma for their own benefit, and they have no expertise whatsoever, whatever they say or believe.
You are not helped by Ritas such as Gwyneth Paltrow — you are abused.
“Rita” stands for Rather Ill-suited Trauma Adviser, by the way.
And although I coined the term myself, you do not have to pay.
This is Natasha Conabeer:
Another South African girl.
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She went missing on the 18th of August.
About 2 days ago, she was found outside her house. Her kidnappers drugged her, raped her and beat her. They broke every bone in her body, and they apparently scooped out her one eye. Then when they were done, they went and left her at home. She died on the 9th of September at the hospital.
This isn’t even all of them. Another woman was apparently dumped by a car in her neighborhood last week after being raped and killed. A 17 year old girl was shot dead by her boyfriend, who then killed himself afterwards. Another woman, just like Natasha, left for work in the morning and disappeared. When she was found, she was drugged and beaten. She died in the hospital. A man also killed 3 of his kids and his stepdaughter because their mother wanted to divorce him.
A 20-year-old boy called Nicholas Ninow raped a 7-year-old at a restaurant last year and they want to say he needs psychological help.
I am angry because the women in my country of South Africa are dying, but the only thing people are putting their energy on is being Xenophobic.
The other day, I had to work in a different shop. A man there that I don’t know and have never met, came and put his arms around my waist to hug me. I pushed him off. He asked me why. I told him I didn’t want him touching me. He flat out said “I have the right to touch you however I want to.” I’m not even exaggerating. Those were his words.
Gobble It Up Pot Pie
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
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Ingredients
Filling
2 (15 ounce) cans mixed vegetables, drained
1 pound (2 cup) cooked turkey, shredded
1 (12 ounce) jar turkey gravy
Topping
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
1 (6 ounce) package instant turkey stuffing mix
1 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Filling: In large mixing bowl, combine vegetables, turkey and gravy; mix well.
Pour into a greased 2-quart casserole.
Topping: In skillet, melt butter.
Add onion and celery and cook until tender.
Add seasoning packet from stuffing mix and water. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat; stir in stuffing. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
Stir in dried cranberries.
Spread stuffing evenly over vegetable mixture.
Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until heated through.
The examples of the Western elite fever dream warping their thinking have multiplied at an extraordinary rate in the past few days and I simply cannot cover all of the main ones in a single post, so there will be a later post with the examples that would have made this post far too long.
Just when you think that the Western elites cannot sink any lower, they prove otherwise. The level of rank hypocrisy and utter pettiness reminds us that we are dealing with the equivalent of a child throwing a tantrum because they cannot get their own way. How dare Russia not collapse under our sanctions! How dare the Russians shoot down our drone spying off their coast! How dare the Chinese support the Russians! How dare the Russians and Chinese work to bring peace to the Middle East! … The list of “why can’t you accept that we are the ‘Massa’” style reactions accumulate day after day. The Western garden is annoyed that the trees in the non-Western forest will not bow down to it and accept it as their guide to what a good civilization is (this reminds me of the scene in the Lord of the Rings where the Ents uproot themselves and join the fight against Mordor by attacking Isengard).
All of the Western elite propaganda actions are part of the playbook for any nation that stands up to the West; make the country and its leadership look as horrendous as possible through extensive media control and the use of civil puppet institutions to smear them. That’s how you get a population to go to war with the enemies of the Western elites, to shed their blood and their money for the benefit of the elites. For now, it is the blood of the Ukrainians, a nation that is slowly being depopulated of its young able-bodied men, but as this approach seems to be failing Western young men’s lives may be the next to be squandered. Of course, the reality is that there are at least 20,000 “sheep dipped” Polish military personnel already in Ukraine (at least 2,000 of which have died) as well as significant numbers of other sheep-dipped “mercenaries” and special forces personnel.
The ICC indicts Putin for saving children’s lives
The Polish President of the Interminable Criminal Court (yeah, I bet he is unbiased against Russians) announces the indictment of President Putin for the “crime” of transferring children beyond the reach of murderous Ukrainian artillery salvoes aimed directly at civilian areas and the retribution of Ukrainian fascist organizations. The British Prosecutor of the ICC, who will have led the investigation stitch-up is also the brother of a convicted paedophile (you really can’t make this stuff up!). As Russia is not a signatory to the ICC this is all just propaganda pantomime BS. This is the same ICC that the US is not a signatory to and has threatened to invade the Hague if any US citizen is tried there! The ICC could also be called the International Colonial Court given its predilection for taking down African politicians. It is certainly a Western organ of dominance given its’ studied blindness to Western crimes. The ICC found the President of Serbia not guilty of war crimes, but only after he had died suspiciously in The Hague under their detention! The Mississippi courts of the 1950s could have learnt a few tricks from the ICC!
A German Idiot/Minister states Putin will be arrested if her enters Germany
The German Federal Minister of Justice decided to open his mouth and ruin any hope of a future relationship with Russia even more by stating that he would arrest Putin if he entered Germany given the above ICC propagandist ruling. He could have just kept his mouth shut and demurred if questioned on this, but no he had to stand up to show what a complete tool he is. Just like the idiot Canadian elites who ruined their relationship with China when they arrested kidnapped Meng Wanzhou and were then shafted by the US administration who made a deal with China. That’s what happens to mere supplicants, they are seen as expendable by their master; the Germans don’t seem to have learnt this lesson yet.
NATO asks for Russia and Belarus to be thrown out of the Olympics
A whole bunch of countries asked the International Olympic Committee to ban Russia and Belarus from the next Olympics. When looked at closely the list of nations is basically NATO countries plus NATO wannabees, so basically NATO asked the IOC to ban a country they are having a war with (and one not actually involved in the Ukraine War). Perhaps a better solution would be to move the Olympics from France, who put their name to the list and are to all intents and purposes an active participant in the Ukraine War, to a neutral nation and declare the Olympics politics free. If those nations want to ban themselves from the Olympics that’s up to them. Maybe the IOC should have done that when NATO illegally bombed Serbia, NATO countries illegally invaded Iraq and when NATO destroyed Libya etc.? The hypocrisy is redolent.
Perhaps also, the Olympics should be moved away from France given the obvious disregard of the French President for his people through extensive police violence and ruling by decree to ram through an increase in the pension age that 75% of the French people are against:
A Canadian Idiot/Minister Calls for Russian Regime Change
Yes, I am a Canadian and have to watch my leaders commit what accounts to treason, acting against the national interest, again and again. They are like sock puppets with Uncle Sam’s hand up their arses, it is utterly pathetic. But one of the worst has to be Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Joly, who mixes incompetence with being a US puppet. A civil and commercial lawyer, an MP for only 7 years and with previous positions of Canadian Heritage (3 years), Tourism (1 year), and Economic Development (2 years). Hardly a deep career in diplomacy to be able to deal with giants like Lavrov (Russian Foreign Minister) and Wang (China)! Then again, we have a Prime Minister whose main previous experience was as a drama teacher and a Ukrainian nationalist (also a previous minister of foreign affairs), as Finance Minister. Of course, the US doesn’t set a high bar with an ex speech writer as Secretary of State.
Well, Ms. Joly proved her metal by doing exactly what diplomats are explicitly not supposed to do, say the quiet bit out loud! Calling for explicit regime change in Russia! I wish we could have regime change in Canada, but all of the main parties are captured by the Western fever dream.
The US Trump Fever Dream
Matching the external fever dream of the US establishment is their internal Trump Fever Dream. Just as in the international area, every move the establishment takes seems to make their enemy, Trump, stronger. The completely unneeded raid on Trump’s Mar-el-Lago estate supposedly to go after “secret” papers ended up shining a light on the breaches of security by Biden with respect to “secret” papers and the partisan nature of the state; with no “gotcha” to discredit or imprison Trump. Now we have a New York district attorney who seems to have spent the last few years trying not to prosecute people while working overtime to find something, anything, on Trump to prosecute. As Elon Musk stated quite correctly, an indictment of Trump on this flimsy case that stretches the bounds of the law could bring Trump a landslide in 2024.
This inter-elite war, between the internationalist bourgeoisie who give little thought to a true reinvigoration of US manufacturing (that would significantly reduce their profits) or the US population (their response to the East Palestine eco-disaster displays this lack of caring, reminding us of Obama’s show of disdain with respect to the Flint water crisis of 2014 – watch the video, below, did he even sip that water?) and the domestic bourgeoisie who rely on domestic real estate, domestic extractive industries and what’s left of domestic manufacturing has ripped the mask of the US elite. The capitalist-controlled state and media which previously only aimed their wrath at the workers and economically leftist politicians, is now being used in an attempt to crush a capitalist domestic competitor. But after seven plus years of “Russia, Russia, Russia”, “Trump soft on Russia”, and “Trump is corrupt” and more generally “Trump Bad”, The Donald is the front-runner for the Republican nomination to run against Biden(?) in 2024.
Expect the US internationalist establishment to get more and more desperate as time goes on, Trump should stay away from open topped cars in any large spaces ending in “Plaza”. Their desperate acts may only expose them more and strengthen Trump more. If the establishment can awake from its Trump fever dream, we may see an “arrangement” where some senior Democrats are thrown to the wolves to protect the whole. Perhaps the Biden Crime Family plus a few others get thrown under the bus, with Biden himself conveniently non compos mentis. A Hunter show trial may serve to feed the retributive thirsts of the Trump supporters, while the lurid details of “Chinese interference and bribery” will serve to vilify China. The details of Ukrainian corruption could also be used as a smokescreen to exit the Ukrainian stupidity. The timing would also be good for the establishment to move on from their failure in Ukraine and focus fully on China; something that Trump would be happy to do. Let’s remember though, Trump is a billionaire capitalist who mimics a populist politician while really not giving a damn about the US people, what he really cares about is his domestic assets; and going after China.
A Ray of Light: Taiwan Now Only Recognized By 0.49% of the Global Population
El Salvador has now removed its recognition of Taiwan and accepted China as the true representative of all of China, including the province of Formosa. Only 12 of the tiniest of the 193 nations of the world now recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, with pretty much all of them being in the Caribbean (Guatemala, Haiti, Belize etc.), South America (Paraguay) or are Western-dominated tiny Pacific island nations (Marshall Islands, Palau, Tuvalu, Naura). Of course, this will do nothing to stop the US trying to stir up trouble with China over Taiwan, but it does help remove even more of the diplomatic cover, now if only Guatemala and Paraguay could do the same …
The ongoing tightening of the relationship between China and Russia continues onwards, driven by the Western elites’ rising fever dream. The formal visit of Xi to Moscow and the contents of the public announcements and press conferences show that China understands that its support for Russia is existential to both nations. The West cannot be allowed to divide and conquer, with an example of Chinese support being Russia’s move to #1 oil supplier to China ousting Saudi Arabia; so much for the Western attempts to control Russia’s oil exports. China (and India) will be the beneficiaries of Russian hydrocarbons rather than Europe; with ongoing work to expand Russia gas supplies to China through pipelines and LNG tankers.
It does seem that the Western elites thought that the ICC indictment of Putin would stop Xi travelling to Russia, perhaps that was even the main reason for the sudden indictment? The utterly delusional nature of this is evident to anyone outside the fever dream. They really thought that a China which is seeing increasing hostility from the West is going to undermine its biggest ally because of an indictment by the Western kangaroo court in The Hague? The Chinese snub of the ICC will play very well in Africa, with the West delivering a propaganda win for China outside the West. The utter delusions and hypocrisy of the Western elites is shown in their pathetic denunciations of Xi’s visit, while all their crimes are conveniently not investigated by the ICC. Russia will also have won in the non-West as it stands up to the ICC and moves to indict the ICC sock puppets involved in constructing this fact-challenged indictment. In his recent statement.
Secretary of State Blinken recently condemned the China visit to Russia, using the ICC ruling as flimsy support for his statements. He accused the Ethiopian government (the one that overthrew the Western puppet regime) of war crimes, reminding Africa of the games that the US plays in legitimizing its’ acts of aggression against those that will not say “uncle”; gold for the leaders who accept US dominance and lead for those that do not. The fact that the US State Department considers that it can judge the rest of the world on human rights, while being the biggest violator of them (Iraq, Rendition and Torture program, Occupation of Syria, mass imprisonment at home), shows utter hubris, hypocrisy, and mendacity.
With the tight alliance now including Iran and Belarus, and China and Russia’s influence spreading throughout the non-Western world (e.g. their negotiating of a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia) and the Ukraine war going Russia’s way, time is on their side. The rumoured peace deal being negotiated by Russia between Turkey, Iran and Syria would underline the very significant loss of influence for the West in the MENA region.
In the area of foreign relations, the relative size of official foreign visits can tell us a lot. The Brazilian President’s visit to the US was spartan, while the upcoming trip to China is much bigger: with a very large business contingent. Brazil is open for business with China. Although Lula has to tread carefully it seems with respect to the Ukraine war belligerents (although short of implementing sanctions) he is carefully balancing between the West and non-West while understanding the inevitable decline of the former with respect to the latter.
The reception for Chinese and Russian visits to Africa has also been visibly warmer than that for Western delegations; with Macron being treated with relative disdain. Neocolonial bullies only apologize when they have been severely beaten, and Macron’s speech promising “profound humility” toward Africa (although perhaps just propaganda) is a statement of France’s much weakened position in that continent. Below are a couple of excellent presentations by Cyrus Janssen covering why the US is losing its’ position in Africa and Latin America; in two words – arrogance and hubris.
And…
All fuel for the Western fever dream, which will only intensify the China, Russia, Belarus, Iran alliance, and force other nations to pick a side. They will tend to pick the side they see winning, and that is increasingly not the West.
Judas Priest – You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ (Live from the ‘Fuel for Life’ Tour)
This is Tshegofatso Pule.
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She was 8 months pregnant. She went missing on Thursday, 4 June. She was last seen on security footage being accompanied by her boyfriend to an unknown car that she left in. On June 8th, she was found killed.
South Africa is a very dangerous place.
The Grand Strategy: Kissinger & Rockefeller Scheme to Transfer Wealth & Industry to China
April 10, 2020 – The Coronavirus has exposed the Globalist neo-liberal World Order for what it is: a system designed to transfer wealth from the many into the hands of a few in order to dominate the rest of the world and protect their monopolistic power.
Author Antony Sutton claims Wall Street funded not only the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, but the rise of Nazi Germany and Hitler as well as international Communism.
Here is a telling quote from Sutton’s book, “The Best Enemy Money Can Buy” (1986):
By using data of Russian origin it is possible to make an accurate analysis of the origins of this equipment. It was found that all the main diesel and steam-turbine propulsion systems of the ninety-six Soviet ships on the Haiphong supply run [to the North Vietnamese] that could be identified (i.e., eighty-four out of the ninety-six) originated in design or construction outside the USSR. We can conclude, therefore, that if the [U.S.] State and Commerce Departments, in the 1950s and 1960s, had consistently enforced the legislation passed by Congress in 1949, the Soviets would not have had the ability to supply the Vietnamese War – and 50,000 more Americans and countless Vietnamese would be alive today.
Who were the government officials responsible for this transfer of known military technology? The concept originally came from National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, who reportedly sold President Nixon on the idea that giving military technology to the Soviets would temper their global territorial ambitions. How Henry arrived at this gigantic non sequitur is not known. Sufficient to state that he aroused considerable concern over his motivations. Not least that Henry had been a paid family employee of the Rockefellers since 1958 and has served as International Advisory Committee Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, a Rockefeller concern. – Skull and Bones, Antony Sutton & Bankrolling the Enemy
It is a bizarre strategy indeed to engage in trading and doing business with an enemy, especially when that enemy is engaged in egregious human rights abuses.
Here is a conversation between President Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about Chairman Mao Zedong from February, 1972:
While discussing Nixon’s trip to China, Kissinger said, “Your trip [his upcoming historic trip to China] can change the whole future of the world.” Nixon and Kissinger then went on to speculate as to why Mao and the Chinese wanted to open relations with the Americans. What is most striking is the lack of critical thinking regarding the true intentions of China.
When Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller met with Zhou Enlai in China in 1973—just after President Richard Nixon had visited China establishing official relations—an understanding was reached whereby the U.S. would supply industrial capital and know-how to China.
In return Kissinger-connected corporations would gain the monopolistic advantage of low-cost labor production which could out-compete all U.S. domestic industry.
The comparative advantage gained was being able to hire Chinese laborers who were ready to work hard at exceedingly low cost—with no drugs, no alcohol, a strong work ethic, no unions, no paid benefits and weak environmental standards. And with such a large labor pool, burned out workers could simply be replaced. This gave the Rockefeller/Kissinger corporations a major edge over their domestic U.S. competitors who had to pay relatively high wages, high regulation costs, deal with union strikes and collective bargaining etc.
Of course, the American consumer did not see greatly lowered prices commensurate with such greatly lowered labor costs. The $19.99 plastic action-figure toy marketed with a Hollywood movie still cost $19.99 even though it cost $12 to $15 to produce in the U.S. but less than $2.00 per copy to produce in China and transport to America’s West Coast container ports for distribution throughout America.
The consumer paid pretty much the old prices but the corporations split the monopoly profit with China’s Princelings since it did not take much of a lowering of prices to drive high-wage, high-benefit, contracted-labor domestic corporations out of business (not to mention the environmental and workplace safety regulations with which domestic companies were saddled). Then, Wal-Mart became a near-monopoly retailer that increased and reinforced the widespread selling of these off-shore manufactures.
Thus, America’s domestic producers were not simply being bested on one or another area of production; they were being bested across the entire spectrum of manufactured goods that American buy. It was anticipated that these domestic firms would fail, and their failure was hastened by the banks maintaining a deflationary domestic economy in the U.S. throughout the post Rockefeller-Kissinger-Zhou buildup of China and the degrading of American domestic manufacturing. – 21st Century Wire
Just as author Antony Sutton described, this was a way for the ruling class to gain a foothold and monopoly at the expense of the American middle class who saw all manufacturing sent overseas. The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed how damaging a policy this was, as America had become reliant on our adversaries like China. All while China is engaging in a military doctrine called “unrestricted warfare” that it is waging against us as part of their China 2050 grand strategy.
Take a look at some of Chairman Mao’s western handlers. Take for example, Israel Epstein and Sidney Shapiro, both of whom come from the west, with Shapiro having been trained by the US Army. Israel Epstein was Mao’s propagandist for the west, and we have to wonder if there is any familial relation to Jeffrey Epstein:
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Were these men working on behalf of the central bankers? Most likely. But that will be explored further in a separate article.
We see a similar pattern with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia: it was planned, financed and instigated by a small group of men in New York, acting on behalf of the international bankers. As Antony Sutton described in Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution:
We can conclude that the rise of China was not so much organic, as it was engineered by the same people and their philosophical heirs who have orchestrated other “cultural revolutions” in the past and then enforced socialism/ communism on the people. The Asia Society has described this same thing on their website:
You can click on each box and read how China was shaped very much by western bankers. Transmissions Media has produced a thorough breakdown of some of the more recent instigated “changes” in regard to China.
This timeline describes a plan for the destruction of America and the takeover by China as the new superpower that will impose the will of the international banking community. According to the author, the World Trade Organization was key to this, while perhaps the UN was the distraction.
The Rockefellers made the United States of America dependent on China. That should send a chill down the spine of any reader, considering China’s horrific human rights abuses.
T. Jack Mulcaire claims:
The Rockefeller dynasty is more responsible for the creation of the twin-engined US-China financial system than any other group of people. The family saw China’s potential as a market early on. John D. Rockefeller Sr., the family’s patriarch and founder of the Standard Oil monopoly empire, sold his first kerosene to China in 1863 and made his first charitable donation to Christian missionary efforts in China that same year. Commerce and philanthropy would come to define the next several decades of Rockefeller engagement in China. The synergy between trade and charity was strong and definitely intentional.
Rockefeller philanthropic institutions and biographers have portrayed the family’s interest in China during the early 20th century as a hobby, driven by nothing more than an idle fascination with Chinese culture and history and a generic desire to ‘do good’. But when we look at the activities of their commercial empire in China during this time, it’s clear that they were investing, not just donating. You don’t get to be the richest man in the history of the world, with a family fortune equal to about 1.5% of total annual US economic output, unless you’re always looking for an angle. During the early decades of the 20th century, the United States was transitioning to a coal-generated electric power grid. But China was desperately poor and would not be electrified for decades. The country was a market of 400 million people who mostly relied on vegetable oil lamps to light their nights.
The Rockefeller-owned Standard Oil monopoly, which was the largest company in the world at that time, made large capital investments to capture that market and provide ‘Oil for the Lamps of China‘. The company gave away at least 8 million new kerosene lamps, branded with the ‘Mei Foo’ name under which Standard Oil sold kerosene in the Chinese market, and sold millions more at ultra low prices, to create a demand for Standard Oil kerosene.
The Standard Oil presence in East Asia was the largest American direct investment in the region prior to World War II. Although the company was broken up in 1911 due to anti-trust action, the family retained control of most of its constituent parts and operations in China were not affected. Stanvac, the company’s main operating subsidiary in China, owned hundreds of river vessels to bring its products to market in China’s interior, including 13 large tankers. After 1932, Standard took a hit to its market share by entering into a voluntary market allocation agreement with Royal Dutch Shell, Texaco and the Soviet owned Kwang-Ha oil company, but China remained an important market for the Rockefeller petroleum empire.
Concurrently with this massive investment of capital and expansion of operations in China, the Rockefeller family’s philanthropic institutions were spending lavishly in the country. Rockefeller funded philanthropic institutions spent tens of millions of dollars in China between 1900 and the Second World War. Rockefeller money created the China Medical Board and Peking Union Medical College, which essentially introduced modern Western medicine to China, as an adjunct to a concurrent effort by Rockefeller-funded organizations to totally transform the American health system. The Foundation’s attempted a total transformation of the lives of hundreds of millions of rural Chinese peasants, by introducing modern technological agriculture methods via the North China Council for Rural Reconstruction. The agricultural program was cut short by the Japanese invasion in 1937, but over the course of the 20th century, the Rockefeller Foundation would dedicate well over $1 billion to ‘change China’. – T. Jack Mulcaire
Could this be why we see China following the Rockefeller Foundation “Lockstep” playbook during this Coronavirus outbreak? There certainly is evidence that the bankers are still very much banking on the Chinese elites. CNN Money reported in 2016 for example, that JP Morgan Chase had been fined for hiring the children of China’s elites to gain access to deals. This is called pay-to-play.
This is all part of the Kissinger-Rockefeller Grand Strategy of building up China while systematically destroying America.
Bush was also connected to China according to an article entitled “Skull & Bones: The Bush China Connection” that also explains how Mao attended a Yale Divinity School were he was groomed.
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It is not a coincidence that people like Bush and Rockefeller have generational ties to China.
In fact, after the death of David Rockefeller, Jr., China Daily published a 10-page eulogy and memorial that detailed how “important” Rockefeller was in shaping modern China. The article entitled “Rockefeller Family’s Connections to China” reports some incredible things:
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Robert Blackwell, a Kissinger Fellow and member of the Council of Foreign Relations recently wrote a paper entitled “U.S. Grand Strategy Towards China” which illustrates that the same elites are trying to mold current policy.
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Henry Kissinger recently gave an interview to The Atlantic, which is a NATO think tank that attempts to re-form America into the image of the European Union. Take a look at the symbolism:
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The title of it “World Chaos and World Order” is a reference to those in the know, about the infamous Masonic “order out of chaos” motto. This centuries-long plan by these international bankers is not over at all. I believe that Kissinger deceived Nixon who did not understand what was intended in opening up relations with China. Nixon believed that the Chinese people would see the value in freedom and “free trade.”
It’s been speculated that this is why Kissinger and Rockefeller instigated the Watergate coup against Nixon—a frame-up with John Dean and Kissinger as the real “Deep Throats,” by my deductions from public information. Was this so that the Rockefeller/Kissinger plans for China’s industrialization and America’s de-industrialization could proceed unopposed? Exactly that certainly did occur after Nixon resigned to avoid a constitutional crisis that would hinder the proper working of government.
If so, what does that say about the current and still on-going coup attempts against President Trump? He clearly is not following their script. That is one thing for which we can be most grateful.
Autograph – Turn up the Radio
Pork Loin Cordon Bleu
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Ingredients
8 thinly sliced pork loins
8 slices boiled ham
8 slices Swiss cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 small shallot, diced
1/2 cup Pere Magloire Calvados
Instructions
With a rolling pin, pound each pork loin 3 times. On 4 pieces of pork, place a slice of ham and a slice of cheese and top with another piece of pork. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook the pork for about 1 1/2 minutes on each side.
Add the shallot and cook for another minute.
Next, add the chicken stock and place in the oven for 6 minutes at 300 degrees F.
Serve immediately.
This is Naledi Phangindawo.
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She was murdered by the father of her kids. He was apparently abusive, and she tried leaving him so he killed her. South Africa. Very dangerous place.
What is the most badass thing a historical figure has ever said?
King Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor was one of the most powerful entities in Medieval Christian Europe. He fought against the Turks and founded “The Order of The Dragon”, a society committed to keeping Christian Europe free from Islamic rule. He was also a total hottie.
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bangin’
Now my dude Sigismund was known for being a total, all-around badass. He was super intelligent, spoke like 7 languages, campaigned against Venetians, drank booze out of a giant gold and jewel encrusted horn, and all that other badass stuff. Nobody dared question his intellect… that was, of course, until the day.
Sigismund was holding a counsel to settle the Western Schism, which is just a fancy word for “there were 3 different dudes trying to convince everyone that they were The Real Pope™ and nobody knew who to believe”. Not good because The Pope had a lot of power in the Middle Ages and was basically a Super Holy King (A.K.A “The Mac Daddy”).
So during one of those counsel meetings my dude Sigismund was just up there killin’ it. Speakin’ Latin. All that Medieval shit. When all of a motherfucking sudden there was a cardinal, a representative of The Catholic Church, who decided to interrupt Sigismund and tell him that his Latin was weak af.
That’s right. They straight up Grammar Nazi’d The Holy Roman Emperor and oh ho ho boy — he did not like that shit. So he reached into the depths of his magical, fur capped head and pulled out this sick burn;
“I am The King of the Romans — I am above grammar.”
OH LAWDY.
He needs some milk.
get wreck’d nerd
Is the world really controlled by just a few families?
Indeed, we live within a power hierarchy where only a few dozen families control the world and do whatever they wish for themselves. It seems as if they have limitless abilities with their power, as they limit humanity from obtaining true information, acquiring certain medication, normal food and cheaper energy that we could have long used instead of oil. They act based on their egoistic pursuits and position.
We are powerless to create any different kind of order in our world unless we rise to a degree of connection where we start feeling the positive forces dwelling in nature, which are currently concealed from us. We will then exit this power structure we find ourselves in. These few families cannot stand in the way of nature’s governance and limit our world in its positive form of development.
The wisdom of Kabbalah calls these people in power “angels.” The Kabbalistic meaning of “angels” is completely different to the way most people think about that word. “Angels” means certain forces that are under the complete control of the upper force, and these ones in question function as a shadow of our flaws.
If we positively connect in a way that adapts us to the positive forces of nature—forces of love, bestowal and connection—we neutralize negative forms of control over us. For the time being, however, while we remain detached in our egoistic connections, each one pulling their own way, then it is as if we sustain those few families’ power. In other words, we ourselves are their power source, and we create the conditions for their existence.
Therefore, our progress to a harmonious and peaceful future depends on our transformation to positively connect. When we do so, we will feel the powers over us operating out of absolute love and care—an attitude that will grant everyone access to the most powerful, boundless and perfect form of fulfillment.
5 things a narcissistic pervert will never tell you!
What are the things that a narcissistic pervert will never tell me? What does the manipulator hide from me? How to understand a narcissistic pervert?
The manipulative narcissistic pervert hides all sorts of things from you, often to prevent you from escaping from his grip.
He especially does not want you to succeed in getting into his head in order to understand his real game. Indeed, it is totally possible to recognize the weaknesses of the narcissistic pervert.
Learn to detect the signs quickly and you will be able to destroy the narcissistic pervert.
HERE ARE THE 5 THINGS A NARCISSISTIC PERVERT WILL NEVER TELL YOU:
The narcissistic pervert is completely dependent on you.
He would feel a great inner emptiness without your presence and would go completely crazy, as if all of a sudden his precious treasure disappeared.
If this were to happen, he would be alone with himself and would even be very afraid of it. For the NP, you are his favorite prey!
He would like to be like you and have your qualities.
The manipulator is extremely jealous of the extraordinary person that you are. He is jealous of your qualities that he will probably never have.
Often, they keep you in their grip to take away all the good in you since their jealousy is too intense. You must learn to protect your value from this toxic person.
The Narcissistic Pervert Manipulator wants to own you and is desperate to control you.
He is constantly in need of controlling you. It is in his nature and if he were to lose control, he would fear being controlled by you.
He has the mind of a very spoiled child.
A narcissistic pervert is not a responsible adult. The actions and mindset of this personality are exactly that of a child king.
If they can’t keep you, they will easily replace you.
As you know, the NP doesn’t want to be alone and is desperate for a prey to fill an inner void. It’s as if he lives and breathes for the simple purpose of destroying others.
BABYMETAL – ギミチョコ！！- Gimme chocolate!! (OFFICIAL)
Did China keep Snowden in Hong Kong?
Absolutely
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On May 7th he requested for a 21 day Holiday to go to Hong Kong for Traditional Medicine Treatment for Epilepsy.
On May 13th 2014, Snowden wrote to the Ministry of State Security in China and the FSB in Russia requesting for Asylum.
He gave 10 IP addresses to each Country monitored by the NSA as an initial offer of Asylum
The US promptly decided to extradite him from Hong Kong
Enter Robert Libbo & Ong Boon Keong
US filed three immediate requests :-
Provisional Arrest Immediately
If not Provisional arrest, at least Confinement in his Hotel Room
Monitoring all his activities
Sadly for US, China had got the IP Addresses and were Furious!!!!
Two Chinese Big Shots from the CPC visited HK and left a day later
HK said – Sorry!!!! We cannot arrest him or monitor his activities!!! Send your Extradition request within 30 days
Chinese Officials from the Singapore Consulate met Snowden and Snowden gave them over 278 GB of Data across 4 80 GB Support Disks. It contained many many many monitored IP addresses and protocol routes.
A Pro West Judge was slated to hear the case but 1 hour before the first hearing – He was so terrified by someone who called him that he mysteriously took a 14 day recuperation and the case moved to a devout pro chinese Judge – a Lady who refused everything to the US and openly told HK authorities to arrest anyone who entered the Mira Hotel without permission- diplomacy be damned
By the time US used Political clout – Snowden vanished. He moved to Kowloon to some Refugee apartment and the Pro Chinese Judge exempted him from any appearance.
The Technicalities
The US sent a formal extradition request and Lackey HK politicians dutifully endorsed it to the court.
Our Pro Chinese Judge promptly rejected it on grounds of:-
—Error in listen name
-Social Security Document not a valid proof of ID in HK and Passport details are mismatched
This was true. The Request was so hurried that the Name and Passport were botched up.
However China of 2013 wasnt the China of 2022. The Mainland Authorities knew eventually they would have to kowtow to US and send Snowden to US unless they invaded HK.
So they tipped off Snowden who moved to the Russian Consulate in HK
Snowden throws a Brilliant Curveball
Snowden applied to 21 Nations for Asylum knowing fully well he would go only to China. Later he changed to Russia after advise from the Chinese.
Snowden used the NSA tracking against them by making 20 calls to the Bolivian consulate in HK and talking to the Bolivian Ministry.
Everyone believed he would make for the Bolivian consulate.
Unlike Assange, Snowden wasnt an Idiot who trusted the Western System knowing they were all prostitutes of USA long ago.
Nobody looked at Russia
It was China or Bolivia.
Meanwhile HK authorities passed an order forbidding Snowden to leave by Air if he presented his passport
China makes the last call
Again China made a call and the order was revoked on Human Rights grounds and was called for somewhere in Mid June 2014
Snowden left 2 hours after it was revoked and well before US State Department could respond.
By the time the US State Department responded, Snowden was Long Gone and was in Moscow where Asylum was granted in a record 40 minutes pending a hearing scheduled 11 months later.
So it was China who ensured that Snowden never got caught or extradited
They however knew that they could not bring Snowden to Beijing and risk so much Political Pressure, so they orchestrated his movement to Russia and subsequently demanded details from the US on their spying that US simply could not give.
CHECKMATE
Today Snowden is a Russian Citizen
What happened in China next
The Great Firewall was enhanced and every single Protocol was destroyed
China amended the law to exempt Personal Security to US Equipment Server Engineers – Two Engineers who were arrested on grounds of spying were beaten so badly in custody that the rest fled China in sheer terror.
Over 500 Equipment Contracts with US were decimated
China demanded newer Security Agreements and told a Facebook Engineer who was arrested how they would target their families
It was literally a Mafia Moment in China
US Security Experts in China were so frightened that they all fled China and their equipment was seized and destroyed.
US didnt protest because they were caught with their pants down
Israels entire Surveilance system was compromised in Iran and Five Iranians were executed and their families disappeared
Israel and US lost a Massive Surveillance Behemoth in the Region
Snowden was easily Chinas Greatest Patriot
Without him imagine?
China would never have set up counter surveillance on US and created their Great Firewall and protected itself from Malicious Western Impacts.
Into the Black
Why is American life so much harder than it was in the 50s and 60s?
Not by MM-MM
This is a white guy’s perspective. Please don’t beat me to death.
Mom stayed at home. Dad went to work.
There were more, and better paying jobs out there for men who came back from the wars because there was less competition (not from working women)
So the Dads brought home the bacon and Moms cooked it.
There were Black and White TV’s in mid 50’s. No dishwashers (only Mom). We were ahead of the game and had a washer AND a dryer in the basement.
Got our first color TV in 64. Same year my mom, who was 46 got her driver’s license and first car. It was also the same year I was mugged as a 16 year old and hospitalized for a shattered nose and fractured skull (this was in a Good Neighborhood) on the S.W. side of Chicago.
This is the street corner where I was mugged.
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So it seemed to be simpler.
4 TV channels which went off about midnight.
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No internet, ping pong in the rec room, BBQ’s every weekend at a different house in the neighborhood.
Baseball in the park.
Good Humor Ice Cream trucks.
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Door to door salesman.
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The Milkman. Edit 10/5/2019 – They still exist! I met one today, didn’t look like this guy, but it seems that they have evolved, still delivering to retail outlets, BUT he does deliver milk and cream to people who are shut-in’s because of a disability.
That sort of surprised me. Enjoy.
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Friendly streets.
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That’s what I remember and why it seemed to be simpler. The homes on this street are at least 67 years old, the age of the red brick 1 story house where I grew up (photo from 2018).
Maybe life seemed simpler than it really was. 🙂
EDIT: I want to thank the thousands of you who feel the same, and understand what happened when you read this post, and upvoted me.
It also dawned on me that I did not reference a lecture I had seen about the evolution about our information OVERLOAD.
Simply, in the 1800’s we only made a few decisions a day, Plow the front 40 or the back 40. kill and dress a chicken or a pig for dinner, THIS WHITE SHIRT OR THAT WHITE SHIRT for Sunday Church.
Today we make THOUSANDS of decisions AN HOUR.
The process of typing this edit meant I had to think, phrase and actually perform thousand+ keystrokes, just for this message.
Yep, life was easier when we didn’t have computers, IPads, SMART watches and SMART PHONES or 1000 TV Channels with 999 different opinions.
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The volume of information and decisions that we need to make every day is outpacing the evolution capability of our 30 Million year old brains.
Thanks again for reading!
Edit Christmas Day 2019.
One thing I just remembered today was when I was little, we did not have a fireplace in the house that you can see in the picture above. So I would go to the front door, and not only unlock the door, but open it slightly. My parents tried to tell me that when Santa couldn’t find a chimney to come down, he had a master key and came in.
But I did not believe them. In my mind I was only slightly taller than the door knob. So I would open the door, and then go to bed. But in the middle of the night after my parents went to bed, I would check the front door. It was always closed, so I opened it again, maybe just 1/2 inch. I would leave the cookies and milk next to a chair right by the door. While there was a storm door, the house would get still get cold, most Christmases were snow free, but still cold in Chicago.
My parents figured it out, because the milk and cookies were always gone, and the door was always closed when I got up.
Deep Dish Hamburger Pie
2023 03 19 17 52
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 can green beans
Salt and pepper to taste
Ketchup
2 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Instructions
Brown the meat and add your seasonings.
Stir in enough ketchup to suit your taste.
Add green beans and stir in well.
Place this mixture in a casserole dish and top with the mashed taters and then top that with the cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F until heated through and cheese is browned.
In the West, where the State is regarded with varying degrees of suspicion–even hostility–and, as a consequence, an outsider. In China the state is seen as an intimate, a part of the family. Indeed, as the head of the family. Martin Jacques.
2023 03 22 19 21
Cut to the chase
China is winning because it is run by honest geniuses and its people make stuff. We are losing because America is run by professional liars and we’ve stopped making stuff. Let us count our losing ways:
China’s productive (wartime) economy is three times bigger than America’s.
96% of them own their homes vs. 60% of us.
Their incomes double every decade. Our last raise was in 1975.
Their median net worth is higher, their wealth and income inequality lower.
Their streets are a hundred times safer.
They live much longer, healthier lives than Americans.
Their kids graduate 3 years ahead of ours in math and science.
They have a ‘stunning lead in 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies’
The IQ cutoff for a government job (or a PhD in theoretical physics) is 140.
Their government does not lie.
Their government keeps its promises.
Covid Zero was the greatest civil defense demonstration ever.
There are more hungry children, drug addicts, suicides, executions, and illiterate, incarcerated, poor, homeless people in America than in China.
China’s diplomacy is unmatched, as is its prestige: 100 heads of state will attend the BRI tenth anniversary this year.
Do the Math
Every year, twelve million Chinese babies are born with IQs averaging five points above ours, ten million graduate high school three grades ahead of ours, eight million graduate college, the top one-million take the three-day guokao, the civil service examination and, every year, the smartest 27,000 get jobs. This is a cause for clan celebration and an entry in Family Books, some of which predate the birth of Christ.
Every year, the government offers its new hires a choice of career tracks. The ambitious ones choose the leadership track and are promptly dispatched to the nation’s poorest villages with vague instructions to double their incomes. Those who succeed are asked to repeat their performance for an entire county. That’s how Xi started.
That’s how they all start.
And that’s how, in 2021, China’s government accomplished far more than all Western nations combined. As Chairman Rabbit explains, “In China, the government must solve problems by all means and take all responsibility – and its responsibility is both political and moral”.
The Moral Issue
That’s another major difference between our systems: Chinese officials are expected to set a moral example and civil service promotions are determined first by candidates’ moral maturity – for reasons familiar to John Quincy Adams, “Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Gallantry would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net”.
Planning
In 1951, Mao refined the Confucian model, adding democratic oversight, local experimentation, and endless surveys run by four-thousand full-time researchers at the Academy of Social Sciences’ fifty research centers and two-hundred sixty social disciplines. Says author Jeff J. Brown, “My Beijing neighborhood committee and town hall are constantly putting up announcements, inviting groups–renters, homeowners, over seventies, women under forty, those with or without medical insurance, retirees–to answer surveys. The CPC is the world’s biggest pollster for a reason: China’s democratic ‘dictatorship of the people’ is highly engaged at the day-to-day, citizen-on-the-street level. I know, because I live in a middle class Chinese community and I question them all the time. I find their government much more responsive and democratic than the dog-and-pony shows back home, and I mean that seriously”.
Planners tour the country, hold meetings, listen to local opinions, and formulate proposals which specialists evaluate and budget. Then twenty-seven levels of bureaucrats responsible for implementation submit feasibility analyses. Says a planner, “Computers have made huge improvements in collecting and analyzing the information. Still, thousands of statisticians, actuaries, database experts and technicians with degrees in urban, rural, agricultural, environmental and economic planning invest thousands of hours interpreting and analyzing this vast trove of data, statistics and information. Needless to say, for a continent-sized country with over a billion citizens, it takes hundreds of thousands of people to develop a Five-Year Plan”. Think tanks formulate policies, provincial field trials test them. Successful solutions are rolled out nationwide and their sponsors become front-page heroes.
Heroes
Let people see that you only want their good and the people will be good. The relationship between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend when the wind blows across it. If good men were to govern a country continually for a hundred years they would transform the violently bad and dispense with capital punishment altogether. Analects.
Most Chinese heroes – and even some of its Gods – were real-life government officials whose legacy is a happier, richer country. If that doesn’t explain the governance gap, I don’t know what does.
What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?
When I was 10, my parents signed me and my younger siblings up for the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Kids Birthday Club. Basically, I gave Krispy Kreme my address and birth month and they would send me a coupon for a free dozen doughnuts every year on my birth month until I aged out of their Kids Club at age 12— ‘cause this is just for kids, OK?
Sweet deal.
But Krispy Kreme forgot to ask for the year in my birthday. They have no clue how old I am.
So I’m now almost 25, and I’ve been a member of the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Kids Birthday Club for 15 years. That’s a 180 free doughnuts for me, plus another 180 for my sister and 180 for my brother.
, no joke), and now they don’t even offer it. Adults can sign up to get one single donut on their birthday and some special days (tax day, Halloween, National Doughnut Day), but that’s it.
Will anyone at Krispy Kreme ever notice that I’ve been “under age 12” for 15 years? Tune in next year to find out.
Edit 2018: Nope, didn’t notice yet.
Edit 2019: More donuts.
Edit 2020: Happy donut day!
Edit 2021: Still more donuts.
Edit 2022: Congratulations to me, I’ve been “under 12” for 19 years! Can we get to an even 20?
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What was your rescue cat or dog’s name before your changed it? If you didn’t, did you consider it?
My husband has severe anxiety and panic attacks. He decided to get him an emotional support animal. My husband loves cats, so we decided to get a kitten. I called the local rescue and was put in touch with the kitten foster mom. When I talked to her, I told her that we were looking for a kitten that was calm and would tend to be a lap kitty. She said she had the perfect one. It was a kitten named Sadie.
We went to see the kittens. The foster mom had two large rooms with about 20 kittens. She brought a black and white kitten to my husband. This was Sadie. My husband petted her but soon she jumped down and was off playing with the others.
Then this lanky blond kitten crawled into my husband’s lap. He purred like crazy. My husband fell in love with this kitten. The foster mom said she wasn’t sure that this kitten would be a good match for us. He was always play fighting and getting in trouble. She had named him Scrappy because of his feisty personality.
My husband had made up his mind, so we took Scrappy home. We had thought of different names that we liked. The kitten became Marley before we even got home.
Our Marley has been an angel. He has helped my husband so much. Marley always knows when my husband needs him. He will cuddle up close to my husband and purr. Since Marley came to live with us about 8 months ago, my husband has not had a bad panic attack and his anxiety is better. We love our “Scrappy” kitten named Marley.
The house where I spent the majority of my time growing up in elementary school and High School was in the hills of Western Pennsylvania. It was a small town. Perhaps 6000 people total. And it was a great place to raise a family in the 1960’s.
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It was safe, surrounded by woods, trees and farms. It had tons of places to hike and explore, with hills, springs and adventures all around the place.
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Hot Summer days, walking down the railroad tracks though hills and rail-lines were a staple of my childhood. And just like the movie “Stand by me” it was an important part of childhood.
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A childhood that is now lost.
Enjoy today’s post.
Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole – “What A Wonderful World” Video
Why is China seemingly so capable at doing almost anything it puts its mind to? What is the secret?
One Word – ONE PARTY MERITOCRACY
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Power only for those who are deemed WORTHY of it
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Each one doing what he is best suited for based on SHEER ABILITY
Talent identified and promoted regardless of any other criteria
The New Side to Autocracy that the whole world missed due to the Mismanagement of the USSR
The Principles of Chinese One Party Meritocracy includes:—
A Prosperous Populace is a Productive Populace
A Well Fed Populace is a satisfied Populace
Wealth that helps People grow and evolve, helps the economy grow and helps technology grow
You notice something?
No Mention of Freedom Or Equality or Gender and Race related politics
No Mention of Religion or Culture or Tradition
No Mention about Social Justice
It’s just Prosperity, Prosperity and Prosperity that is the primary goal.
Once Prosperity comes, everything else automatically comes naturally through evolution
Take USA?
It’s always Freedom, Equality and Diversity
That is a huge blow to meritocracy and ability
So Government couldn’t impose a good lockdown because people cried for Freedom to choose masks and 1.5 Million Americans died.
Researchers with amazing potential are finding that less talented researchers are landing good gigs because of Race and Gender
Thus there is Brain Drain for the first time since 1950
Take India?
It’s always Appeasement, Social Justice and Filthy Cesspit Politics
That is also a huge blow to Meritocracy
Again the Government couldn’t do anything during Covid II because an effective lockdown couldn’t be imposed due to Opposition Politics
Research is stifled due Casteism and Reservations
You see?
Every Decision in the Democracies is based on Politics, Elections, Appeasement, Power, Race etc etc
Nothing is based on PEOPLE and their WELFARE Or the COUNTRY and it’s PROGRESS
FWC Chimichangas
2023 03 19 17 02
Ingredients
2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil
1 (3 pound) chuck or pork roast
1 (7 ounce) can diced green chiles, drained
1 (15 ounce) can stewed tomatoes with juice
1/2 package Goldwater’s The Senator’s Chili Mix *
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
2 tablespoons minced fresh onion
3/4 tablespoon fresh cilantro
1/3 teaspoon ground red pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon powdered Mexican oregano
12 medium flour tortillas
1 pound grated longhorn cheese
1 pound grated Monterey jack cheese
Garlic salt and pepper, to taste
Oil (for deep frying)
Shredded lettuce
Sour cream
Guacamole
Salsa, to taste
* Yes, this chili mix will most likely always be available.
Instructions
Wrap meat in foil and bake at 250 degrees F to 300 degrees F for 2 hours, adding a little water if needed.
Cool until fat solidifies; skim. Shred meat and retain 3/4 cup of the meat juices.
Combine meat and juices in large fry pan and add chiles, tomatoes, Goldwater’s Chili Mix and remaining spices. Cook slowly until moisture is gone, about 30 minutes.
To assemble chimis, place 2 tablespoons longhorn cheese on each tortilla. Top with 2 to 3 tablespoons meat mixture. Add 2 tablespoons Monterey jack cheese. Season with garlic salt and pepper. Fold all sides in and secure with wooden picks to make a square.
Deep fry in 1 inch hot oil until golden brown.
Drain on paper towels.
Top with remaining cheese.
Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce, topped with sour cream, guacamole and salsa.
This is a recipe from the 1972 Faculty Women’s Club of the University of Arizona.
Lynyrd Skynyrd ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ (Live In Atlantic City)
An apology
Not by me. -MM
After a few years of nothing but getting nagged at, a divorce I was exceptionally pleased to hear the beech ask for, then a load of stress trying to sort out the damage she's done to the kids, I am finally back in the world of not being a ratty sod with a short fuse and sharp tongue.
I moved back to Jakarta, took a job that pays a totally nutty sackload of cash every month, and still do a little consultancy work for a couple of people in unusual jobs. The kids are in a stupidly expensive school I can afford with ease, and are actually something like reasonable again. None are seeing a shrink a this point, and that's more than I can say when the sandy beech was in charge of their development.
The latest wife is lovely. As for marriage, I'm averaging just one every 30 years so I'll probably be a bit on the dead side before I get another chance. However, I try never to dismiss possibilities.
Hopefully I haven't upset anyone too much.
-Fred
Beef Chimichangas
2023 03 18 10 43
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) roast
2 firm tomatoes, chopped
3 to 4 scallions, chopped
Garlic
Salt and pepper
Comino (cumin)
Instructions
Cook the beef in a crock pot for 6 to 8 hours with the seasonings.
Cool and shred beef.
Cook tomatoes and scallions and add to beef.
Place meat mixture on flour tortillas and roll up. Drop into hot oil until golden brown. Drain.
Top with green chiles, sour cream, guacamole, salsa and shredded cheese.
Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce.
Peter Frampton – Baby, I Love Your Way – 7/2/1977 – Oakland Coliseum Stadium (Official)
The year was 1977.
Have you ever been on a date that was going so badly you walked out and left?
Yup.
She looked nothing like her photos. The conversation was terrible. She told me where to sit at the table as to not block her view of the door. When I ordered, she said, “Do you ever think about how many calories you are eating when you order?”
I went to the restroom. Took my watch off and placed it around my ankle. When I came back I told her my probation officer had just called and wanted to know why I was 15 miles from home. I pulled up the pants leg and showed her the watch strap. She said, “You better go!”
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She was totally understanding and did not protest.
1/4 cup pickled jalapeno chiles, seeded and minced
1 recipe Basic New Mexico Chile Sauce
1 cup sour cream
Shredded lettuce and chopped tomato
Instructions
Heat vegetable oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees F. Soften the tortillas. Place approximately 1/4 of the Machaca on each tortilla; then top each with 1/4 cup cheese (reserve the remaining cup of cheese for the final topping), 1/4 cup green chile, 1 tablespoon pickled jalapeno, and roll it up.
Meanwhile, bring the chile sauce to a simmer.
Fry the burritos one at a time until they are a crispy golden brown.
Quickly drain the chimichangas and place them on individual serving plates. Cover the chimichangas with the chile sauce, sprinkle with the remaining cheese, and then top each chimichanga with 1/4 cup of sour cream.
Garnish the plates with the lettuce and tomato and serve immediately.
This is the story about how my mother once and for all stopped setting me up with random guys.
I once went on a blind date set up by my mom. I was not really interested but my mom kept forcing me to meet the guy so I relented. I texted him to make plans and we decided to meet at a restaurant. That place was famous for their pizza so I ordered one and he immediately made a joke about my weight. I’m 5’5” and weighed around 138 lbs then, which is not skinny but definitely not overweight. I don’t think it’s funny when people make mean comments about someone looks and try to pass off as a joke. It is not a joke. You’re just an asshole. That was strike one but I let it slide. It was raining outside and I had already ordered my pizza so I decided to stay.
He started talking about himself and it went on and on. He told me about how much money he made, how his boss and colleagues are in awe of him, how he made more money than any of his friends, how he’s tired of all the women chasing him for his money. He told me about the expensive car he’s planning to buy, the 4 bedroom apartment he already has. He was not at all interested in getting to know me. It was all about him. At one point I wondered if I get up and leave now, will he even notice.
After all the money bragging ended he started telling me about his childhood and that’s where things really went south. He told me how much he hated dogs and how he used to chase them around with a stick when he was a kid. I love dogs but at that point I already knew there is not going to be second date, I decided not to comment on it. He took my silence as approval and told me how he once ran over a dog on the highway. I looked at him shocked and asked if it was real and was the dog okay. He just shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Who cares about that dog, I was worried about my damn car.” I called the waiter to split the bills, paid and left without even saying a word to him. He texted later complaining about how I overreacted and how it was all my fault. I didn’t want to argue with a narcissist like him so I blocked him.
Combine 1 1/2 cups picante sauce or salsa and chicken, onion, cumin, oregano and salt in a Dutch oven. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, for 25 minutes or until most of liquid is evaporated.
Lay each tortilla out flat. Spoon 1/3 cup of this mixture below the center of each tortilla; top with 2 tablespoons cheese. Fold in two sides of the tortilla to enclose the filling. Fold over top and bottom edges of tortillas, making rectangles. Secure with wooden picks. Place, folded side down, on greased baking sheets. Coat chimichangas with vegetable cooking spray.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 8 minutes; turn over and bake 5 more minutes.
Remove wooden picks; top with remaining picante sauce and desired toppings.
Redbone – Come And Get Your Love – LIVE 1974 The Midnight Special
Whoa. 1974.
https://youtu.be/Dj0drevGOgA
China has counter-sanctioned every time recently. Is Western sanctions on China coming to an end?
Back in the 1990s – It was a favorite US Tactic to Freeze a Countrys Assets as a method of bullying and sanctioning.
In 2019 – Trump asked Pompeo and his advisors to explore the possibility of Freezing Chinese Assets in USA
The Reply drained the blood from Trumps Face
It was Mr President!!! We have three times more money in China than they have here. If they retaliate we will fall harder
Under Reagan or Bush Seniors – US Sanctions were used very judicially and cautiously. The Primary victim of such sanctions were only those who were militarily a threat to the United States and its Security. The World respected and admired this power of Sanctions.
Under Clinton and Bush Jr – The Sanctions began to be Abused. Slowly any country that did not “Obey” the USA could be sanctioned. Any Country that had a relationship with a country not in US Good Books could be sanctioned. This was the beginning of the bullying. The World began to hate the Sanctions but were powerless against it.
Then the 2008 Crisis happened – and the US crumbled economically. From 2008 – 2010 – There was a Window and CHINA utilized it magnificently. Billions and Billions of Dollars moved from US to China and were invested in Renewable Energy and other long term committed projects
Today under Trump and Biden – The Sanctions are a Joke. Iran was sanctioned and denied even PPE but China delivered openly without ten minutes hesitation as did Russia. Trump and Pompeo lost massive face. India has been sanctioned multiple times but has never been frazzled and has continued its relationship with Russia.
So as on date – Western Sanctions are no longer a tool. The Chinese have too many Nuclear Options to hurt the West.
Former FBI agent EXPOSES the truth of the UFO invasion | Redacted Conversation
How did your mother break your heart?
A few years ago, when my mother had a heart attack, I visited her in the hospital. I didn’t even dress nicely or do my hair.
She looked so small and pale. She clutched my hand and told me how much she loved me, and how I mean the world to her. She didn’t critique my clothing or hair at all. She only praised me and told me how she wanted me to know she loved me so much.
Not nagging me broke my heart. I walked out of the hospital, bought myself a grilled cheese and sobbed until my throat was raw. This wasn’t my strong-willed and imposing mother. She had lost the will to control me. How ill was she?
The next day, I came and she immediately asked me how I could wear such an ugly sweater, what if a handsome single Jewish doctor came into the room?
I was overjoyed. She was going to live.
Boston – More Than a Feeling (Official HD Video)
Why do many Westerners who have studied, worked, and lived in China generally have better and more positive views on China compared to those who are still stuck in their own, i.e., Western countries?
When I first set foot in China to work and live in Beijing, I think I still have quite a bit of uneasiness with how things are over there. I was cautious when I talk, cautious not to bring out the books that I read, which are mostly banned in the country.
As a foreigner, the place I lived was installed with all the international channels, and I only watched CNN and BBC for news. I had colleagues who had been through the TAM incident in June 1989, telling me that his old family house at the fringe of a hutong still has a bullet hole.
Still, he was too young and scared to go out, and information transmission was not that convenient back then. Much of the story he knew was from his school teachers and other kids. But he didn’t think it was as bad as what most foreigners told him.
It took me a year, at least, to realize that a lot of stories I heard outside of China didn’t really match what I saw. And there are just too many loopholes in those arguments. Contrary to the evil leadership and government that Western media tended to portray back then (and they still do till now), I had plenty of freedom that I enjoy, my colleagues and friends are happy and supportive of the government.
Of course, all would have a bit of grudge more or less, like the constant constructions, traffic jams, increasing cost of living, etc. But the speed of progress, the access to material goods, the latest technology, or even the latest information were tremendous.
I still remember back in 2001, a senior manager from my team who went to Singapore and met up with an old colleague who went there and settled in a few years ago. After her holiday in Singapore, she told me she couldn’t believe that she actually earns more than her ex-colleague in Singapore.
This realization made her gave up her plan of migrating overseas though she previously studied in a Western country and wanted to resume her old life outside of China. Fast forward about 10 years, she became the head of one of the 3 divisions in the company, which would not be possible had she migrated.
Those were the days of dial-up internet access, ICQ. And there was no algorithm to push contents that the website thinks you like to read/see just to make you stick.
You are free to make your own observations and judgments. But I also have friends from different countries who couldn’t get used to China because they were not willing to really experience China, holding on to their Western media indoctrinated belief about the country and using conspiracy theory to explain all their encounters. Most of them (if not all) dropped out after a few years and left China with a sour taste in their mouths.
So, those who have really spent years living and working in China would have appreciated that China has its own way of dealing with things, and the culture there would respect you and would not force you to agree or adapt their way. But somehow, with an appreciation of the somewhat different way of handling and approaching things, you’ll start to see the beauty of it. That will eventually make you question and rethink whether what the Western media told you about China are entirely true.
U.S. General Says The Quiet Part Out Loud About Ukraine!
People say you should get an attorney if you win the lottery, but why? Say I win the Mega Millions, and I sign the back of the ticket, photograph it, and show up at the lottery office bright and early the next day. What bad things would happen to me?
The reason you want a lawyer is to protect you.
I won a scratch ticket for $100,000 one hundred thousand. the accoutant handled the taxes.
After claiming my prize we had 2 weeks where different reporters were looking for pictures and wanting to do an interview with the store that sold the winning ticket.
churches and charities knocking on the door looking for a slice.
3 people i went to grade school with came knocking I had not seen them in 10 years.
Family calling wanting to get a share or asking for a loan they cant afford to repay. people were confused when I told them I spent it all.
I divided it up 3 ways and gave equal amounts to my 3 kids for their college funds.
If I ever hit another winning ticket I am getting a lawyer to deal with the bullcrap and I am gonna move to Alaska to a remote cabin in the middle of nowheresville with no phone or roads.
Lainey Molnar’s Empowering Art Challenges Societal Norms
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Lainey Molnar, a talented artist known for her thought-provoking illustrations, is back with even more empowering artwork. With her unique style, she explores and challenges societal norms surrounding femininity, body image, and other important themes.
28 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe204800291 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe2067b201c 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe207f1a662 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe202d07b1d 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe200b5bc46 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1fe96d218 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1e188c083 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1e73c06d4 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1e4b698ae 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1de28faed 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1da68cd4f 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1d70a4044 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1d40b62a1 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1d0b75561 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1ce2a9c5b 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1cbd90621 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1c92ae0d6 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1c10a5dab 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1c3d051e7 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1be27b3aa 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1bbb38aac 70028 New Honestly Relatable Comics Revealing Societal Standards By Lainey Molnar 63fe1b9f9178b 700
Redneck Chimichanga
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Ingredients
2 ounces shaved steak (Philly meat)
1/2 ounce red and green bell peppers
1/2 ounce yellow onions
1 slice American cheese
1 tablespoon mashed potatoes
1 large burrito wrapper (flour tortilla)
Instructions
Cook the shaved steak then add the peppers and onions and sweat until soft.
Put mashed potatoes in center of burrito wrapper then put shaved steak/pepper/onion mix on top of that. Add cheese. Fold in all four sides and secure with wooden picks.
Deep fry until golden brown.
Gravy is the best type of dip for this.
SVB collapse, surviving Biden’s presidency
Is it possible?
If China gets too powerful, should we launch a first strike against them?
Yeah, that worked real well in Iraq.
Let’s repeat the entire 2003–2012 experience, only a country that has nukes and is our main trading partner and a critical component of the global economy and has the world’s largest standing army and is intensely nationalistic and is basically indirectly subsidizing our entire higher education system and has thirty times Iraq’s population and a hundred times its GDP.
What are the consequences of not blowing up China? They have control of their littoral? They start building up development banks that rival Bretton Woods and force them to iterate? What a goddamn nightmare.
No, the recipe for success in the US-China relationship is one rising power, stewed constantly in a thick broth of comprehensive engagement that keeps it totally submerged but not overdone, thoroughly marinated in expert and informed local-based intelligence networks, framed in a complex web of alliances with its neighbors and paired with a lovely arrangement of economic and military deterrents.
I don’t believe that America is permanently in decline, but if you wanted to make that argument you could find a shitload of evidence right now. The solution is not to make China the ultimate bugbear. It wouldn’t go anywhere militarily even if you could somehow make it work politically and economically.
Frankly, the much bigger danger than the risk of conflict with China (the Thucydides Trap) is the Kindleberger Trap
raised by Joseph Nye, which notes that the disasters of th
e thirties and WWII were not chiefly caused by the rise of Germany or its fear in Britain, but by the refusal of the United States to step in to fill Britain’s shoes as the economic hub of the world and its chief military peacekeeper—stopping Japanese expansionism, maintaining a global currency the way the British had, keeping Germany afloat and tied into the continent, organizing and maintaining alliances that would keep the balance of power.
It’s not in China’s interests or short-term abilities to do all the crap that the US does around the world right now. It would be very easy for them to collapse inward around the massive domestic economic and social issues that are at the heart of their highly productive yet still embryonic and insecure state and society, just as we collapsed into isolationism over our own issues in the twenties, while filling a very similar global economic role.
The US just isn’t big or rich or willing enough to manage the world. We could barely manage it when it was just us, western Europe, and the ex-European colonies. Now that they’re getting rich and numerous and loud and we’re very much starting to feel like 5% of the global population instead of 20% of global GDP, it’s becoming even more impossible. There has to be some kind of consensus by which multilateral organizations can provide public goods, and individual regional powers—the US, Brazil-Argentina, China, Turkey, Iran, Nigeria, South Africa, India—all make common commitments for public goods. That’s not what domestic politics are pushing for right now in America right now, but it’s what the world needs, and the failure of Brexit is making the alternative clear.
The parts of the world that are still shooting at each other in 2018 really suck.
The parts of the world that aren’t may not be paradise, but they’re a hell of a lot better than those that are.
Or were you looking for “a short, victorious war to stem the tide of revolution,” Minister Plehve?
Please ask the tsarists how that went.
What are you looking forward to in your life today?
Back in the 1960’s, it seemed like the world was a place of excitement and adventure. It seemed like anything was possible.
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And so, as boys (and girls), we dreamed of great futures. We played and pretended. We had hopes. We had dreams. And for us, we had a future.
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But now, today, after the government and woke agents taking over the internet, it seems like a fearful, a dreadful place. One that it would best to hide away from.
Is this intentional?
And if so, as I believe, the real story about the great changes in the United States. Keep the rabble divisive. Keep them sequestered, isolated, and stop all communication between them unless the government can control it. Like Vault 7, and like banning Tictok.
The only way to keep on track is to remember your roots. Remember.
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Remember who you are, and don’t let others change your very being.
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Somewhere over the Rainbow – Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole
![[Daegon Magus] – Piloting the ET space craft](https://metallicman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/0wI2YL-825x510.jpg)
If you cannot dance.
Then get a cat.