Tits up in American Samoa

Today I want to relate the events leading to why my wife and I left American Samoa.

American Samoa is an American territory in the South Pacific. It is a very beautiful island, but is way off the shipping lanes, and is really difficult to get to, thus it is not really a tourist destination.

American Samoa
American Samoa

I had an opportunity to build a hospital there.

Anyways, the social and societal organization there is very, very different from what I, as an American, realized.

Here’s a short recap.

  • Families are in the wife’s name.
  • Ownership is by the wife, the men own nothing.
  • Each village has a “pecking order” of hierarchy, all woman led.
  • If the leading female in a village dies, the next ranking female takes over.

Now, my “Boss” was a man in the leading family in the local village. And he provided me an apartment to live in and a car.

Pago Pago harbour utulei south american samoa 1
Pago Pago harbour utulei south american samoa 1

Then one day, there was a death in the village and the leading woman died.

Immediately, the next week was a reshuffle of power, and ownership changed hands. My “boss” was no longer in control.

We lost our apartment, and our car, and had to find a place to live. And it sucked!

No answers, but my “boss” gave me a place for free. He told me where to go, and later on that day I went to see it.

Ugh!

It was a open-air cinder-block room beneath a backyard chicken-coop/garage. And seriously, I wouldn’t even consider to have my dogs live there. No windows. Just an open square. The “door” was a piece of plywood with a hasp. The “bed” was a ancient well-worn hospital bed. One electrical outlet, and a century old fan.

Mold everywhere.

Moist. Damp. Dirty. Filty.

Something like this…

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341D35D800000578 0 image a 72 1463138700608

I looked around. Said “nope”.

She started to go to the building. I sad NO!

My wife who was trailing me as I entered the hovel was confused. But I spun her around. There was no way in Hell would I subject her to the indignity that I had just been exposed to.

I just left from the site, hopped in the car. Told my wife “we are leaving”, and then made the necessary arrangements.

We were out of there within 24 hours.

Do not; never expect the same levels of social norms, respect or allowances that you have grown up with. You might end up with one Hell of a surprise.

This was a “close one”, for once trapped there, we might never had gotten the opportunity to leave.

Today.

How was the Chinese Communist Party able to control the army and ensure that it would not carry out any military coup?

Sanwan’s adaptation (1937), Mao’s purge of “three gulfs” after the Boxer uprising

After the failure of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao Zedong led the remnants of the army to the south, retreating towards the Xiang-Gan border. After the clear transfer to the Jing-Gang Mountain area, the troops arrived at the village of Sanwan, Yong-Xin County, Jiangxi Province on 29th September, 1927, when the commanding group of the Front Committee at that time decided to integrate the remnants of the army.

At the time of integration, there were less than 1,000 troops left in the remnants of the army, and there was no CPC organisation at the grassroots level of the army, so the army’s culture was no different from that of the warlords’ troops, and the soldiers’ ideology was chaotic, and they did not have any absolute sense of affiliation to the CPC.

The contents of the integration included the following:

  • Dispatch some of those who did not want to stay in the army, reduce the army to one regiment and rename it as the First Regiment of the First Division of the First Army of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army;
  • Establishing CPC party organisations in the troops, so that there were company branches (CPC party branches were built on the company), battalion and regiment party committees, and CPC party representatives above the company level;
  • To stipulate that officers and chiefs should not beat up soldiers, that officers and soldiers should be treated equally, and to establish soldiers’ committees to take part in the management of the unit and to assist in political and mass work. The troops were united under the leadership of the CPC Front Enemy Committee, of which Mao Zedong was the secretary, and a democratic system was carried out internally.

The Sanwan’s adaptation clarified the absolute leadership of the CPC over the army, and at the same time became a guarantee of the CPC’s armed seizure of power.

https://www.laitimes.com/en/article/61whs_6ia97.html

A PLA tradition: the democratic life meeting.

Within the PLA, officers and enlisted men are completely equal, and at company meetings, ordinary soldiers criticise their officers, who are mortified.

In the U.S. Army, it is unthinkable for the average soldier to criticise his commanding officer.


KMT army vs. CPC army in the Chinese Civil War:

1. The American-backed KMT army of Chiang Kai-shek was entirely a warlord army.

In the case of Chiang Kai-shek’s direct subordinate Hu Zongnan’s Seventh Corps, for example, some of the KMT officers mistreated and brutalised their soldiers to an appalling degree, as reflected by the regiment’s insurgent officers and soldiers:

  • its 430 regiment’s deputy battalion commander Chen × × when the machine company commander, soldier Liu Yanchun desertion was captured back, Chen × × Liu Yanchun hung up and beaten to death, the body was thrown into the field to feed the dogs, and then cut off the ears of the dead, hanging on the wall, and then gathered the company announced: “You see what this is? Whoever escapes again in the future will be dealt with in this way”.
  • its 351st regiment soldier Yue Quanfu disclosed: he was 16 years old, was captured by the head of the security force, the village with him at the same time to be captured as a soldier of 10 people. The 10 people, two were shot, one was beaten to death and fell off a cliff, and one was flayed alive by an officer because he didn’t ask for leave to relieve himself!
  • its 473rd regiment deputy battalion commander Wang × × pick up new recruits, met a few sick people can not walk, so they deceived them and said: “Who can not walk, say, I let you go home”. Four soldiers just turned their heads to go back, was called by Wang × ×, he let the four sick kneel on the edge of a cliff four or five feet high, copied a stick, a stick one, all beat them to the bottom of the ditch, then, long gone.
  • Its 158th Division officer Deng x x revealed that when he was a platoon leader, he once followed the mortar company commander to Sichuan to pick up new recruits, and saw with his own eyes that this company commander killed more than 20 recruits who deserted. Most of them were killed with guillotines, and others were killed by “splitting the bodies of five horses”. When one of the recruits ran away, he led men to the recruit’s house to catch him, and when he didn’t catch him, he set fire to the recruit’s house. Another time, when he failed to catch a deserter, he ordered four soldiers to carry the deserter’s family and put them on fire until they were burned to death.
  • Zhu x, chief of staff of his 55th Division, once ordered the commander of the company directly under him to “bury alive any soldier who makes a mistake”. This man once dug out a soldier’s heart on the spot during a punishment and hung two large bunches of them. Soldiers revealed that “he dug out the hearts of many soldiers”.
  • 349 regiment 2 battalion platoon commander Shi × × to sodomise a soldier, was rejected by the soldier, Shi × × even get a carrot to the soldier’s anus hard stuffing!
  • A division of a deputy division commander is a big sex maniac, his subordinates in the past only know that he often use his authority to force sodomy subordinates, who knows, through the denunciation of the revelation, by his sodomy of the subordinates was as many as 89 people, the anger of the uprising of the officers and soldiers have demanded that the deputy division commander’s crotch penis will be cut off!
  • According to statistics, of the 2,451 soldiers in the 144th Nationalist Division, 107 soldiers’ mothers were raped by their officers, 21 soldiers’ mothers were abused by their officers, and 185 soldiers’ mothers were forced to remarry; 57 soldiers’ wives were raped by their officers, 53 soldiers’ wives were abused by their officers, and 93 soldiers’ wives were forced to remarry; 159 soldiers’ sisters were raped and abused by their officers, and 175 soldiers’ sisters-in-law were raped and abused by their officers, and were forced to remarry; and a total of 850 soldiers’ mothers, sisters, and sisters-in-law were raped, abused, and forced to remarry by their officers.
  • Of the 2,451 soldiers in the division, 345 were hung up and beaten by officers, 289 were tied up and beaten by officers, 1,238 were clubbed by officers, 13 were stabbed with bayonets, 677 were beaten with rifle butts by officers, 1,362 were slapped by officers, 945 were beaten with belts by officers, 991 were kicked by officers, 53 were beaten to death, 20 were beaten to vomit blood, 22 were crippled, 1,298 were made to kneel, 535 were made to freeze, 1298 were made to dry in the sun, and 53 were made to faint. The number of people who were beaten to death by officers was 53, 20 were beaten by officers and spat out blood, 22 were beaten and crippled by officers, 1,298 were punished to kneel by officers, 535 were punished to freeze outside by officers, 128 were punished to be exposed to the sun, 1,302 were punished to starve by officers, one was punished to drink urine by an officer, one was punished to eat an officer’s sputum by an officer, 33 were shot and buried alive by officers, and one was shot and buried alive by an officer, but not dead. 33 people, 24 people buried alive by officers ……
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You tell me, how does such a warlord army get the support of its soldiers? How can such a warlord army gain the support of the Chinese people?

If this reactionary, inhumane Kuomintang army can win the Chinese Civil War, it will not be unless the days and nights are turned upside down and the Pacific Ocean dries up!

2. Mao’s army was an army of equal officers and soldiers.

First, on the way to catch up with the enemy. Mao Zedong asked CPC officers to grasp the ideological education of captured soldiers and new recruits.

For example: Mao Zedong knew that most of the captured Nationalist soldiers were from poor families, some of them were forced to be arrested by the Nationalists, some of them were here for money, and they had no idea why they were fighting the war. In response to this background of origin of the captured soldiers, CPC officers were required to provide one-on-one ideological education to recruits and captured soldiers.

CPC officers talked to the recruits and captive soldiers on foot and when they had the opportunity, talking about their family history and finally blaming it on the KMT, which was caused by the exploitation of the poor by the landlords and rich peasants they supported. If the KMT’s Chiang Kai-shek continued to exist, the poor would never be able to turn over a new leaf and would have to live in poverty for generations.

Every day, CPC officers had to report to the CPC Party Leader on the ideological work they had done with the masses, the reaction of the masses, and the ideological sentiments of the masses, before accepting the task for the next day’s work. The CPC party group leader then reports to the CPC party branch, and the CPC party branch then reports to the CPC party committee. The ideological situation of the fighters was firmly in the hands of the CPC Party leaders.

The thoughts of the captured soldiers were quickly transformed through the ideological education of the CPC officers.

Secondly, during the march of the army, the CPC officers set an example by carrying the luggage of the captured soldiers and new recruits. When resting at the end of the line, the CPC officers burned foot-washing water for the captives and recruits, and cooked food for the sick for those who were not in good health, so the CPC officers really treated the captives and recruits as their own brothers.

Thirdly, the captive soldiers also saw that the officers and soldiers in PLA were united, all of them had no salary, ate, wore and slept together without any special treatment, united with each other, and took care of each other as if they were brothers, like a big family.

Fourthly, in order to comfort the KMT captive soldiers and stabilise their minds, the CPC branch sent an official letter to the captive soldiers’ hometowns, stating that they had joined the PLA and that their hometowns should treat them as military families. This moved the captive soldiers and made them settle down; turning their guns to fight the KMT.

At the beginning of the Chinese Civil War, the KMT had 5 million soldiers and the CPC had 1 million; when the Chinese Civil War ended, the KMT was left with only 1 million soldiers, 4 million of whom surrendered to the CPC and joined the PLA.

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There is a detailed account of Mao’s army in “Red Star Over China” written by the American journalist Edgar Snow.Red star over China by Edgar Snow | Open LibraryRed Star Over China by Edgar Snow, unknown edition,

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1774434W/Red_Star_Over_China


Xi walked into the dormitories of ordinary soldiers to see if their blankets were warm enough, and Xi ate a pot of rice with ordinary soldiers; has the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States ever done this? These are PLA traditions and have been so since Mao Zedong.

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7

Bisquick Cranberry-Apple Cobbler

2023 10 15 09 53
2023 10 15 09 53

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 2 1/2 cups Bisquick or Biscuit Baking Mix
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
  • 1 cup chunky applesauce
  • 1 apple, cored and thinly sliced

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Heat butter in 9 x 13 inch pan in oven until melted.
  3. Mix Bisquick, sugar and milk with wire whisk until smooth.
  4. Pour Bisquick batter evenly into prepared pan.
  5. Mix cranberry sauce and applesauce. Spoon evenly over Bisquick batter.
  6. Place apple slices on sauce.
  7. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown.
  8. Serve warm with whipped cream or rum raisin or vanilla ice cream, if desired.

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

My best friend/co-worker Larry was the IT guy in the training department for a large computer corporation where we both worked. I was a course designer/instructor. The company had been doing quarterly layoffs for almost two years. When it was your turn to be laid off, security watched you pack your personal items then escorted you off the property.

One night during a software update Larry discovered the next layoff list on the boss’s computer (she hadn’t even bothered to password-protect it, but her incompetence is good for another story). Both he and I were on the list. The date was a week away.

In the bookcase of my cubicle were copies of every technical manual and instructor’s guide I’d written for this company. They were my proof of ability. I would need them when I went on interviews and was asked “can you show me something you’ve done?” I spent the next week slowly replacing each binder with an empty one. By the time we were laid off, my entire collection of authored books was safely at home.

Bonus, Larry called the local news to expose how the company was using layoffs as a quick boost to their quarterly earnings numbers (fewer employee expenses improved the net bottom line). They’d often lay off the most critical employees right before end of quarter and then hire them back as “consultants” a few weeks later. We were both interviewed on the news the afternoon we were laid off. Screwed our chances for being rehired but I wouldn’t have gone back anyway.

Oh yeah, and the company? Failed a year later after an even bigger scandal surfaced. They had sales reps creating huge fake sales orders, then right before end of quarter all that equipment would be “shipped” to a large storage facility. They were caught with millions of dollars of fake earnings from falsified sales.

Passport Bros Meet Filipina In The Provinces

No need to be nervous in the small towns in the Philippines. Almost everywhere I go, the Filipino people are the nicest, friendliest people I have ever met. Moved here from So. Calif. in 2010, found my sweet wife here, the Philippines is HOME for me now.

Why do some people tell the victim to “just leave” the abuser without providing a plan to leave, money and emotional support? Doesn’t “just leave” contribute to her going back?

Back in 1999, my then husband began to threaten to harm our children. I set in motion actions with only one thought-to protect my children.

January: I filed a complaint at his precinct (he was a police officer). They took away his guns-he had 10 (he told me 3) and enough ammunition to fight a battle (they told his brother in law that). He filed a complaint with them, saying he threatened to kill us. They told him “we know, he’s a psycho cop. But he’s ok. He loves his kids.” They had zero clue what went on in our home. His brother in law called Child Protection because he saw the police were not taking this seriously. Child protection came, saw it was a clean house with food in the cabinets and he was polite and calm. They never spoke to me or the kids. He told me if I said anything he will make our children orphans. I filed for an order of protection to get him out-his buddies faxed inletters swearing he was a nice guy, loves his kids-she was the bad one. I got denied. He refused to give me money for groceries, mortgage, utilities.

February: I went to put the child on welfare and food stamps. Why are you staying there, they asked. Take your children and leave. I had two sons with asthma and they all had special needs. Why should WE leave? He was the menace-take him out!! So the welfare people called child protection on ME. That’s right-because I didn’t want to take my asthmatic and special needs children to a homeless shelter 3 trains away in the Bronx! My parents didn’t want anything to do with my problems. We went to their home for two days and they threw us. You married him and had his children-now live there. Child protection came to my home at 11:30 at night. They saw the children and me living in the basement. We had a clean home and food (I told them my parents bought them food sincevhe gave me no money). The next day I called my therapist in tears-they will take my children away from me! All because I won’t leave the house! I can’t understand it-we have no where to go or any money. Why should we leave? He’s the threat!! She calmed me down. She made calls all day. By the end of the day, they closed my case-she had the faxes on her desk because I trusted no one.

March: I told my parents there was no more choices. I was getting a lawyer and divorcing him. My parents were horrified. They couldn’t believe he was starving his children. I showed them my temporary support which was running out. Their grandchildren were getting food stamps because their father wasn’t buying them food. My father called our rabbi to talk to him while we stayed in their house. Two hours later, the rabbi came to my father’s house. “It’s a terrible thing to see people change from human into something monstrous. I tried to talk to him about a man’s responsibility to his family.” “Rabbi, he doesn’t like you since Fort Dover, when he was in the hospital for a week and you saw him only once for 5 minutes.” “He told me. He spat on me for it.” My father and I lowered our heads in embarrassment. “I never advocate for divorce unless there is nothing left. Benny, I’ve known you for many years. Get your daughter a good lawyer, she’s going to need one.” I started to cry and the Rabbi put a business card in my father’s hands-it was my lawyer to be. My father and I went the next day and hired him. I told him everything that happened. My lawyer gave me his phone number-call him after 911 in an emergency. And get the children on as much welfare and food stamps as you can. I had to hire 3 servers at $200 a piece to wait at each exit of his precinct to serve him with the order to appear in court. On that day, I went to social services and gave the title of my home as a guarantee so the city can put a lien on my house against any financial support we got from welfare and food stamps. The children and me were finger printed and got ID cards that day. I got formal letters stating we were in need and were getting food stamps and money. The date was March 10-My then husband’s birthday. I chose the date. I wanted everything to have his birthday on it -the court papers, the welfare papers. It was my last happy birthday to him.

April: when the Jewish community and our friends found out about the pending divorce, we were ostracized. I went to Jewish agencies for help. I had no money for Passover. I got a $25 food voucher from an agency that helped the poor and aged. I went to another place that gave me such bad smelling food my father was outraged. He made me take him and the food back. He screamed at them in Yiddish how shameful this was to a poor girl with children. The man shrugged and said “she’s your daughter, you take care of her.” My father said “if only I had back the charity money I gave to places like yours” He put the box on the floor at the man’s feet and he ordered it thrown away. I asked my brother for money, and he gave me $200. But he always reminded me I owed him the money and anytime he needed a favor, he reminded me of the money.

May and June: I finally got approved to work at the Department of Education as a substitute. I accepted any job I could get, no matter where it was or what it was. Getting my money was harder. Sometimes I got my check in the mail. Sometimes I had to go back to the school. Sometimes it was at a district office. I had to drive to the payroll center to make sure all my checks were processed. Meanwhile, the city demanded I worked for their workfare program. No one gets welfare for nothing. I tried again and again to explain how subs worked. I had to wait for them to call me. I told my counselor she can call 65 Court Street to confirm how they call subs. I was told “no problem, you can go there and clean their toilets and wash floors.” Didn’t you want me off welfare? I can get hired by the Dept of Ed if I keep accepting jobs. If I’m washing floors somewhere else I won’t get hired. My counselor took it to mean I was too good to wash floors (if I had no prospects of a job I would have done it gladly). I was thrown off welfare.

July-September: I had been going to court, but he kept putting it off. I couldn’t miss a single court date, but he could show up and say he’s not ready, no lawyer-he fires his lawyer right there in court once! I was getting worried because I needed to keep getting called in to work-30 straight days in any school and I could get hired. I had 20 days and they stopped calling me. It was frustrating as can be.

October: the bank sent over two big guys to serve us with foreclosure papers on the house. The first met my husband who threw him bodily off the premises. I agreed to sign off on the papers if I could get 48 hours to pack our things and leave before they came to lock up the house. They saw what a bad spot I was in and that the idiot didn’t tell me the house was being foreclosed because he didn’t pay the bill in months. They gave me the 48 hours. I called a friend who had s vacant apartment. He didn’t clean it yet. I’ll clean it. I need it in 48 hours. He was ok with it. I called a moving company that specialized in last minute moving-especially in domestic situations. They sent over big guys in case he cane by to interfere. I threw clothes and toys in bags and boxes. I grabbed whatever I could that day. My father and I cried-my marriage was dead. I never told my father-this wasn’t a parole from prison, where I got timevoff for good behavior. It was a pardon-I was freed because of a terrible mistake that shouldn’t have happened. The next day I called Sub Central with my new address and phone number. We were trying to find you! I had to move suddenly. We have a job for you-and it could be permanent. Can you go there tomorrow? I cried with joy. Thanks to God-we had a safe place and I got a chance for a permanent job. It was the School I’m still working at-18 years later. I hung up and my children and I all hugged each other. I moved to this apartment with no job and borrowed money for the first months rent. I didn’t have anything for security. Now, I had a place and a job to take care of my children.

November: Family court once again. The case had been moved to another judge who refused to delay the hearings. She asked him “what did you do to support your children?” “I’m having a problem with their mother-“ “that’s not what I asked you. Did you buy groceries? Pay the phone? Electricity? Gas? Mortgage?” All the answers were no. The judge turned to me. “What did you do to support your children? I turned over all my papers from welfare, food stamps, my pay stubs, and a joint bank book stuffed with grocery slips and utility payments. His lawyer turned pale. The judge went through everything very carefully. “So, your wife put your children on welfare and food stamps while you didn’t do a thing?” “She didn’t put the kids on welfare (chuckling).” The Judge has him look at the papers. Yes I did – and they were all dates on his birthday. “You put my children on welfare-on my birthday?” “Yes, the same day you were served to come to court.” The judge flipped back pages. “You mean to tell me that you have been screwing around all this time while you had no idea how your children were living? You’ve been putting this off from March to now?” She threw her hands on her table. “I’m done talking to you. Let me see your pay stubs.” She reviewed his stubs and was about to order support of $400 a month. I asked to see his stubs first. I pointed out to my lawyer 3 pension loans he took out which come out of his gross pay check, thus reducing the net check to look less. My attorney stood up and said “why should the children have to have their money reduced because of his pension loans? We request you add those amounts in.” The Judge looks over the stubs and screamed “you think you’re so smart huh. I had someone from Sanitation do this last week. Know what I did? I threw the book at him. Like I’m going to do to you.” She reworked the figures. $636 semi monthly-and give me a list of expenses you borrowed-moving, apartment, clothes-anything you had to borrow. He’s going to pay you back for 1999. Every penny!” My husband jumped up out of his chair and yelled “you can’t do that to me! We’re on the same team! All the judges love me.” “The other judges don’t know you-but don’t worry. I’ll make sure they do.” The bailiff had to stand behind him and keep his hands in idiot’s shoulders. My lawyer stood up “your honor, we realize this had been quite a shock to the defendant. We know how hard it is to support a sexy sport car instead of a family (he showed pictures of him in the car). How about if the defendant pays my client $50 semi monthly until his debt is paid?” The other lawyer said ”yes, please!” So the idiot wound up paying me $50 twice a month for two and a half years! These $50 checks were in addition to the child support the court ordered.

December: I was formally hired by my School to work there full time. I paid back my father the money I borrowed. I caught up on my rent and paid security. My children were removed from welfare and food stamps. I bought my children clothes for the first time in nearly two years. We had a real holiday as a family that we didn’t have for so long. And their father told them that I was a bad mother because I took them away from him. It would be years before they saw the truth. I also got back into my house that had been locked up. He set fire to our wedding pictures, most of my old photos from School, books, whatever he could throw in. There was a huge black circle in the middle of the living room. I grabbed more of the children’s things, whatever I could salvage-and his grandmother’s silver items. He left all of them in the China cabinet. I took the Jewish books he left, anything I could throw in a box or bag. He broke my dishes in the kitchen sink. I took a few pots and pans I found. I took all the children’s pictures I found still hanging up. Oddly enough-he never opened my nightstand. I had, shall we say, personal items that a lonely woman keeps in a nightstand drawer. I decided to throw them out instead of bringing them home. I don’t know why. I stopped at the doorway. I looked inside for a last time. This horrible nightmare was finally ending. I knew I had more-the foreclosure sale, the divorce. But this prison that I loved because I raised my children in it, that I cared for, was finally closed. I saw the mezuzah still on the door post. I took it off-my father bought that for us. I gave it back to him.

Yes I know-I wrote a novel. I did it with a time line and great detail for a reason. Any moron who says just leave without a plan or money or support is just that-a moron!!! It’s easy to say “just leave”. And go where?????? If parents turn you out, your family and friends shun you-where do you go? The only person who helped me was HIS sister and her husband. She kept my important documents safe and $300 of emergency money for me. It was her husband who filed the complaint back then saying he heard their father say we were better off dead-and because he was a cop, he would get a slap on the wrist. No one-NO ONE stood up for me. Even my parents told me openly they were ashamed of me. My father gave me money for the sake of his grandchildren. The next person who says just leave and has no plan or idea on how to accomplish that action should be slapped. Because they were never standing at that black pit as I did. Just leave. Why not just say “jump into that black hole?”

Im sorry for writing a long answer. As you see, nearly 20 years later, I can recall it in great detail. Thank you for reading all the way through. If my story can help just one person-then it was all worth it.

No one wanted this cat, so I adopted him.

This is very interesting.

I adopted a cat and realized everything I thought I knew about them was wrong. In this video, I’m sharing my whole journey from the first week to what I’ve learned, and how Bepo is doing now.”

What hilariously stupid thing did a Trump supporter say that made you think, “Wow! I completely underestimated your stupidity!”?

One of the many encounters I’ve had with a Trump supporter was the time a woman commented on a local news station’s Facebook post with a picture of what she claimed was the 1938 Time Magazine Man of the Year cover. It was clearly photoshopped and had Hitler in an heroic pose with a caption calling him a great leader. She gave her own opinion that Time was a liberal hate rag that supported Hitler.

I knew it was fake because I’ve seen the real cover. It’s hard to forget. It’s a macabre illustration of a tiny little Hitler sitting at the bench of a giant pipe organ. Above him is a wheel with several naked corpses hanging from it. The caption reads, “From the unholy organist, a hymn of hate.”

I replied to her with a link to the official Time website archive page showing the real cover and the story calling Hitler evil.

You may have already guessed this, but she used the laugh reaction to my comment, called me an idiot and then said there was no way to know my cover wasn’t fake and hers was real.

Again, it was a link to the actual Time archives. She could have also done 10 seconds of research on Google, but no. She was more willing to believe this random, poorly edited JPG she found on Facebook was real and that Time Magazine in 1939 praised Hitler and somehow got away with it.

Her husband joined the conversation and attempted to prove his wife was right by telling me I have a woman’s name.

This encounter really drove home for me that we are in a lot of trouble as a country because a lot of people are completely stupid and unwilling to believe facts. A month or two later COVID hit.

Americans React To “When Americans Realise The Entire World DOESN’T Revolve Around Them”

In this video, we react to moments shared on Tiktok when Americans realize the whole world doesn’t revolve around them. These are hilarious but also somewhat eye-opening.

What are the reasons why people can’t access foreign websites freely in China? Does the Chinese government always block some foreign websites for no reason?

Oh, there are always reasons.

For example, up to 2009, Facebook was fully accessible in China. Then in July that year, a group called ETIM (which the UN categorises as a terrorist group) used Facebook to organise and instigate a riot in China. 197 people died and more than 1,000 people were injured.

The Chinese government asked Facebook to cooperate by identifying the ETIM members who had used Facebook to instigate the riot. Facebook refused. So the Chinese government banned Facebook, saying that otherwise Facebook might be used to instigate violence and organise riots.

As the years passed, it became clear that the Chinese government was not wrong. I say this, because of events in other countries make this clear and obvious.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Well, the fight was with me, and I sort of picked it. Just wait for it, you’ll understand as I go.

If I recall correctly it was 2018 and I was at a bus stop, there was a young girl, I would say about 13 years old. It was pretty late at night, I had just finished a routine commute from the city I trained in to the city I lived. I’m standing outside of the bus stop, gym bag over my shoulder while in the distance I saw a person kind of walking all over the sidewalk. Not unusual, there were a few bars around, I had even popped into one for a drink before waiting for the city bus home.

As the person got closer, my assumption was confirmed that they were in fact a bit drunk. Not a big deal, being drunk in public isn’t necessarily a crime unless you go overboard with it. So I ignore it. He comes up to the bus stop, stops for a second and then notices the girl. He starts banging on the glass, asking her questions and telling her to smile for him. I think to myself “Well, he’s an asshat”, and then asked some advice on my phone (facebook) of what to do. I got a few responses right away, mixed, but overwhelmingly saying I shouldn’t do anything.

Here is where it got dicey, instead of just being on the outside of the bus stop continuing his belligerent ways, he proceeds to walk to the entrance of the shelter and continues to tell her to smile and she should talk to him. I see the girl is visibly upset, and now it’s getting to a confinement issue. So I said to the guy to leave her alone, she’s too young and that’s you are making her uncomfortable. He turns around in a rage, swearing at me, telling me he used to race cars and she clearly wanted him. I repeated what I had said, he starts approaching me so I backed up a couple of steps, put my gym bag down and tried to descale it. He said he was going to smoke me. He starts trying to get in my face and I put my hand on his chest and asked him “what are you doing? I don’t want to fight but you have to leave her alone.”

Anyways, he tried to push through my hand and by that point I had enough. I grabbed the back of his neck, pivoted and shucked him to the ground. I didn’t follow up with anything because at that point it was done. He got up, realized he was outmatched and left her alone.

I looked over at her after to see if she was okay, and she mouthed thank you. So I asked her if she wanted me to sit with her on the bus so he wouldn’t try anything else.

It sounds like a lame “fight”, but I’m not going to let a young girl get sexually harassed and potentially assaulted by some drunk guy.

Getting to the point of picking a fight with the wrong person. At that point I had been training in mixed martial arts for 8 years, had 3 fights against opponents that were supposed to be way better than me, and was training 6 days a week. I wasn’t worried about what could have happened because at our gym we are more self defence oriented and I knew to keep an eye out for weapons.

Biden Beg China for Xi Jinping Visit to America For Talks!

Today’s geopolitical landscape is vibrant and ever-changing. In this video, we explore the tense dynamics between the United States, China, and their respective allies. Engage with us as we unravel the threads of trade conflicts, technological competitions, territorial disputes, and the subtle, strategic game of international influence in the 21st century. Biden Beg China for Xi Jinping Visit to America For Talks!

What was the biggest coincidence ever?

In the late 1990s my then-husband, also a firefighter, became ill from a chemical exposure in a fire. We had just built a vacation home in a tiny town (population 231) in the Colorado Rockies. He retired and chose to live there full time because he didn’t know how much longer he had. (Firefighters can retire earlier because of a typically shortened life span. He passed away a few years later.)

I wasn’t ready to retire so I stayed in Bay Area and continued working for my fire dept as well as a safety trainer for a large semiconductor company. Every two weeks I went to Colorado for a week to spend time with hubby.

While in the mountains I made friends with our nearest neighbors. They told me their brother was retiring soon from the Navy and planned a wedding at their house upon his return. We were invited.

About a week later I was in California teaching a safety class at the company. One of the new hires had just gotten out of the Navy and when I introduced myself as living in Colorado, he said his family lived there, too! In fact, the following month he would be having his wedding at his sister’s house in the mountains.

Yep! He was my neighbor’s brother! AND when I showed up to the wedding in a new dress I bought in California, his sister was wearing the exact same dress!

We remained friends for years.

How To Reduce Stress For Passport Bros | Floyd Gets A Filipina | Philippines Vlog

Honestly the Philippines has over 7000 Islands so not very hard to discover a place like this off the beaten path. Most of the named products are copies but still provide good quality for a lower price. Once you discover the lower cost of living you never want go back home.

Always have ways to relieve stress creating a peaceful mind. Try to find a way to keep yourself cool in a hotter climate that can also stress people out. If you are overweight the heat will help lose weight fast in the first few months.

This is the time to try maintaining a healthy body. Don’t fall in love with the first women you meet having plenty of options available. When meeting women make sure your intentions clear at the beginning never misleading them.

No matter where you live each person has their preferences that attracts them to others. Don’t stress over this since there are plenty of people you can vibe with.

Remember you are a guest in another country so show respect at all times. I agree Thailand suits younger men better who enjoy the night life.

A positive attitude is key to having a wonderful time. Remember you are responsible for your own happiness. I wish all who visit or move overseas to enjoy a happy life for less money.

Why does China spend so much money to host the Asian Games?

For soft power purposes.

Athletes come, bring their coaches, family and support staff. So 12000 athletes maybe bring 50,000 people

They get a look into China the real one not the Washington version.

We can see how western media isn’t even acknowledging it at all.

Look at the BBC link it’s right at the bottom.

Add on bloggers and private people traveling to have a look? There’s potentially half a million people who get to see what it’s REALLY like.

These people will return home. These people will hear the usual propaganda garbage spouted against China

These people might decide to push back, at which they have a great thing to say.

I’ve been there. I’ve seen China up front and close, yet YOU know more than I do?”

I often say this to westerners who claim to know everything about China despite never visiting, not understanding the language or being able to read our media. They literally have no response to it other than I know better than you because (racist) reasons.

US And TSMC In Pain, As China’s SMIC Becomes World’s Best Chip Manufacturing Company!

Congratulations China and SMIC. Many of us around the world have been waiting for this day. Both the US and TSMC had been arrogant and thought no one could shake them.

https://youtu.be/c75Wwu0_IK0

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

This is how I learned how crooked employers can be, right at the start of my career. 1984, first job out of university. Five young women were hired by Sperry Corp. We were working on a contract for the State of Texas which involved a lot of traveling and overtime to install and look after a new computer system.

We had to fill out two timesheets, one for our employer (single copy) and one for the State of Texas (triplicate). We were told to put eight hours per day on the employer timesheet but our real work hours on the State’s timesheet, because we were not going to get overtime pay from our employer. So, 40 hours per week for Sperry, 50+ for the State usually, since we often started by leaving on Sunday night and didn’t get back until Friday night. Travel hours were considered work hours. It was no fun, especially since we weren’t allowed any vacation time the first year.

If you’ve ever worked in IT, you know you get stuck working weekends and holidays when fewer people mind if the system is down. Thus we were working on Thanksgiving weekend doing testing, along with some seasoned employees, all male. It was boring and we had lots of time to chat. One of them said “at least you are getting overtime for this”. We wryly laughed – “ha ha NO.” Two of them replied, “Well you should be, you’ve been here less than six months and they automatically classify you as non-exempt for six months when you are new.” Then some comments about the bosses probably not telling us this and figuring we wouldn’t complain because we were female.

We quickly realized we had one copy of the triplicate time sheets for each week we’d been working, because we kept part of the State’s timesheet. Of the four of us ladies remaining, two did not want to make a fuss about it, and two of us decided to confront the bosses. We added up our overtime and had a plan going in.

Our supervisor and his boss and his boss’s boss actually admitted they hadn’t paid us on purpose! Because “the project didn’t have the budget.” Really brazen and condescending attempt at deflecting us. I pointed out this was still illegal and I’d go to the EEOC if they didn’t make good on what they owed. We said we wanted a paid week off at Christmas and cash to make up for the overtime, which they gave us. Our two colleagues who were afraid to complain got nothing. My friend and I had a nice ski vacation together with the proceeds.

I immediately found another job and moved away within a few weeks. Later I got to be an agent of karma: I rose to a position in my company where I had influence on decisions around large contract awards. When Unisys (formerly Sperry Corp) was competing for our business, I made sure my fellow decision-makers knew about my story. It’s bad business to cheat your employees!

stone knives and bearskins

Given Huawei’s chip break thru with the Mate 60 pro, would it make any difference to the future outlook of American chip manufacturers if the US was to abandon the high tech sanctions against China?

The United States will not give up its high-tech sanctions against China.

Not only the United States, but also Japan, South Korea and even Taiwan Province of China are the same. As soon as there is an election season, all kinds of stupid anti-China remarks will come out one after another.

Normally, they create rumours and smear China every day to brainwash their own citizens:

How China steals their technology? How China has taken away their jobs? How China threatens their national security ? Even rumours of genocide are created, so in the eyes of most American rednecks, China is “unforgivable”.

  • You see, there is such an evil country in the world, and it is righteous for us to be tough on it!
  • If you give up high-tech sanctions, you are pro-China and treasonous!
  • Every chip sold to Huawei will become a bullet that hits us!

If you’ve watched too many Western-style elections, you’ll know that it’s the same as a TV talent show.

Whether it’s Trump or Biden, they shout “CHINA” from the podium like a tenor voice, and the voters under the podium feel like they’ve been stimulated by a egg-vibrators in their G-spot, and they instantly orgasm, their minds going blank.

Inflation, health care, and Gun violence and drug-infested are not important, they just want to hear more “CHINA”, and keep on having orgasms, and keep on being happy, and descent into madness.

After enjoying the orgasm calm down and think about it, in the past, the United States to the Soviet Union, to Japan is not also such sanctions? The United States has already achieved success, there are success stories, and as long as the United States increases the sanctions against Huawei, the United States will not fail, and they will keep reassuring themselves in this way.. 🤣

Their election is a race to see who is more anti-China, so the White House will continue to impose technology restrictions on Huawei.

In any case, Biden must take a tough stance to avoid being labelled a “pro-China traitor” by Trump.

Reaction To Jimmy Dore’s TRUTH At The United Nations

On Tuesday the United Nations Security Council welcomed a very surprising speaker — comedian and political commentator Jimmy Dore! Jimmy explained about how the United States was behind the Nord Stream bombing and the western media all fell in line to push the lie that Russia or Ukraine or someone else was responsible. Guest host Craig “Pasta” Jardula and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss Jimmy’s UN appearance and Seymour Hersh’s startling revelation that the Nord Stream bombing wasn’t actually about the Ukraine War at all.

What’s something that you can teach me?

My mom was on welfare when I was ten years old. She had been taking a bus (public transportation) to school every day to become a dental technician. Her goal, which she worked towards and accomplished, was to get her family off of welfare.

On the day she was scheduled to graduate, her unemployed boyfriend was supposed to watch my brother and me. The plan was for him to pick us up and take us on a hunting trip with him and his friends. Not that we would have been allowed to shoot anything, but we were really excited.

He never showed up.

Mom called the neighbor and asked her to watch me and my brother, to which the neighbor agreed. I was really upset and disappointed that we weren’t going hunting.

As my mom was leaving for her graduation, I was crying and begging her to stay. She said she loved us and left.

When she got back, she asked me how my day was. I told her I hated her. That was it. That was all I said. “I hate you.”

I can only imagine the strength it took for her to hold back the tears as she got my brother and me ready to go for a walk.

Right outside the door, there was a brand-new bb gun sitting on the porch. We lived in Cherry Ridge Terrace which is located on a mountain in the woods of Barnesboro, Pennsylvania. There are tons of wooded trails around those parts.

She took my brother and me down a trail.

Located in almost every tree, shrub and plant, were empty aluminum cans. One by one, we switched off possession of the bb gun and shot cans out of those trees and shrubs the whole way down the trail.

It was so fun for us.

As it turned out, my mom had gotten a $50 graduation gift from her father and bought a bb gun before she came home from her graduation.

She walked that trail and put those cans all around before she came in the apartment, so she could take us hunting. And right before she did that, I told her that I hated her.

That was the last time I told my mom I hated her.

And when I saw this question, I called her and apologized for saying that I hated her, thirty years ago.

What I can teach you right now is something I learned ten minutes ago.

It is never too late to apologize for something.

Leon

What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?

When I was 17, I went camping at a beach one day, and decided to make a sand throne, to relax in, except… it wasn’t made entirely of sand, because it would collapse the moment I sat on it. So, I gathered some large stones nearby, arranged them neatly to form a chair, and then covered it with sand to even out the gaps so that it would be comfortable to sit in.

After 2 hours of toiling under the hot sun, the job was done, and I sat in my throne with a great sense of fulfilment. After a while, I retreated back to my tent nearby to rest.

As I stared out of my tent to enjoy the view of the beach and admire my handiwork, a young boy, around 10 of age, went to my throne and walked around it, inspecting it curiously. For a moment, I thought he was going to sit on it. But then, a mischievous glint shone in his eye and he backed away from it a few steps. Then, he dashed and swung a mighty kick! And… collapsed, clasping his foot and crying for his mom.

I stayed in my tent, with tears in my eyes trying to hold back the laughter, thinking “Served you right! “. It wasn’t intentional, but making a “sand” structure with stones was definitely the most satisfying passive aggressive thing I did to a troll who goes around kicking sand structures.

Star Trek – I Have the Phaser, Captain

What do you, as a Marxist ideologue, actually do for the poor, except preaching revolution?

  1. I sponsor poor children in Thailand through an accredited international relief fund. I have been doing this for 15 years.
  2. I do pro-bono law work for the poor. I have saved single mothers from eviction, saved a person’s life, helped someone wrongly arrested and charged from going to jail and being away from his children, and others.
  3. I rebuild and repair computers and donate them to impoverished families.
  4. A socialist society would require less of me having to deal with evictions for poor mothers because the mother would be given her own place, free from that concern. There would not be the systemic injustices that cause so many legal problems for people. Most poor people would make a living wage so they wouldn’t be destitute. An equitable economic and legal system is far superior to charity. Until the beautiful day of communism, we all need to do what we can.

Is the Huawei Mate 60 Pro chip equal to the latest iPhone chip or even better?

In terms of raw flops for the CPU and GPU?

No.

But in terms of aggregate function, it is arguably THE smartphone SOC of 2023.

Why?

Well, it is the first mobile device with Bluetooth 6.x that can deliver lossless high fidelity audio at lower power than the current industry standard, Bluetooth 5.x. Huawei calls it Nearlink, and it is 100% Huawei controlled.

It is also the first mobile device that can make satellite calls, courtesy of a sophisticated antennae design that, according to my friend who has done a partial teardown, is the most complex he has ever seen. There are 9 separate segments on the frame of the mate 60.

The WiFi 6 speed can hit several Gbps, while the 5G mobile connectivity has been demoed above 1Gbps. These are class-leading numbers, with the signal processing improved through AI.

Wired/wireless charging at 88/50W are way better than what Apple offers, as does the battery capacity.

There is also a large language AI model built into the OS, making Hongmeng stand out among the 3 mobile ecosystems. The AI also enables the nifty camera, which takes some of the best mobile photography in 2023.

There is nothing like the features enabled by the Kirin 9000s chipset, even if we combine the best features of the Android and iOS universe into a hypothetical superphone.

Is that better?

You decide.

Nvida Shocked! Huawei’s Secret Weapons: Ai Chip Ascend 310 Explained

Huawei is becoming the company Apple wants to be… building its own modern ecosystem for the internet of things and huawei car integration. Let’s see who gets there first.

What do the Americans want from China in the end? What is their end game? When will they leave China alone?

I thought about this for a long time , a very long time

Yes it’s true that the West led by the US has become unusually harsh towards China. In fact the US is destroying it’s entire reputation in front of the world through it’s actions against China & Russia

So why?

First let’s get rid of the obvious NONSENSE theories here

Theory 1:-

That US doesn’t want China to be a threat in the future and become a Rival

This is ridiculous. It’s also highly improbable. US doesn’t think long term at all. US thinks only short term, typically from Election to Election Or Boom to Recession to Boom

That the US is doing all this , to throttle Chinas Growth seems foolish to me because the US gains nothing at all

If the US simply and quietly did it’s work without any threat of sanctions, the USD would remain a global currency for a century perhaps

So US destroying it’s own reputation by the day, it’s reputation as a free country, as a country of laws, as a country of responsible media and as a country promoting free trade – just to ensure China doesn’t grow to be as big as the US is downright foolish

Theory 2:-

That US wants to protect it’s Companies from Patent infringement

Again Nonsense

That’s not how the US works

These Companies, they have for several decades run their own businesses and have never come crying to the US Government for help

That the US doesn’t want China to become technologically advanced and sell more smartphones and laptops is illogical

Theory 3:-

That the US are doing this for National Security

Again foolish. US have Nukes. China has Nukes. In any struggle between two nuclear powers, the power heading for defeat will try to balance the equation by using nuclear weaponry

This US will never fight China in a major war and vice versa

The US has no conflict with China and the Sphere of Influence for the US is in the Atlantic & Pacific not the South China Sea or Africa

And for gods sake if you tell me this is because US cares about the Taiwanese people, I would tell you the chances of Netanyahu being a Hamas agent is higher than that

Plus nobody uses 3 nm Chips for Missiles or Space

Theory 4:-

That US wants to break up China and destroy the CPC

Again nonsense.

Why?

China is an economic and trade ally and helps make $ 2.3 Trillion a year to the US Economy by value addition. Why destroy that with breaking up China and destroying Status Quo?

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Sure you do have a handful of faggots like Lindsey or De Santis who are demented enough to have this illogical ideology

Yet they represent maybe 3–4% of the US collective of Politics, Press & Big Businesses

Theory 5:-

Politics & Elections

Again doesn’t make sense

US voters vote on various issues and Anti Chinese Rhetoric isn’t one of them. Hell, both sides make Anti Chinese Rhetoric don’t they?


This brings me to the real reason in my opinion

The US NEEDS CHINA to do something very badly and is using all these measures as bargaining chips

  • Taiwan
  • Tech barriers
  • Tarriffs
  • Propaganda

The US wants something from China in return for which the US is ready to go back to removing all of the above

That’s the only logical explanation of why US keeps threatening China and it’s businesses

It hopes these businesses and people will put pressure on China to somehow do what the US expects

This also explains why China isn’t reacting at all to all these provocations but quietly making firm statements

Its ECONOMIC

The US Economy is a time bomb waiting to explode. When it does it will take the economy of the entire world with it.

It will cause huge blows to every nation including China

Yet it will also finish the US as a global power completely

Unless China steps in

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China can invest $ 770 Billion today without needing a signature or getting into debt

China has $ 18 Trillion in savings alone

A Huge Swathe of Chinese Investments into USA , especially PUBLIC MONEY belonging to the Chinese People will allow the US to either delay this time bomb from exploding immediately (7–12 years) to around 40 years

It’s why so many US higher ups are visiting China again and again

It’s why no top ranked Chinese is visiting the US

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The US keep telling China, it’s in their own interest to prevent the US from the great economic collapse

Otherwise China would be badly burnt

Yet China may feel that it’s best to let US collapse even at great personal loss. This may be why China is busy with alternative settlements and alternative currency routes

I somehow seriously doubt Xi Jingping wants to be the Global Hegemon

All his moves are to secure Fuel, Energy and Food and Independence from the Dollar

I thought this was because the US is insane enough to sanction China but maybe it’s because China wants to put distance between the US Economic time bomb & themselves and their clients

I believe it’s why US have enmeshed the EU into this quagmire and also the UK and Japan and S Korea

If US experiences this Economic Collapse, these nations would be gutted completely. Hence they sink or swim with the US. That’s why they too put pressure on China yet have some major visit to China almost every month

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This is my hypothesis

Nothing else makes sense

Politicians have their ideology

Media Channels have their ideology

Businessmen may have their own issues with China

But a full concerted effort to target China and that too announcing everything months in advance all the time , looks stupid and completely ineffective

It looks like the US is desperately putting hook after hook into China and saying “If I go down, you go down”

China still doesn’t believe that and feels that if the US goes down, and if China survives – it would be a better world altogether


I am firmly convinced the US is having an economic nuclear bomb within itself and needs China to prevent the collapse which will damage the Global Economy heavily

All these moves are completely Anti Chinese but intended as bargaining Chips

Nothing else makes sense to me.

Have you ever encountered a lawyer who was so good that you were lost for words?

Originally Answered: Have you ever encountered a lawyer who was so good that your jaw dropped?

I had been the victim of a road rage incident when I was in my 20s. Long story short, I was in a left-turn-only lane; the perp was in the right-turn-only lane, and she wanted to go left. I made my turn, without ever noticing her, as there weren’t very many cars on the road, and went into a restaurant to pick up my dad’s dinner. She followed me in, kicked the chair out from under me, and kicked the crap out of me while screaming, “Do you know who I am?” Luckily, one of the waiters got her license plate number.

I had eight broken ribs, a fractured cheekbone, and she had ruptured all of my stitches from my gallbladder surgery that I’d had two weeks prior. She tried to have me arrested for assault, saying that I threw her against her car. I’ll come back to that.

At my first court appearance, the prosecutor took me into a room and wanted me to drop the charges against this woman. I obviously refused. The prosecutor said, “You are 22, you work as a hairdresser, and you live with your parents. You are nothing. Marjorie (the perp) is a pillar of the community, and is the child psychologist for the county, so I’d think real hard over this (let’s not forget that I had been the victim here).”

I did point out that I had brought a witness (the waiter), as well as notarized affidavits from several people who were in the restaurant at the time, and CCTV footage from the restaurant, too. She refused to allow them to be admitted. Wasn’t she supposed to help me?

The judge wanted me to let the perp have my car fixed (she broke a window and keyed the door) by some unlicensed guy, whom she had treated when he was in school. I agreed to an estimate, but I was going to get my own estimate as well.

My sister used to work as a legal secretary, and she took me to one of her old bosses. We went over all of the evidence, and he agreed to come with me for the second court date.

So, at the next date, the prosecutor called me back to a private room, before going into the courtroom, again trying to force me to drop the charges, but still wanted me for assault. My lawyer, Mark, said, “So you say that my client threw Marjorie over the hood of her own car and held her against a wall with her right arm, correct?”

The prosecutor said, “That’s what Marjorie told me.”

Mark: “Marjorie, how tall are you?”

Marjorie: “5’10”

Mark: Chole, how tall are you?

Me: “5’3″

Mark: “Marjorie, you are a big woman, easily close to 200 pounds, while Chole weighs 92 pounds, so how could she throw you?

Prosecutor: “That’s not important.”

Mark: “I disagree. Marjorie, you said in your sworn statement that Chole held you up against the wall with her right arm. Are you certain that you want to say that?”

Marjorie: “That girl is a wild animal; who knows what those people are capable of?”

Mark: “Well, Chole had emergency surgery two weeks prior to the incident, on her right side, and still cannot lift that arm past shoulder level, no thanks to you. Also, she’s left-handed.” Checkmate.

Marjorie, at this point, jumped up and started screaming about how important she was and I was just white trash, when Mark stood up, looked down at her (he’s 6’9) and said, “Lady, you might have convinced this prosecutor that you’re somebody special, but I have, in my briefcase, a filing, ready to go to the state board, along with all the evidence from this case, as well as sworn observations about your general behavior from your fellow psychologists and some of your neighbors. You will never be able to work again once I’m through with you, so I suggest that you sit the f**k down and admit that you lied and that you beat this ‘white trash girl’ for no g*****n reason.” Then, he turned to the prosecutor and said, “How dare you assume that someone is guilty because they’re not from this s****y town? What does that prove, or are you just bored and lazy?”

Marjorie had to pay for all of the damage done to my car, as well as the ambulance service, medical costs relating to everything that she did to me, and the damage she did to the chair in the restaurant. All of my charges were dropped and expunged.

Mark usually handled divorce cases, but he had way too much fun that night!

Flash-forward a few years, when I was at a luncheon with my mom. We ran into a friend of hers, who is also a child psychologist for another district. My mom mentioned my case, and the woman said, “We’ve all been waiting for that b***h to get knocked down a few pegs for years! She’s a nightmare to deal with, but she did lose her job shortly after your case was resolved.” The district didn’t want to have to pay out a small fortune if and when this woman blew her top again, so they forced her into early retirement.

Eliminate Apple Android compatibility! Huawei’s independent operating system shocks the West!

“”In today’s episode, we dive into the latest developments in the Huawei vs. United States tech competition. Huawei has made a groundbreaking announcement – its HarmonyOS will no longer be compatible with Android. HarmonyOS 4.0 has sparked intense discussions, with industry experts suggesting it could challenge iOS and Android. Huawei’s move to disconnect HarmonyOS from Android is a strategic maneuver in the global tech arena, countering U.S. dominance. We explore the implications and Huawei’s plan to create opportunities for global tech enterprises.

https://youtu.be/blnnMPkTITs

Russia ditches US Dollar and Indian Rupee, accepts Only Local Currency and Yuan

Russia is still sitting on 40 billion dollars worth of trapped Indian Rupees.

BRICS member Russia is evading US sanctions by accepting local currencies as payment for exports and not the US dollar. Russia’s third-biggest oil producer, ‘Gazprom Neft announced that the company has completely stopped accepting the US dollar as payment.

The oil exporter has ditched the US dollar and switched to accepting local currencies for cross-border transactions. This is the first oil-producing firm to completely switch from the US dollar to local currencies in 2023.

The development comes on the heels of the de-dollarization efforts initiated by the BRICS alliance. Saudi Arabia also confirmed recently that it is open to accepting local currencies for oil trade across the world.

Alexander Dyukov, the CEO of Gazprom Neft, said that the company has completely moved away from the U.S. dollar. He added that the firm will not be accepting Euros, which will eventually put pressure on the countries of the European Union. “We have virtually moved away from payments in dollars and euros,” he said to Tass.

Dyukov revealed that the oil firm will accept the Chinese Yuan and the Russian Ruble as payment moving forward. “We mainly use Yuan and Rubles,” he said. A spokesperson said that the company has no issues accepting and withdrawing foreign currencies from across the world.

However, the CEO stressed that the company is not open to accepting the Indian Rupee as payment. “No. We don’t use Rupees,” he said without citing why the INR is left out as a payment option. If many other oil companies follow suit, the US dollar could be in jeopardy. The means to fund the dollar’s deficit will narrow, leading to economic turmoil in the US.

ASEAN Rejects US As Biden Tried Disrupting Summit And Made These Silly Requests!

im from the Philippines and i firmly believe that without U.S. hegemony, the world will be at peace.”

https://youtu.be/qhI3NtjeKI4

When have you fired someone on the spot?

Quite a few years ago I worked for a large insurance company. I had an office on the fifth floor. In that office I had a decorative ceramic eagle worth about $200 sitting on my bookcase. One Friday afternoon it was there when I went home for the weekend. When I returned on Monday it was gone!

I trotted down to Building Security and explained the issue. They smiled and said, “Give us an hour.” I said, “Why?” They said, “Very few people know about the hidden cameras in the elevators!”

An hour later they called me. They showed me a video of one of my employees carrying out my eagle at 11:00 PM on a Sunday night! They happily printed out a hard copy of a frame that showed the theft.

On Monday morning I called my thief into my office. I had a little fun. I told him how shocked I was that my eagle was missing. He said all the right things about how terrible this was!

“Who would do such a thing?” I inquired. He quickly threw two other employees under the bus. Then I laid the picture out of this SOB doing the deed!

“I guess I’m fired” he said! “You guessed right,” I said.

Footnote- My superiors were not satisfied with that. They called the police and had him charged & convicted for theft!

It FINALLY happened (mask off moment)…

Thanks, Canada, for confirming what Mr. Putin has been saying all along.

https://youtu.be/8BhRpSTJklA

Why is Japan so safe?

“Remember, don’t talk to the hostesses, and don’t start a fight. Got it?” I asked my friends, making sure everyone also had a drink in hand.

image 124
image 124

Girls holding signs, where sometimes a man may come in to “persuade” you to try it

“What happens if we lose you?” one of my friends asked.

“Look, you’re not carrying shrooms or weed. Don’t start a fight, and worst case they put you in a cell until you sober up. Then call me.” I grinned back. The Neon lights with the words “Kabuki-cho” illuminated behind me. Farther ahead, many girls with signs.

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image 123

Sorta like this now

They all nodded, some coming from downtown LA, some former military members, and some just like you, traveling Japan for the first time.

As a preamble, they wanted me to take them to the sketchiest part of Tokyo, which I find to be a contradiction.

After seeing a beer cans and some trash on the floor, I looked back at my group, shaking my head. “I’m so sorry guys. This area is not as clean as Japan, and it can get pretty bad.” Then I looked back up and winked at them.

The reason why it’s so safe is because of the culture.

People in Japan from a younger age are taught to think of the community first, and not themselves. There are pros and cons of this, which I’ll reserve for another post, but it starts from school as the students are expected to clean everything. If you do a bad job, you will be socially ostracized until you put in “your part”. Everywhere you go it’s pretty much handicap friendly, so if you have any disabilities people make sure you can go about your day.

The reason why it’s so safe is because there’s no incentive

It didn’t used to be this way. Japan has organized crime like any other country (Yakuza ring a bell?) but even they realized it wasn’t profitable to do violence so they pretty much resort to financial racketeering or money laundering and other “services”, but never violence.

The reason why it’s so safe is because of the police culture.

Japan has what some in the West would be almost a too trusting culture with the police. Kid is lost? Go to the local police station. Harassed? Local police station. Followed? Local police station. You get the idea.

You also don’t really have to worry about being injured going to the police. The police are liable if they do physically hurt you, so they have come up with ways to restain you without harming you.

The reason why it’s so safe is because the population is older and busy

If you look at Japan, the average age is almost 50. People don’t need to prove themselves when they’re older, and have it stable. Likewise, the younger generation are almost too busy with school, work, or other societal aspect that there’s almost no free time to do anything else. This obviously has major cons, but it does make it so that most people follow the rules and are rewarded on the “successful” pathway.

By age 40, you should be smart enough to realize this:

1. Stay silent. Not everything needs to be said.

2. Silence is better than unnecessary drama.

3. If you find someone smarter than you, work with them, don’t compete. Competition is a weakness.

4. The family you create is more important than the family you come from.

5. Your current job doesn’t care about you. They only pay you enough to kill your dreams.

6. Free yourself from society’s advice, most of them have no idea of what they’re doing.

7. It’s better to have 1 friend who’s;

• Happy for you

• Supports your win

• Encourages your dreams

Than a bunch of acquittance who are

• Lazy

• Self-centered

• Jealous of your success

8. You’ll be 10x happier if you forgive your parents and stop blaming them.

9. If you continue waiting for the “right time ”, you’ll waste your whole life and nothing will happen.

10. No one will ever come save you. Your life is 100% your responsibility.

11. Your inner circle should be more focused on money, success, and starting a family.

12. You don’t need 100 self-help books. All you need is actions and self-discipline.

What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?

Iceland here.

  • If it’s 10degrees or hotter outside [50 degrees Fahrenheit, for Americans] we will go out in bikinis and sunbathe
  • Almost every family owns at least one summer cabin that is frequently visited
  • We say ‘good morning’ or ‘good evening’ to everyone we pass on the street, depending on the time of day
  • We will often have long discussions (*hem* arguments) of what type of snow is snowing at the moment
  • The first real day of summer was three days ago and almost everyone took a break from work to go and enjoy it (it was around 14 degrees or something)
  • It snows from August to June
  • All the houses are built like fortresses so they can withstand the frequent earthquakes
  • We await the next volcanic eruption with excitement
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image 140

(Eyjafjallajökull, 2010)

  • Most of us watch football religiously
  • Dried fish is a delicacy
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image 139
  • We loudly announce when we go to the toilet and ask if we have permission to do so
  • Going on dates is a formal and a rare experience, not standard at all
  • Blind dates is something that doesn’t happen
  • In swimming pools we wash without clothes with everyone else of the same gender, no stalls
  • We drink a lot of milk —it goes with everything
  • We leave our babies outside in their prams -of cafes, our homes, in the garden, in our unlocked cars
  • We love sauces; we probably have hundreds of different types, also ice cream shops normally have about six different sauces
  • We will have barbecues in any weather
  • We drink lots of alcohol: beer, wine, you name it
  • It’s never cold inside our houses, ever
  • We party until way after midnight —if you are camping and want to sleep, don’t camp next to Icelanders
  • Believing in elves and trolls is normal and we have tons of stories that we’ve been told about them since we were young
  • We have 13 Santa Clauses
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image 141

edit : some more for y’all + pics on the original answer

  • We have a Christmas Cat that, if you don’t get new clothes for christmas, will come and eat you (particularly children)
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image 138
  • The christmas cat is owned by a pair of trolls called Grýla and Leppalúði. they are the Santa Clauses’ parents, who are also trolls.
  • Grýla kidnaps, cooks and eats misbehaving children.
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image 137
  • We have a day dedicates to eating these delicious balls of air
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image 136
  • The water quality is 500% and so when we visit other countries we are dying because the water tastes so bad there
  • We are taught from a young age that we should never ever ever step on the moss and if you do then u deserve to burn in hell (ok maybe not but that’s the idea)
  • Everyone hates Justin Bieber for that music video he did. (+We had to close down the park a part of it was shot in because the tourists were tearing up the moss.)
  • In winter we all wear the thickest coats you’ll see while still trying to stay fashionable and we all look giant
  • Conjugation is a thing so a noun has 16 different variations of itself.
  • Tourism is the top industry of Iceland
  • Ice cream is enjoyed whenever; in a snow storm or on a rare hot day; doesn’t matter
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image 135

What is the most clever way you have seen someone respond to road rage?

I was proud of myself for this…you be the judge.

While waiting to turn left into a busy street, the person behind me grew impatient and honked. Not wanting to be the person to face death by oncoming traffic so he could hurry, I put my car into park and got out.

I pasted a look of quizzical concern on my face, and slowly walked to the back of my car. I inspected the back and could find nothing wrong, so I turned to the guy who honked and said, “What is it? Is one of my lights out? Is one of my tires flat?”

He shouted, “I just want you to go!”, but it was busy, so I pretended not to hear him, so I cupped my hand to my ear and walked towards him.

“I JUST WANT YOU TO GO!!!!” he shouted.

“Oh, well, I’m turning left, and it’s kind of busy, so I’m waiting for a break. I’ll go then. I thought you were honking because you saw something wrong with my car. Thanks!” I cheerily shared.

I went back to my car, put it in drive, and waited for a safe time to pull out.

Why People Are Moving to Mexico City

Under-reporting trend.

Why don’t American teachers break up school fights anymore?

I used to until I was sued and faced legal action against my credential that was filed by my principal. The principal also convinced the boy’s father to file a criminal complaint and tried to get me arrested. It cost over $150,000 in attorney’s fees to fight the administrative actions and criminal actions. I ended up prevailing and in the end, after spending another $100,000 in attorney’s fees, I recouped my fees by filing suit against the parent of the student and the school district.

The back story was this male student who suffers from schizophrenia and has other learning disabilities was assigned to my science class. I was never informed about his medical diagnosis. He was enrolled in the intensive intervention program at our school that was for students who had behavioral issues. These students were supposed to have an aide with them in the mainstream classroom or they were supposed to be in the II room doing their work. They had a behavioral intervention plan for each student.

I was not given this student’s BIP because his mother, a teacher in the district and at another site, did not want his medical diagnosis shared with his teachers. She also did not agree with it and refused to administer his medication at home. To be allowed at school, he had to take his meds. The year prior, he had beaten two students so severely, they were hospitalized for several weeks and one almost died. So his meds were administered at school. He did not take them on the weekends so on Mondays he was always exhibiting extreme behavior. It also turns out that at times the voices he heard told him the meds were poison so he would pretend to take them and then spit them out when the school nurse was not looking.

I knew he was supposed to have a BIP and I made several requests for it by email. I cced the requests to the vice-principal and the principal and never received a response. By state and federal law, I was supposed to be given the BIP and made aware of anything that could possibly endanger myself or my students. I was supposed to be informed that the previous year he went into a psychotic rage and nearly killed two students in his PE class and it took 4 PE teachers to pull him off of the student both times. It was after the second attack that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in the II program and assigned an aide to be with him at all times.

Well, his case carrier let him go to his classes without an aide because none of the aides would deal with him. He had assaulted all of the aides that were available and so they refused to work with him. He was confined to the II room for the first 5 periods of the day. She sent him to my class 6th period because it was her prep period and she wanted a break. Since no aide would work with him, she did not send an aide with him, so I had to deal with him on my own. Of course I had no idea about the schizophrenia or that his constant talking was due to his talking to the voices of his imaginary friends that were real to him and that were telling him what to do.

One day those friends told him to beat the crap out of a female student that was half his size because she had disrespected him because she was looking at him funny. Of course she was at the back of the room and he was at the front and she wanted nothing to do with him. Nobody wanted to even talk to this kid. So he got up and walked back to her, and pulled her out of her seat and started beating her. When I got to her, he had her on the floor and she was in the fetal position. He was kicking her head repeatedly. I grabbed him in a bear hug from behind and walked him to the door. He was continuing to kick and so he and I went down. I just continued dragging him to the door and pulled him out the room. I left him outside and returned to the room and shut the door behind me. He was locked out side.

I called the office to come and get him and to send for paramedics for the girl. He spent the next 30 minutes pounding on the door and windows with his bare fists. He actually shattered several windows to the classroom. It took administrators 10 minutes to get to my classroom. They spent 20 minutes asking him to calm down and walk with them to the office. He charged them several times and hit and kicked them but they would not use any physical force to restrain him. Even after he broke the windows with his fists and cut his hands, they refused to restrain him. I finally had enough and called the police. They came and took him down and cuffed him. My principal was upset. But the paramedics were able to stop his bleeding before he bled out. Then they were able to treat the student he had kicked in the head several times. She had a severe concussion and needed medical attention now, not 30 minutes from now.

Of course in this day and age of cell phones, a few of my students filmed this. As allowed by state law, I confiscated the cell phones because filming inside of a classroom is a violation of state law, and filming fights is a suspendible behavior. I handed the phones to the admin and wrote the appropriate referrals.

The district policy is the admin is supposed to review all photos and videos with a parent present, copy any thing taken in a classroom then delete those images from the phone. Those copies are then saved as evidence for the basis of the suspension and depending on the severity of the offense and the number of previous offenses the student gets from 1 to 5 days of suspension. The phones do not get handed back under any circumstances until the videos are erased.

Well, the principal just handed them back immediately. I still wrote the referrals. I documented everything.

The next day. I get called to the office. I find the SRO wanting to interview me. I respectfully declined. I invoked my right to have an attorney present before answering any questions. I have attorneys for relatives and friends. When a police officer asks you a question about a situation you were involved in, they are not your friend. Anything you say can be used against you. You do not say anything without an attorney. What the officer did not say that I learned later was the father had filed a criminal complaint against me. The principal had encouraged him to do so. The problem was, he did not have custody of his son nor did he have legal educational rights. In fact, there was a restraining order prohibiting him from being on school grounds or within 1,000 feet of his son. Mom did not want to file a criminal complaint because she knew what would happen, absolutely nothing. She was a teacher and knew what the education code was.

In CA, a teacher may intervene to protect the safety of a student. So if it is mutual combat, I could legally intervene to prevent both students from harming each other. I am not legally required to but I can if I feel I can do so. If I am injured, I am covered by workman’s comp for injuries sustained in performing my duties. The top duty of any teacher is to ensure student safety. That takes a higher priority over teaching students. I have broken up fights before and have been injured and they have always been covered. I do it because I am a teacher and student safety is first.

The principal then filed an administrative action against me for violating the rights of a special education student. I did not follow his behavioral intervention plan. Had this been successful, I would have lost my job and my credential. This was made worse by the fact that the video taken by a student was posted to social media. It then made the local news.

Of course the story was one sided. I could not provide my side of the story. Anything I said would violate the student’s privacy rights under state and federal law. So, I was the teacher that assaults students for no reason. Nothing was said about the student that was on the floor, in the fetal position, having her head repeatedly kicked. Nothing was said about her traumatic brain injuries or the induced coma she was in for two weeks or her overwhelming fear of returning to the same school this monster of a student was at so she ended up transferring to a private school. By the way, this student who was the aggressor was never suspended because his special education rights were violated. He did this to at least 6 other students after this incident over the next 2 years and the district ended up paying out several millions to the parents of his victims. They finally got rid of the student by moving the program off of my campus to another one. This allowed them to fire this inept teacher. At the new campus, this student is confined to his II room and not allowed into any general education room. That principal has made sure of it. He has signed one school security officer to be with the student at all times.

My union would help pay for the legal defense, but only if I prevailed. So I did what was best for me, I hired the best attorney in the field of Education Administrative law. She has earned several awards and has won many cases that went all the way to the CA Supreme Court. I mortgaged my house and paid the retainer. I then shut up and let her talk for me.

My district told my principal to back down, she would lose. Since this was a legal action, I got a copy of all emails and I got this email. My principal did not realize I got this email and her response was she was not going to because I hurt a student and she needed to make an example of me. Their response was they would not pay for her legal costs, she was on her own and she had to pay for all of her attorney fees. They would not provide an attorney for her. She decided she did not need one. She went it alone. If you are dealing with a legal issue, never, ever appear before a judge without a competent attorney. If your boss tells you to drop it and you insist on following through on the legal action, it is a sign you are going to lose.

After 3 months, she lost. Then I took all the documentation of where she went wrong and filed suit. Then she realized she screwed up big time because the district told her to get her own attorney. She refused to settle out of court and so her costs went up and she lost. The district also lost because I went after them because she was their employee. I also went dad for his defamation and libel and filing a false police report. Because of the deep pockets law, I won an enforceable judgement against the district and the principal.

Now, as a teacher, I really do not want to take money from the education of students. So, I negotiated with the district. Since I won against the original criminal and administrative complaints against me, my union will cover much of the attorney’s fees for that. I also had to hire a criminal defense attorney. His bill was only $10,000 because he only had to file some paperwork with the DA to get the DA to make a decision to either charge me or drop it. The DA decided that at worse I was guilty of an infraction, and since I was protecting another student and had a strong defense that I was protecting her from certain death or permanent harm, what I did was legal, he would never consider filing charges because the case would be too weak and I would never be convicted. The district negotiated with the principal to cover my administrative attorney’s fee not covered by the union. This meant they told her they would withhold the money from her paycheck to pay my attorney or the principal would no longer have a job.

Then, the principal would buy 10 years of credit into my retirement plan with the state. This would come from her paycheck rather than from the district so students do not suffer. If she did not agree, she would not longer be working for the district. This will allow me to retire early and leave the state and seek employment outside of CA where education has not become so bad that the schools are run by the lowest common denominator and the students who want to learn and get an education are being left behind and whose safety is in danger every day.

In exchange, I signed a contract that I will never intervene in a fight. I will call the office and report it to an administrator. Last year, I had 8 fights in my classroom. Administrators are trained to not run to fights. They are supposed to walk because it demonstrates a calm response. My classroom is at the back of campus and it takes a minimum of 5 minutes to walk from the front to my room. The average administrative response time from the time I call to inform them there is a fight in my room to them actually arriving is 15 minutes. During that time I am supposed to evacuate the classroom of all students who are not participating and who will follow my directions. I have to supervise those students outside. The defiant students stay inside. Since I have done my duty, I am good. The students inside can hurt and maim each other all they want and they do. After the administrators arrive, a few ambulances are required.

The result, last May a police officer attempted to do CPR on a student that collapsed at lunch time. Other nearby students assumed the officer was assaulting the student or arresting the student and started a riot. They threw trash cans at that officer and the other responding officers that arrived within two minutes. The 4 administrators that arrived and told the students to disperse were ignored. The administrators sounded a lock-down and the students ignored it. They continue to attack the officer attempting CPR. The student died.

That student had tapped a mixture of pentyl and THC and she stopped breathing. It took 20 minutes for the police to to control the students, including arresting 30 of them, clearing the area enough to get the paramedics to the girl. They could not perform CPR during that time. The officer that tried to do CPR was taken to the hospital with a concussion after having two garbage cans slammed over his head.

Students learned if they fight the adults back down.

If I see a fight or a student assaulting another, I walk the other way. I am legal safe if I just call the office. If I intervene, I can lose everything. I can be sued, I can lose my job, I can lose my life savings. If I do nothing but just call the office, I am protected from all legal consequences. The worst that can happen is I get called to answer the questions from a few attorneys. I spend a few days at the district office with pay while talking to attorneys. I did that two months ago.

It went something like this. Did you see the fight. Yes. What did you do? I called the office to report it. Who did you report it to? I reported it to the attendance secretary who answered the phone and she said she would call security. I then waited in my room because I feared for my safety. I watched the fight through my classroom window. It took security 15 minutes to arrive.

Why did you not break up the fight? I did not feel I had the physical strength to do so without incurring injury to myself and I have a written contract with the school district stating I will not break up fights but will only report them to the administration because it is their job to break them up. Here is a copy of that contract.

The district hated that I brought that up but it gave me 100% legal cover. It was proof I did exactly what I was directed to do by a superior so they were 100% on the hook for my actions.

The truth is, your students are not as safe at school as district administrators want you to think.

Banana Custard Cobblers

2023 10 15 09 54
2023 10 15 09 54

Yield: 8 servingsIngredients

Custard

1 cup granulated sugar1/2 cup cornstarch8 large egg yolks3 cups whole milk1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise6 tablespoons (34 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature1/4 cup dark rum

Topping

3/4 cup all-purpose flour1/2 cup almonds6 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces3 bananas, thinly slicedInstructions

Custard
  • Whisk sugar, cornstarch and egg yolks in large bowl to blend.Bring milk and vanilla bean to boil in heavy large saucepan.Gradually whisk hot milk into egg yolk mixture; return mixture to saucepan. Whisk over medium-low heat until custard boils and thickens, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.Whisk in butter and rum. Cool slightly.Discard vanilla bean. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until cold. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)
  • Topping
  • Blend flour, almonds and brown sugar in processor to mix.
  • Add butter and process, using on/off turns, until coarse crumbs form. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Transfer to bowl; cover and chill.)Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.Place eight 1 cup ramekins or custard cups on baking sheet.Divide custard equally among ramekins, using about cup for each.Top each dessert with about 8 banana slices.Spoon topping over banana slices, dividing equally.Bake cobblers until topping is golden brown, about 15 minutes.Remove from oven and cool slightly, about 15 minutes.Serve warm.
  • What was a big mistake in WW2?

    Originally Answered: What was big mistake in WW2?

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    image 127

    This is the Lorenz cipher.

    Unlike its better known relative, the Enigma machine which was infamously deciphered by code-breakers at Bletchley Park throughout the war, the Lorenz cipher posed a much greater challenge. Utilising 12 wheels to scramble up the message being sent as opposed to the 3 or 4 rotors found in the Enigma machine, the Lorenz cipher was incredibly secure. As a result, unlike the Enigma that was used by the German standard armed forces, the Lorenz cipher was used only by high command with messages coming from Hitler himself. As a result, to crack the Lorenz cipher (or Tunny as it was code named by the British) would have the potential to change the course of the war.

    Not much headway had been made in breaking the Lorenz cipher through the war until a German operator made a catastrophic mistake on 30 August 1941. When a German receiving operator did not receive a message correctly, he asked the transmitter to resend the information and despite clear protocol against it, the two operators resent the message without changing their key settings (the settings that determine how the text is scrambled up). However since the message in question was 4000 characters long, the lazy German operator abbreviated several words, thus changing the length of the message. Since their key settings were both the same, the two messages had the same scrambling pattern of characters. Thus by comparing the locations where the message text changed, details of the way the rotors worked could be determined.

    These two messages were intercepted by the British who soon realised the importance of what they had discovered. This task of cracking Tunny was given to W T (Bill) Tutte who began to find repetitions in the cipher which allowed him to reverse engineer the Lorenz machine’s logical structure in what would be later described as “one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II”. In order to support the painstaking decryption of German messages, the British Colossus was built in 1943 by Tommy Flowers, the first ever modern computer.

    image 126
    image 126

    The Colossus Machine

    The impact of the decryption of Tunny was enormous. It gave the British intimate details of Hitler’s most secret communications which was most notably vital in D Day where the Allies were able to deceive the Germans that they were going to attack at Calais as opposed to Normandy and at the Battle of Kursk in 1943, Germany’s last ditch attempt to reverse their fortunes on the Eastern Front and one of the largest battles in history. Involving 3 million men, without foreknowledge of German planning provided by the British, the Soviets would have been badly prepared defensively and could have lost this crucial battle and as a result, the war would’ve been prolonged. In fact, historians estimate that the breaking of the Lorenz cipher shortened the war by two years and thus saved millions of lives all due to the careless mistake of two lazy German operators.

    However this pivotal event is not well known due to the Official Secrets Act keeping the nature of the code breakers working to break the Lorenz cipher secret until 1974 and some former staff even today still refuse to break their vow of secrecy, preferring to take their knowledge to the grave.

    image 125
    image 125

    W T (Bill) Tutte, the man responsible for cracking the Lorenz Cipher

    Sweet cat is trying desperately to fit in, find a home