I had another interview. This was on a website that discusses soul, and astral travel, and all manner of similar items. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video. Enjoy!

I hope that you enjoy it.

I don’t think that I was at my best. But I did try anyways.

Here’s the post for today…

Very valid

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

AAAHAHAHA!

Oh, I’ve got a good one. After joining a new company, I rose quickly from trainee to project manager. However, my pay didn’t rise with my title or responsibility. I was also being forced to work overtime off the clock (illegally). I had a sit down meeting with my boss, and told him that I expected to be paid more given that I had far more responsibility. I was told that I’d need to gain experience in the new department and that they didn’t have money in the budget for raises. I knew this to be nonsense, because there was no way that the guy I replaced was making the pittance that I was. I also asked for a filing cabinet for my office. I was told that one had recently been vacated and to take anything I needed out of that office. I found the file cabinet, which was a rusty piece of shit. But, it’s what I had to work with. I didn’t know how valuable that filing cabinet would be.

I started cleaning out the crap that the last person had left in the filing cabinet. It was mostly a bunch of accounting stuff; invoices from receivables, things like that. At the very bottom of the filing cabinet was a stapled set of papers. On it were the names of the company’s employees with a number beside each one. I tried to figure out what the numbers meant. Office number? No, some of them were the same. That ruled out employee number too. In fact there were decimals. Wait, could it really be? No. Yes! This was a list of the hourly rate of every single employee in the building, from CEO to Janitor. Jackpot.

Now that I new how much everybody was making, I knew exactly what I was worth to them and what they could “afford”. But they had just turned me down for a raise. How was I going to leverage it? Well, by securing another position, which I did. I interviewed at another company, got another offer that was at least above what I was making in case things didn’t work out and put in my notice. About a week went by. Didn’t hear from them. Maybe they were broke and couldn’t afford to pay me any more. But sure enough, one afternoon I got called into the Vice President’s office. “Why are you leaving us?”. I told him that I thought my additional hours and responsibilities were worth more money and I was right, another company offered more money. “Can we at least make you an offer? We can move things around.”

They came back with a substantial raise, in fact more than the other company was offering by a fair amount. But I knew what every employee was making, from the newest project manager to the people I replaced. I was going all in. I told him I had to turn his offer down. Another day went by. I get called into the Vice President’s office again. “We like what you’re doing. We have increased our offer.” I said I would look at it. I waited two days before getting back to him, just a few days before starting my next job. I told him if he added another dollar an hour it was a deal. He said he’d see if the other board members would agree, and it was officially offered on paper that afternoon. It was a dollar more per hour than the people I had replaced, and a 50 percent increase in salary. Information is everything, and somebody left the wrong information at the bottom of a rusty filing cabinet.

“Oh, just one more thing. My filing cabinet is a piece of shit, I want a new one.”

“Done.”

I made sure it was empty when it got hauled out.

“War with Iran would be SUICIDE and the U.S. will lose” – Scott Ritter

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter lays out how a U.S. backed war against Iran would bring devastation to both the United States and Israel. Ritter says Israel would be destroyed if it tries to face off against Hezbollah and Hamas simultaneously.

What is China’s planned strategic nuclear arsenal?

Enough to flatten any nation or a few nations which dare to nuke China completely and comprehensively. Ensure that it can send its reciprocal strike with minutes of the enemy’s strike. China won’t be the first to you. But it must retaliate in kind with equal proportion.

Just so you know? How many Nuclear Arsenals? It for China to know and for their enemies to find out the hard way. 300–30’000 that is what China has. Don’t doubt China. A nation that last 5000 years will still be around after you care gone.

Texas Tavern Burgers

Yield: 10 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion, divided
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 pounds ground beef
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Combine and cook 1 cup onion and butter until onions are clear and tender.
2. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients except beef, salt and pepper.
3. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Cook ground beef and remaining onion until brown. Add to mixture.
5. Salt and pepper to season.
6. Spread on toasted buns.

Why is it challenging for U.S. companies to cut ties with China despite potential risks?

It is simple.

The US needs deflation causing supplies to keep inflation down. If it cuts China supplies your inflation can balloon to between 25–50%.

The U.S. needs a market to sell most of its products. China a lone is bigger than the next 10 markets put together. It’s consumer market alone is roughly 30% of the world. But what is worst is 70% of world produce is made in China. If you add these China commands 50–60% of world market. Any U.S. companies deprived of this market literally goes bankrupt.

You should not even think of cutting out China let alone do it. Anything you do will hurt the U.S. 10 times what it will ever hurts or harm China. That explains why the U.S. trade war on China starting in 2018 is such a duff decision. From 2018–2021 the U.S. economy grew 5.5% in total while China’s economy over the same period grew 5 times faster at 26.5%! No question who won!

Now this Chip war has shown clear signs of bankrupting the entire host of US chip companies from designing to producing and developing. The U.S. expected China to collapse and it is supposed to take a generation or 25 years for China to catch up. It took 3 years! Now China will produce chips at a third of the U.S. cost! The whole nonsense of Chip ban may cost 10 trillion when it tally up the losses.

But a nation that lost in Korea, failed again in Vietnam and disastrous in Iraq and replaced Taliban with Taliban after wasting 5 trillion dollars in Afghanistan will never learn their lesson to be humble.

In technology it has failed miserably in trying to deprived China of GPS. China developed a higher resolution, accurate to a meter version that now is in use by 187 out of 195 nations. Next to ban China from entering the U.S. space station. The result is China now has the only functional state of the art technology Chinese Space Station.

What is the landmark deal Russia and China signed regarding grain and oil?

Moscow will sell to Beijing, 70 Million Tons of Grain over the next 12 years for an approximate value of 65% of thr market price of grain pegged to a maximum value of 2.5 Trillion Rubles

PAYABLE IN RMB!!!

This means 36% of the World’s Grain will now be quoted and paid for in RMB

It was 4.7% in 2021

That’s a 720% rise in a mere 2 years

China gains huge food security plus currency domininon

Meanwhile

Russia extended a 10 year deal to sell Oil at a 30% discount pegged to a maximum equivalent of 750 RMB a barrel

And the best news

The Malacca Blockade is worthless now

China can get 100% Energy from Russia & the Middle East plus Food Security and delivered through Safe routes

The Duran: Germany is FINISHED

This is very interesting. Europe is going down with the United States.

Texas Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients

• 12 flour tortillas, warmed
• 1/2 pound bacon
• 2 tomatoes, cubed
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 1/2 tablespoons salsa
• 6 eggs

Instructions

1. Cook bacon until crisp.
2. Using same pan with a little grease, cook onion.
3. Crumble bacon coarsely and return to pan.
4. Beat eggs; stir into pan. Cook until eggs are set.
5. Fold in cubed tomatoes and salsa.
6. Fill warm tortillas with egg mixture.

Grandma gives high-five to passport bros

China Aims to Use Particle Accelerators to Build Chips and Evade EUV Sanctions

By Anton Shilov

China’s semiconductor ambitions call to use particle accelerator.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), China plans to use an innovative approach to manufacturing processors by harnessing particle accelerators, potentially positioning itself as a global leader in advanced chip manufacturing. SCMP says the method seeks to evade traditional lithography machine limitations and US sanctions on EUV technology, potentially reshaping the semiconductor industry landscape. 

The Chinese research team, led by Tsinghua University, is developing a unique laser source using particle accelerators. Their goal is to sidestep the constraints of conventional lithography machines, which are pivotal in microchip production. The proposed particle accelerator will be roughly the size of two basketball courts, between 100-150 meters in circumference, and will serve as a high-quality light source for chip fabrication. 

Professor Zhao Wu from Stanford University introduced the underlying technology, termed steady-state microbunching (SSMB). SSMB captures the energy emitted by charged particles during acceleration, transforming it into a continuous, pure EUV light source. Compared to the prevalent ASML EUV method, SSMB boasts superior power and efficiency, potentially reducing chip production costs.

“An SSMB-EUV light source has been designed at THU, with designed EUV power higher than 1kW, and some key technologies are nearly ready,” said team member Professor Pan Zhilong at a presentation at an academic workshop in January 2022.

This ambitious project contrasts with the strategies of companies like ASML, which focus on miniaturizing chip-making machines. Instead, China’s vision involves creating a giant factory that houses several lithography machines, all centered around a single accelerator. This design aims to enable competitive manufacturing processes (such as 2nm and beyond) that will be used to make high-performance chips without using traditional extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanners.

“As a completely new light source, the experimental verification of the technology has been implemented. But it is necessary to build a solid SSMB light source research device operating in the EUV band,” said project leader Professor Tang Chuanxiang from Tsinghua University.

“Then we can [use the device to] cultivate scientific and industrial users, and polish the SSMB technology.”

According to the report, Tsinghua University’s team has made significant strides in this domain; they have successfully trialed the technology and are now scouting locations for the project’s construction, the report claims. Their achievements could pave the way for China to bypass potential future sanctions and emerge as a semiconductor powerhouse.

However, the journey to realizing SSMB-based EUV lithography machines remains long and challenging. Professor Tang Chuanxiang heads the project and emphasizes the need for continuous innovation and collaboration across industries to develop a functional lithography system. 

“There is still a long way to go before our independent development of EUV lithography machines, but SSMB-based EUV light sources give us an alternative to the sanctioned technology,” said Tang. “It requires continuous technological innovation based on SSMB EUV light sources and cooperation with upstream and downstream industries to build a usable lithography system.”

China Will Take Revenge Against US Discriminatory Practices On Huawei This Way!

The​ question​ is, what kind of inquisitive mind thought​ it would​ be possible to stop the technological advancement of a country of 1.5 billion people​ that work diligently hand-in-hand to build and better their country​ that has over 1 billion people as citizens, and over half of that as Middle​ Class? US economic experts advising their government should​ re-educate themselves.

https://youtu.be/RdMwv9z0VwE

Does US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo seriously think that the US Congress can use legislative tools to stop Huawei from doing research innovation and launching new products?

It’s not just her. The entire US government is having delusions of grandeur. They think that all the US needs to do is pass a law and it will magically happen anywhere in the world. This is massively deluded behavior. Much like the insane Emperors of Rome.

Does US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo seriously think that the US Congress can use legislative tools to stop Huawei from doing research innovation and launching new products?

That was the playbook.

Huawei’s mobile devices consumer division was kneecapped and decapitated through sanction, suffering a 90% drop in shipped volume in the last 4 years.

That’s a 100–200b dollar swing in revenue, just for handsets. To put that in perspective, that’s equal to 1–2 Boeings at its 2018 peak.

The US was trying to kill Huawei, and bury the telecoms business by bleeding revenue off its high margin consumer division.

That’s way grander than “stop Huawei from doing research innovation”.

Huawei is still under sanction, and Bloomberg’s recent name and shame of Taiwanese companies helping Huawei/SMIC with foundry infrastructure is a thinly veiled attempt at threatening companies not to deal with Huawei, even though the contracts they have entered into do not fall under current sanction.

Gina is free to suggest sanction escalation and fix Huawei like America did to Russia and Russian oligarchs, but Beijing will retaliate this time. And there is ~1 trillion in annual S&P 500 revenue generated from the mainland to aim for. The Chinese don’t have a significant presence stateside.

Personally, I think the ship on Huawei has already sailed. I won’t be surprised if Huawei breaks 100m phones shipped annually in the next 18–24 months. I also won’t be surprised if Huawei introduces new WIFI and telecoms standards in the next 5 years that end up being adopted in Apple phones. Neither Apple nor Google are capable of driving hardware standards revolution.

I can’t think of any easy-to-implement/low cost cards that the Department of Commerce can still deal when it comes to Huawei.

Do you?

Has someone helped you selflessly while you were in some adverse situation?

When I was a child of 8, my mom died suddenly. Our next door neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Cardin, sat outside on their front porch every night and I went over and sat with them for endless hours. They were so kind. I thought they were old. They were in their sixties, I guess. I always felt welcomed. They served me iced tea. They played cards with me. When I turned 18 and my dad died, I moved in with an older sister. I don’t remember ever saying goodbye to them. Years passed, I married, divorced and remarried and moved to another town nearby. I always remembered their kindness. One day I was walking through a local cemetary and reading the tombstone inscriptions (which I love to do). There they were: Geraldine and Louis Cardin. I knelt down in gratitude. The next weekend was Mothers Day. I laid a bouquet of flowers at the grave of Mrs. Cardin and thanked her for her kindness and comfort. They never touched me, never hugged me. They just let me sit beside them while I talked to them and they talked to me. I cannot remember one conversation, only that I felt at peace in their company.

Carl Zha on Huawei, ‘Chinese Spies’ and Chinese economy on Redacted

What feature in your car did you not realize you had until someone else told you about it?

Years ago I bought a golf diesel car. It belonged to my girlfriends father. He had fallen asleep and clipped a pole. Damaged the passenger side.

I asked what he wanted for it and he insisted it was only worth $600 because that’s what the dealer said it was worth. I bought it and replaced the door and rear axle and had a little body work and paint and pin stripping done. Cost me $800. Now the car had 50K miles on it so just barely broken in for a diesel.

The first time I drove it at night the climate control section of the dash was black. I thought you know that should be illuminated.

So I got into the dash and found the plug to the climate control unplugged. Plugged it in and it worked fine. Actually it looked like the neon lights at a fair. Red, green, blue colors. So I’m over at my girlfriends and sitting in the car when her father came over and we’re talking and he looks into the car and is stunned to see the lights.

Owned the car for a couple of years and said he just carried a flashlight to see the controls. He had no idea it was supposed to be illuminated.

Egypt just dropped a BOMBSHELL in the Israel Hamas War

Much respect to Egyptian Gov. for not bowing to the US.

Why do Europeans hardly buy American cars?

I love American cars – I have owned Chevy El Camino, two Dodge Ram Vans and one Ford Econoline.

---

The thing is that American cars are designed for different ecosystem than European and Japanese. American cars have ridiculously over-powered and under-efficient engines, which are extremely reliable, but they are terrible gasoline guzzlers. I mean, the American cars drink petrol like an alcoholic cheap plonk.

Moreover, the American cars are large and they have been designed for straight roads and long distances. They are excellent in Scandinavia, but next to useless in Central Europe.

In Europe, petrol is an import ever since the USA destroyed all the surviving Fischer-Tropsch plants in Germany after the WWII so that Europe could never be self-sufficient on liquid fuels. It means petrol is expensive, and it is heavily taxed. Petrol prices are approximately the same per one litre than they are in the US per one Yank gallon. So this is an incentive to a) maximize the thermal efficiency of an Otto or Diesel engine and b) to get as frugal and economic car as possible.

Moreover, the distances are short (which means a lot of acceleration and deceleration) and the roads are old (some date all the way to the Roman era) and follow the contours of nature. Which means they can be awfully winding, especially at the Pyrenees, Alps and Scandian mountains. Thus the agility is favoured over speed or comfort.

European cities are old, the streets are narrow and they certainly aren’t going to be re-planned with automobiles on mind. Finding a parking lot can be a pain and many city streets may have centuries-old cobblestone instead of asphalt. American car aren’t exactly the optimal vehicles there.

BLOCKADE FAILED! Germany Halts Dismantling of Chinese 5G Equipment！

Recently, the launch of the Huawei Mate 60 and the resurgence of 5G technology in China, powered by the domestically produced Kirin 9000S, have demonstrated that Huawei has successfully overcome the long-standing blockade imposed by the United States.

Although some US lawmakers have made strong statements about increasing sanctions on Huawei, US Secretary of Commerce Raymond has already affirmed that chip supplies to China will continue. Additionally, ASML, a key supplier of lithography machines, has announced their commitment to providing equipment to China until the end of the year.

Furthermore, Germany has also changed its position. Despite the “red-green-light” coalition government’s emphasis on the “security risks” associated with Huawei’s 5G equipment and their efforts to suppress Huawei through legislation and orders to remove Huawei’s equipment, the German government has covertly allowed German telecommunications operators to use Huawei’s 5G components.

According to reports from Chinese media and Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, a German government official privately acknowledged that the new 5G network in Germany incorporates technologies from China and German operators still rely on security-critical components provided by Chinese suppliers, implying that the German government has effectively permitted the use of Huawei’s 5G technology.

Huawei operates globally in 170 countries, with 30 commercial 5G contracts and over 25,000 5G base stations deployed without any major security incidents. Moreover, Germany’s ban on Huawei’s 5G components lacks substantial evidence to prove security risks, indicating that Germany is attempting to find faults where none exist.

However, this ban has faced opposition, with individuals stating that Germany’s 5G network has developed a deep reliance on Chinese suppliers, making it challenging to remove this dependence in a short period of time.

https://youtu.be/2WjHIkLrjXU

Have you ever unintentionally stolen something?

I accidentally stole a car once.

A friend was flying in to LAX, and I was going to meet her there for lunch. Another friend insisted I borrow his Prius (this is important to the theft), saying that he didn’t want to have to rescue me if my car broke down. (Fair worry—my then car was really on its last legs!)

I stopped at a McD’s on my way out of town to get some coffee, and when I walked back out of the restaurant, I unlocked the car using the fob, hopped in, and left. I drove to the airport, but when I parked and went to get my book out of the back seat, my book had disappeared!

It turned out that I had gotten in the wrong Prius!

When I finally figured this out, I went immediately to the airport’s little “police station” (a trailer at the far end of the airport’s circuit) and confessed to my crime. Yes, the car I was in had been reported stolen, but they contacted the owner who kindly agreed to just let me bring it back, which I did after having lunch with my friend.

Both these Priuses had a keyless entry and ignition system, and the way the owner handled hers was the only reason this could have happened.

Her car was the same color as the one I was driving, and she was parked two stalls away from me in the crowded parking lot. When I came out, I headed to the wrong one, not even noticing that there was another Prius nearby. I unlocked my car remotely, opened the door and sat down.

Here’s the thing: she had locked her car with a physical key when she parked it, but had left the fob in the console, forgetting that the Prius won’t lock if it detects the fob inside the car. So her car was unlocked.

I started the car with the pushbutton instead of with the key, and it started since it knew the fob was inside the car, and voila—grand theft auto!

Is there any credible evidence that Ukraine’s 2014 revolution was due to a CIA coup?

Victoria Nuland, Asst. Sec. of State for Europe, phone call to US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, in which they discuss how they’re going to set up the new Ukrainian government in 2014.

The video link is provided below. Here’s your smoking gun right here.🔫

And isn’t it interesting that the only administration in which Nuland could NOT find a position was the Trump administration. I’m no fan of DT, but it’s an interesting fact nevertheless.

She was in on Clinton, Bush, Obama, and now Biden administrations — a 33 year “diplomatic” career —including a very high level and indeed dangerous position today (Oct 2023) as Asst. Sec of State. She was Dick Cheney’s Deputy National Security Adviser from 2003 to 2005.

Interestingly, Wikipedia makes no mention whatsoever that Vitali Klitschko was a Ukrainian presidential candidate in 2014, instead providing page after page of information about his boxing career.

On this one, we got real, real lucky.

High level covert operations are NEVER this easy to get evidence on.

What observation have you made about China which most others missed?

Foreign media tend to portray Chinese plans and projects as stemming from a small, tightly centralized regime in Beijing. Foreign press back in the 2000s (when they were still enamored with the ‘Chinese model’ of economic growth) were often quick to praise how the strong, centralized decision making of China and it’s technocratic bureaucracy were key to driving economic growth where the ‘decentralized and slow democratic’ decision making of the decadent rest was going to be their death knell.

One could say that this is more of a linguistic issue where press reports simply referring to Beijing or the CPC created the impression that it was literally just Beijing and the Central Committee of the CPC calling the shots. Thereby creating the assumption that in order to address any issue in China, one must fly to Beijing and meet with the top man there. Or perhaps its a throwback on how the press reported on the USSR by making references to the “Kremlin” every time policy decisions were taken, forgetting that the Soviet States of Hungary, Poland, Romania etc had their own governments with their own powers who also called some of the shots.

This is flawed to say the least.

The Chinese governmental structure endows its provincial governments with surprisingly vast powers to the extent that Provincial governments alone can pursue their own foreign investments and trade deals with only minimal oversight from the center as long as such deals adhere to the loose guidelines issued by the center.

The same goes for the gigantic State Owned Enterprises in China which are permitted to initiate and pursue their own economic activities under the loose framework of the central committee’s guidelines.

As other Chinese Quorans have pointed out, One would do well to remember that China can better be thought of as a continental level entity with it’s own mini nation states inside its borders.

When the BRI was initiated, the central committee simply set out the guidelines for the project, which you can read here:

携手构建人类命运共同体（一带一路论坛）

President Xi Jinping’s keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the forum pointed out that our promotion of the “Belt and Road” construction will not repeat the old routine of geo-game, but will create a new model of cooperation and win-win; it will not form a destabilizing small group, but will build harmony. A coexisting family.

This fully demonstrates that the construction of the “Belt and Road” is an important exploration and practice for countries along the line to jointly build a community of human destiny.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has coordinated the two major domestic and international affairs, coordinated development and security, and carried out a great-state diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in a proactive manner, and put forward a series of new ideas and concepts. We advocate the establishment of a new type of international relations with cooperation and win-win as the core, and strive to build a community of human destiny.

President Xi Jinping said in a keynote speech at the 2017 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January this year that as long as we firmly establish the common sense of human destiny, work together and work together to help each other and overcome difficulties, we will certainly make the world a better place. Be beautiful and make people happier.

The concept of the community of human destiny highlights the inclusiveness of the new international order

The community of human destiny is based on the thinking of various new elements in the development of the world in the 21st century. In response to the philosophical and historical propositions of “where does man go?”, from the perspective of reforming and improving the international order, A vision for the evolution of global governance.

After the Second World War, the world as a whole maintained peace and development. Its main guarantee factors were the construction of the international order and the in-depth development of economic globalization.

However, with the increasing challenges in the process of economic globalization and the increasing diversification of international actors, the current international order cannot effectively cope with various problems, and the risks of security disorder and development imbalance are increasing. Global governance calls for reform and innovation.

source: 携手构建人类命运共同体（一带一路论坛）

The paper goes on to talk in general guidelines about Eurasian infrastructure and trade development in loose terms:

In 2013, Comrade Xi Jinping formally proposed the “Belt and Road Initiative”. China is focusing on the periphery as the primary direction, promoting the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, and providing important new public goods to the international community, especially the developing countries in Asia and Europe.

In August 2016, Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out at the symposium on promoting the construction of the “Belt and Road”: taking the “Belt and Road” construction as an opportunity to carry out cross-border interconnection, improve the level of trade and investment cooperation, and promote international cooperation in capacity and equipment manufacturing. It is to revitalize the world economy by increasing effective supply to generate new demand.

His keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Summit further emphasized that China will thoroughly implement the development concept of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing, constantly adapt, grasp and lead the new normal of economic development and actively promote The supply-side structural reforms will achieve sustainable development, inject a strong impetus into the “Belt and Road” and bring new opportunities for world development.

In the context of the continued downturn in the world economy, China’s support for countries along the line to promote industrialization and modernization through the “Belt and Road” initiative to meet the urgent needs of countries to improve infrastructure levels will inevitably activate the growth potential of countries along the route, which will undoubtedly help stabilize the world economy. The situation and the promotion of global economic growth.

McKinsey, the US consulting firm, estimates that by 2050, the contribution rate of countries along the Belt and Road Initiative will be more than 80%.

To say that there are a thousand and ten thousand, China is going to build a development concept of practicing the community of human destiny through the “Belt and Road”, so that all parties can work together to fill the development of Asia, Europe, and the mainland, and create a common development and prosperity of all countries. New Era.

携手构建人类命运共同体（一带一路论坛）

That is pretty much all the center does: establish the guidelines and groves for the project but leave it to other actors to decide how they carry them out.

Chinese provincial governments and their regional local elite have their own significant powers which they can use to resist parts of the agenda from the center which they don’t like (at least temporarily). I remember reading how one of the provincial governments stubbornly resisted Beijing’s calls to reduce pollution levels stemming from the province by pointing out how that would slow down economic activity in the province.

Similarly, when the CPEC project started, a Chinese SOE began development of Gwadar port and it’s special economic zone as part of the BRI initiative.

But right across from Gwadar, a Chinese provincial government began their own special economic zone in Oman, directly in competition with Gwadar!

Our Prime Minister Imran Khan would learn this lesson well when his incompetent team failed to brief him on how the Chinese political structure worked.

So when Imran Khan recently went to China on a state visit to Beijing to renegotiate some of the CPEC projects, he was met by bewildered officials in Beijing who pointed out that the central committee doesn’t exactly negotiate the deals for the BRI. SOEs and Provincial governments do. What exactly did Imran Khan want Beijing to do on an issue where Beijing wasn’t directly involved?

Most BRI contracts are not between governments but instead between Chinese companies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to facilitate projects for the larger BRI initiative.

In that context, when the new government claims it will renegotiate contracts, as well as terms and conditions, it is forgetting to mention that it will have to do them with Chinese companies and SOEs, not with the Chinese government.

Secondly, because CPEC is an overland project, any arbitration that happens i.e. if the government were to try to renegotiate any contract in place, they will have to refer to the BRI court in Xi’an, which falls under Chinese law.

That means either the government must engage a law firm to represent it on each contract it wants to renegotiate or try to contest cases itself.

Worse still is the fact that the government has practically no idea what it wants to renegotiate in the first place.

That is the crux of the problem Pakistan faces: the state simply does not understand the conceptual basis of BRI or CPEC and, hence, cannot even define what it means.

Chinese companies raise that money in their own country from institutions like the Silk Road Fund, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Export Import Bank based on guarantees provided with regards to project completion through contracts signed by the Pakistani government.

Pakistan owes that money to Chinese financial institutions and not the government — let’s be crystal clear about that. The Chinese government will also not waive that borrowing away because it is project-based debt financing.

Was Imran’s visit to China a failure? Yes. Here’s why

The crux of the problem as far as Pakistan is concerned is that we have become so accustomed to reading about China through English print media or viewing the Chinese through a prism set by others, that we have no idea where policy decisions in China are stemming from. Or who exactly to talk to in the PRC.

So we default to our own logics: If we’re a strong man, authoritarian country we expect to take our problems to Xi to have them addressed. Or if we’re a country who sheds limelight constantly on the ongoings of their president, we tend to equate the other country’s president with the same power structure.

It would be useful for other nation states and companies besides Pakistan as well to perhaps narrow down on who exactly they are dealing with when they deal with China.

And perhaps do some linguistic adjustments so we move away from stuff like “China is building ports in the Arabian sea” – wait! Who is China? Xi himself ordered the ports built? Like specifically? Or do you mean a variety of different actors ranging from provincial governments to SOEs are pursuing their own economic activity under loose guidelines from the center rather than as part of some ominous grand design.

To be fair, maybe I’m being too harsh on Pakistani leadership. Certainly the military seems to know who to deal with in China, having negotiated independent contracts with the Xinjiang government, Chinese SOEs and so on.

There is also a tendency to get lost in the weeds when reading foreign press on China sense the idea of “large, centralized, authoritarian behemoth moving steadily in an organized manner towards American interests” sounds way more ominous and fearful than “oh hey, one of the Provincial governments in China is building a port in Burma to expand their provincial trade”.

The idea of an ominous, all power, omnipotent central leadership in Beijing calling all the shots sounds very enticing. Particularly for media centers operating out of nations that wish to portray China as the next big threat to their interests.

Its just not true. And we should probably learn that lesson well in our future dealings. Others would be well advised to do the same.

The point isn’t that the central government is powerless vis a vis localized power centers. Or that the central government is all powerful. But that the truth lies in a nuanced middle ground between both polar opposites. And there needs to be more specificity about who we are referring to in China when discussing policy decisions stemming from the PRC.

Happily, power in its operation

Often is given

More than it allows.

Out of its many empires, one empire,

Whether or not power knows,

Puts in its hands its one life’s simple portion.

• Power, by Josephine Miles

Rehearsal by Josephine Miles | Power by Josephine Miles

“Please dial the number of the department you wish to talk to”

Image source: Has democracy failed? A lesson from China – Formiche.net

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Small correction:

“Just a small note – neither of this countries was ever part of the USSR – all of then was separate countries albeit dependent of the Soviets.

USSR republics was the “stans” countries (Turkmenistan, Tajikistan etc), Ukraine, Belorusia, The Baltics, Georgia and Armenia, but not Poland, Hungary or Romania.”

–Angel V

AMERICAN RAPPER REACT TO -I’ve Got to Get Sober

Damn it man…this dude writes and cuts right to the bone. Wow.

What interesting thing did you read?

Meet Brian Mwenda, a Kenyan man who has been playing a high-stakes game of make-believe in Kenya’s legal system.

Stunningly, Mwenda is said to have argued and won not one or two, but 26 cases, pitting his wits against bona fide legal eagles and leaving courtrooms in awe. And he did all this without a law degree or any professional certification. He’s a fraud.

Now, authorities have finally caught up to him, and he’s facing a slew of charges for impersonating an Advocate of the Kenya High Court. But the man’s record is flawless, a clean sweep of victories.

It begs the question, should he be behind bars or standing at a podium accepting an award for extraordinary legal acumen?

Mr. Mwenda might just be a legal prodigy, an undiscovered gem in the world of law. Or Kenya seriously needs to reevaluate its legal education and certification processes.

After all, if a fake lawyer can outwit the pros, what does that say about the system?

If he was given the right to defend himself and he eventually won, it’d be his 27th triumph, an untainted record in a courtroom career founded on a lie.

If that happens, Brian Mwenda wouldn’t just be defying the laws of his land; he’d be defying reality itself, turning what should have been his downfall into yet another improbable victory.

Teachers Are Fed Up Of DUMB Gen Z Kids..

Wholly shit.

What do liberals not understand about Trump supporters?

There are a lot of things I do understand about Trump supporters.

Trump supporters are angry, tired, and frightened. They live in a world that’s passing them by. They keep hearing about how the economy is booming, but they’re struggling to make ends meet.

They see foreign students coming in on H1B visas to work at tech companies for what seems like ludicrous, unfathomable amounts of money, money they don’t see in a decade, and they’re wondering where their share of the pie is.

They hear people sneeringly talk about “flyover states” without seeming to know or care those are their states, their homes. The people they care about are mired in drug and alcohol addiction and struggling to pay the mortgage while Instagram 20somethings jet off to Maui and get sponsorship deals with companies that make bottled water.

They see liberals bending over backward to support gay men and lesbians and Black criminals and trans people and illegals, talking about treating everyone with compassion, and they’re like, what about me? Where’s the fucking compassion for me?

They bought into reassurances that if they were willing to work hard, they’d make it. They’d get ahead. Hard work and grit would be rewarded. Now the lumber mill’s closed and the mine’s closed and city folks keep going on about how coal mining is actually bad and wrong, and they’re like fuck you, we had a deal, I busted my ass and you took it all away.

They were told there was an order to things, a way things worked, and yeah they were never top dog on the heap, but at least they weren’t the bottom either, and now everything’s changed and men in makeup with long nails who’ve never done a days’ work in their lives are being put ahead of them? Are you kidding me?

I get it. I understand that. They were sold a bill of goods, and now the world has shattered around them and they’re stuck in podunk nowhere with no way to keep a roof over their head and the neighborhood they used to be proud of is trashed by meth dealers and everyone else is going on about how wonderful life is and what losers they are, and they’re pissed about that.

That’s not hard to understand at all.

What’s hard to understand is why they think a grifting self-described billionaire who lives in a penthouse, shits in a gold toilet, and wouldn’t ever in a million years allow any of them into any of his resorts is “one of them” and totally, like, gets them.

That’s the part that I don’t get.

Why the West FEAR China (China is UNLIKE Japan in the 90’s)

What is the reason that many products sold in stores (e.g. Macy’s, Target, Marshall’s) say “Made in China” on them when there is often negative news about China in the media?

America loves China’s consumer goods. As long as China was “the world’s production factory” the United States left China alone for the most part. There was the occasional “free Tibet” protest or Tiananmen Square protests, but nothing like what I see today.

What changed? China. China began to rapidly develop its infrastructure as well as its education sectors such as Science and Mathematics. They were obsessed with STEM learning before it was cool. Their military and space program excelled. They tackled poverty and literacy, created jobs and basically pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.

They no longer had to be the world’s factory. They still produce a massive amount of consumer goods, but as China develops toward first world status some of those factories relocated to Southeast Asia. Vietnam will likely earn persecuted country status by the time my grandchildren come of age. That’s if the U.S. is still influential in world affairs.

They hate China because China is no longer the sick man of Asia. China is strong and influential. The U.S. is terrified of losing their hegemony to China. They are an emerging world power that can offer developing countries a different path from what the United States traditionally offers. It’s all a part of a circle really. Nations rise and fall and have done so for millennia past. They will continue to do so for as long as Earth continues to exist. The U.S. will fall and China will rise. A hundred years from now and it will likely be another country’s turn.

What should Indonesia do to ensure the success of its first high-speed railway project?

If you are in Southeast Asia like me, you should have realized how happy and proud Indonesians are recently.

The media in Southeast Asia is full of reports about Indonesia’s high-speed rail.

In Indonesia, everyone from the president to civilians is happy for the opening of the high-speed rail. Even those against the media can only say irrelevant nonsense.

Indonesia’s high-speed rail has achieved initial success. This is the first high-speed rail in Southeast Asia. They are worthy of pride.

Our Malaysian neighbors have some nasty things to say in the media. But I know that they are actually very envious of Indonesians, and they also want a high-speed rail from Kuala Lumpur to Penang.

Currently, there are several high-speed rail projects in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Japan’s high-speed rail project in Vietnam is in a quagmire, and its high-speed rail in India has made no progress. Only China’s high-speed railways in Indonesia and Laos have been successful.

If Indonesia wants to maintain this success in subsequent projects, it only needs to maintain its original approach and trust the Chinese as always, and they will help Indonesia create miracles.

Evil Captain Kirk Wants to Hang Spock – 1967

A favorite scene.

Have there been any diplomatic incidents between the US and China since 2016, when the escalating trade tensions between the two countries began?

If there is, 99% of any incidents are man made. To be precise US lies, innuendos, concoctions, fabrications, made up haft truths or total garbage.

Take the weather balloons. Intentionally blown out of proportion. Pardon my punt. Imaging some hundred million Americans fixated over lies by the media and opportunistic politicians making hay on sunshine demonising and accusing the Chinese of spying a most ridiculous and frivolous claims but it sells media! Finally shooting it down with a hundred million jet at a million a pop on a float away balloon worth a thousand bucks!

So think about how ridiculous it is? In todays world where if China wants to it can zoom in from space at high resolutions on very square meter balloon China need to spy the US using a brightly coloured 2 school bus sized with a huge Chinese flag pasted moving at 5 miles an hour, visible by naked eyes m? It is laughable and shameful if you ask most of the world. But guess what some Americans think it is real! What a spun!

But Chinese people laugh their eyes wet thinking how silly you guys can get. Blinken your Secretary of State even postpone a state visit of utmost importance pretending to be affected by the balloon!

The tensions if any are all US made. A nation allowing fictions to exist and lies to demonised other nations cannot amount to much. But the US has no shame or pride. When General Mike Milley your joint forces chief announced officially that after days of disruption and chaos, up to a billion dollars, that it is what it is. A weather balloon! No more no less. Guess what! No apology, no one took responsibility, no one U.S. made to pay, no acknowledgement!

This is a nation that has carpet bombed nations, use agent Orange on villagers destroy thriving economies by mistakes and false flag operations. 3 million Vietnamese died and half a million U.S. agents dead or injured due a war started by lies in the Gulf of Tonkin!

So, sure one cannot expect much! But guess what they dare to call US exceptionalism and even worst Americans believed it!

In every revolution, there’s one man with a vision

“If change is inevitable, predictable, beneficial…doesn’t logic demand that you be a part of it?”

How do you think the rising US containment efforts on China and its allies in many hi-tech fields, including export controls on some key equipment, will affect China’s economy?

It won’t it will never and it will hurt and harm the U.S. several folds more that it can hurt and harm China.

It is no different from the U.S. picking a big rock and threaten China that if China do better than the U.S. you will throw the rock on your own foot!

China is a humongous market now. It is several times bigger than the U.S. and worst it produce 75% of everything needed by the world. If you stop selling to China which is say 40–60% of your market. You will go bankrupt. And if you think China cannot make it you better be super careful that the can’t and they will never be able to do! If you are wrong you will not only lose their need but you will also lose entire worlds need too.

Frankly the U.S. is a party not the only party to make most of the products. It simply cost the US too much to stop China. It is cheaper and more sustainable to work with China as an equal and finding a win win solution. The U.S. cannot forced China’s hand and will. China is too strong, too influential, too rich and too capable to fight you if you fight them.

So grow up.

Is it an offence to get around the sanctions imposed on Russia? If yes then which exactly activities are punishable and how?

Offence?

If something is an Offence, then you need someone to determine what constitutes an Offence and thats called DESIGNATED AUTHORITY

So unless US is the Ruler of the World, how can it be an offence to get around Sanctions Imposed by Russia for economic reasons?

Lets say India needs 96 Million Tonnes of Crude this year – 71 Million Tonnes of Sulphur & 25 Million Tonnes of Sweet ]

We normally buy Spot from the Market and have no long term contracts like other Nations have.

Suppose tommorow we are offered Crude at 30% Cheaper Rate, Why cant we buy Crude from Russia if it means a savings of several billion dollars?????

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Punishment would simply mean US Sanctioning the Country that dares Trade with Russia

It might work or It might fail

For instance say India which produces its own Food is Sanctioned , tomorrow if it comes to Energy Crisis and Massive Recession vs Freezing of our USD Assets – A Sane man would rather choose Asset Freezing and fight legally in the UN , rather than force an Energy Crisis and Massive Recession

Say China is Sanctioned. It would rather be sanctioned than compromise its National Integrity and Face by conceding to the US demands.

However a Country totally dependent on US would have to Kowtow or totally Dependent on Imports from Europe would Kowtow

In 1997 – 82.9% Nations depended on US and European Imports primarily (159 out of 188)

In 2007- 59.7% Nations depended on US and European Imports Primarily (119 out of 199)

In 2017 – 32% Nations depended on US and European Imports Primarily (66 out of 205)

In 2022 – 28% Nations depend on US and European Imports Primarily (58 out of 207)

So the Sanctions are becoming weaker and weaker because More Countries can survive primarily even despite US Sanctions. (US/EU also includes Canada , UK and EU and NATO nations)

Almost 101 Countries have changed their primary trading Partner from US / EU/ UK/ Australia/NZL/Canada in the last 25 Years alone. Most of them have moved to CHINA including the EU themselves.

Stupid Sanctions like those against Russia tend to cause more negative impacts to the US than positive Impacts

Russian teenage genius joins Huawei .sparking concerns in the United States.

China and Russia, march forward hand in hand to make our world more stable, prosperous and peaceful.

I’ve noticed that cops in Asia like in Singapore, Japan, Vietnam, and even China seem friendly and approachable, while the West seems to have issues like corruption and brutality. Why does Asia seem to have better relations with cops than the West?

Take Singapore.

There are NO ghettos in Singapore.

NONE.

ZERO.

ZIP.

ZILCH.

How many cities can make a simple claim like that?

In Singapore, there are few exclusive districts, and those are the remnants of colonial history. In a modern new town, the expensive private apartments are within a stone’s throw of 1,2,3 room public flats. The children go to the same schools, and the parents shop at the same supermarket.

This raising of baselines across the board prevents organized crime from festering, because the fertile ground of poverty and the disadvantaged is uprooted.

Singapore is low crime, and most people have a healthy respect for the law, and especially officers in uniform. My grandma won’t indoctrinate her grandchildren in 21st century Singapore to “beware of cops”, because it isn’t 60s Hong Kong anymore. The SPF is one of the cleanest and most efficient police outfits in the world.

As a reminder, beat cops are armed with guns, but officer-involved shootings are very rare. We can go years between shots being fired. How does the SPF reduce violent arrests, and the risk of injury to both suspect and officer?

Through displays of overwhelming force.

Not all guns blazing, but the deployment of teams of officers to handle on-the-ground situations. Like these:

This round-island ability to concentrate policing power allows the senior officer to control and manage the situation, particularly the safety of the innocent public, the suspect/s, and of course the officers themselves.

In other words, gentler policing SOP.

This is a luxury that not all police forces can boast. Singapore manages by keeping crime waves at bay with effective policing and stiff laws.

At the end of the day, it is the economic and social fabric that keep crime from festering. And Singapore’s remain healthy.

Note: This is what passes for policing elsewhere.

Nurse Dies Of Illness; Experiences Infinite Reality And Told Why We’re Here (NDE)

What is considered a bad duty station in the U.S. Army?

There is an island in the Aleutions just east of Attu called Shemya. The AirForce has a landing strip there. The Army used to run a listening post there as well. It was considered a hardship tour, so the duration was one year. However, being under CONUS jurisdiction meant that overseas and hazard pay were not offered, base only. As for social life, the joke ran “there’s a woman behind every tree on Shemya; but there are no trees.” A good wind could carry a person off the island if one is not careful. Guide ropes were installed over the winter months to ensure safe passage between the barracks, the workspace, or the messhall. Being in the high latitudes subjected one to auroras, and other geomagnetic storm effects. Stereo gear just didn’t last long up there. Its isolation put Shemya on the bottom of any iteneraries for the top brass, so their presence was rare, thankfully.

Due to its proximity to the international date line, you could see tomorrow on a clear day!

What is something a guest in your house did that made your jaw drop? How did you react?

I let a friend stay at our summer house all winter. All they had to do was pay the utilities. A flag went off in my head when she said “why do I have to pay for the utilizes?

we get back in May-the first thing we are greeted to (in order):

1. oven is a disaster
2. phone call they will turn off our electric for non payment
3. her son (who wasn’t supposed to be in there) carved his name in our cocktail table
4. deep gouge in the oak flooring
5. my new water pik is gone
6. ALL MY WINE THAT WAS HIDDEN WAS GONE
7. Instead of cleaning out the fireplace she used the trap door which took us all day to clean out
8. she left the place filthy.

I was so angry I wouldn’t answer her emails or phone calls.

She then dialed on someone else’s phone and I picked up-she asked why I wasn’t taking her calls. I told her everything especially our wine being gone.

Her reply was ““so you are going to RUIN our friendship over a few bottles of cheap wine?”

I said THEY WERE CHEAP TO YOU SINCE YOU DIDN’T PAY FOR THEM.

Don’t call me again and hung up. I hope she sees this post.

US MILITARY SILENTLY AMASSING AROUND IRAN

“They are about to do something really stupid. ”

I’m selling my car through Craigslist. A potential buyer whom I’ve never met wants to buy the car and pay with a cashier’s check. They say they’ll mail me the check. The person hasn’t seen the car or driven it. Is it safe to accept a cashier’s check?

Scam scam scam.

Here’s how it works:

1. A scammer sees a high-ticket item with resale value online.
2. The scammer offers to buy it, sight unseen, with a cashier’s check, money order, or credit card.
3. You deposit the check or money order, or run the card.
4. The scammer has a mule, who may or may not know it’s a scam, pick up the item.
5. The bank notifies you that the check/money order was a forgery or the card was stolen. They take the money out of your account.
6. You try to go after the scammer to realize they used a fake address, a disposable cell phone or VoIP line, and a fake name—you have absolutely no way to find them. And the mule who picked up the item? If you can find that poor sucker, he tells you the scammer paid him money to pick up a bunch of items, but then the check the scammer paid him with turned out to be a fake.

Optional bonus round:

1. The scammer sends you a cashier’s check or money order, but the amount is wrong. You agreed on a price of $2,500, the check is for $2,800.
2. The scammer says “Oh, I’m so sorry, I made a mistake. Can you wire me the $300 I overpaid? Tell you what, it was my fault, just wire me $250, keep the extra $50 since I screwed up.”
3. The bank tells you the check was a fake and takes the money out of your account. (This can sometimes take 6 or 8 weeks to happen, by the way.) Now you’re out the car, you’re out the money, and you’re out $250 that you wired to the scammer…
4. …which, when you try to get the wire transfer back, you discover actually went to a recipient outside the US, and you are completely utterly 100% screwed. There is no way in hell you will ever see that money again.

Super playoff round:

1. You get a message from an “insurance fraud investigator,” “funds recovery specialist,” “online fraud recovery agent,” or something along those lines. He tells you that your name came up as part of a fraud investigation and he can get your money back in return for a percentage.
2. You negotiate some percentage, say 10% or 15%.
3. He tells you to send him $150 to pay up-front expenses, fees, duties, “recovery tax,” or some other bullshit fee. He explains that the fee will come out of his percentage, so it’s all good.
4. You send him the $150.
5. You never hear back from him. It was the same scammer all along. Now he has your car, your money, the extra $250 you sent him, and he’s just taken you for another $150 on top of that.

Double Jeopardy round:

1. You get an email or phone call from Interpol, or the FBI online crime task force, or US Boder and Customs, or whatever.
2. They tell you that a car registered in your name was used to commit a crime and since you’re still the registered owner, you’re legally liable.
3. They say that an arrest warrant has been issued in your name, and you will be arrested…
4. …unless you agree to waive your right to a trial and just pay the fine.
5. They tell you the fine will be $1,000, payable by money wire.
6. You wire the money. It was the same scammer all along. Now he has your car, your money, the extra $250 you sent him, the $150 you sent him on top of that, and another $1,000.

Double Jeopardy round variant:

1. You get an email or phone call from Interpol, or the FBI online crime task force, or US Boder and Customs, or whatever.
2. They tell you that a car registered in your name was used to commit a crime or found abandoned, but either way it’s been impounded, and they’re calling you because you’re still the registered owner.
3. They say that you will get your car back if you pay the impound fee. Maybe they even send you a photo of the car.
4. They tell you the fee will be $150, payable by money wire.
5. You wire the money. It was the same scammer all along. Now he has your car, your money, the extra $250 you sent him, the $150 you sent him on top of that, and another $150.

Yes, I’m dead serious, this actually happens, and people actually fall for it at every step along the way.

Which empire was more powerful: The Ming or Manchu (Qing) Empire?

In terms of absolute strength, the Qing Empire was more powerful than the Ming Empire

The Qing Empire had a much stronger army. The Qing Empire had twice the territory and four times the population of the Ming Empire.

During its most powerful period, the Ming Empire still faced threats from northern nomads. They built a whole new Great Wall to deal with this.

The Qing Empire completely dealt with the surrounding threats, and their military controlled almost the limit of geographical control.

From the perspective of global relative strength, the Ming Empire was stronger.

In the 15th century, the Ming Empire was the most powerful empire in the world.
At that time, the Byzantine Empire fell, England and France were in the Hundred Years War, and the Spanish Empire had just begun to expand.
Technically, economically, and in terms of strength, there was no power in the world that could rival the Ming Empire.

In the 18th century, the Qing Empire was not the most powerful empire in the world.
Although it has vast land and population, it has lagged behind in terms of social structure and technology. After Europe completed the Renaissance and circumnavigated the world, it began global colonization and the industrial revolution. In particular, the British Empire developed rapidly, and the strength of European countries surpassed the Qing Empire.

Apollo 20: The Secret Mission to the Moon to Salvage an Ancient Alien Spacecraft

This is fun. Not sure if true or not. Check this out.

It is fun to watch.

Egypt Claims It Warned Israel Of Upcoming Attack

Will this finally end Netanyahoo’s rein?

Egypt says Israel ignored warnings Hamas planned major offensive – Yedioth Ahranoth – Oct 9 2023

Egypt warned Israel of a pending Hamas attack ten days before terrorists breached the border and took control of military bases, and communities, killing more than 700 and taking 150 captive including women and children.

“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the content of sensitive intelligence discussions with the media, told The Associated Press.

The Egyptian official said the Israelis were concentrated on the tension on the West Bank and did not consider the Gaza ruling terror group to be a threat despite repeated warningד

that the Egyptians though were not being taken seriously.

One would hope so. But the story will certainly be denied. And due to the war Bibi may still keep his seat.

Posted by b at 15:42 UTC | Comments (351)

What will be the global impact if the West sanctions China over Taiwan in a similar way they sanctioned Russia?

Since Ukraine fell into crisis, Tesla has recovered from a low of 700 dollars to close to 1,100, a rally of more than 50 percent.

Similarly, the first world’s stock markets have mostly chugged through like nothing has happened.

The turmoil in the commodity space though, tells a different story.

This is because the sanctions are designed not to hurt the first world financial markets too much. The first world control the world’s money flow.

Unfortunately, China is a totally different problem. Any meaningful sanction on the same wide-ranging scale as those being thrown at Russia will roil financial markets around the world.

For a start, Apple will lose 90+ percent of its production and 25 percent of sales if it withdraws from China just like it did in Russia.

When Apple goes, so does the rest of the market. The mother of all asset bubbles will burst, from stocks to real estate to crypto to bonds.

The yuan will devalue sharply, and the forex game of cards will go up in flames, especially the ntd, krw and jpy, which will have to devalue even more or risk oblivion.

A weird new world will be in flux, with assets in the first world devaluing sharply, but consumer goods skyrocketing along with unemployment.

All these point to massive social unrest within weeks or months of taking such a decision, which is difficult to walk back because market sentiment is not easily reversed once the trust evaporates.

No amount of money printing can save the day because China controls the real economy of goods and component production.

REPORT: Qatar to Cut Oil/Gas Supply if Israel Invades Gaza

World Hal Turner

Qatar is now threatening to cut their oil supply to the world if Israel invades Gaza.

Emir Sheikh Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani of Qatar threatened to stop gas supplies to the world if the bombing of Gaza did not stop.

You can bet Saudi Arabia among others will be right behind.

Hal Turner Editorial Opinion

Thankfully, illegitimate President Joe Biden and his incompetent Regime, sold-off about two-thirds of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an attempt to stabilize gasoline prices, which skyrocketed when they imposed Sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.

So if the Arabs DO cut-off oil supplies, the United States no longer has a massive 714 Million Barrel reserve from which to draw to keep the country going.

Some 80 million of you voted for this!   All you folks who thought Trump was mean (Orange Man BAD!) . . .  and voted for Biden . . . . YOU did this.

Ground beef is very cheap. So why are burgers then usually so expensive?

You’re correct, ground beef is fairly cheap and the cost of the ingredients that make up a burger is relatively low. The cost of all of the ingredients used to produce a restaurant’s hamburger might be a couple of bucks.

So why is my hamburger $15.00, you ask?

Restaurants have other costs, as well as the cost of food. The young lady who greeted you at the door, escorted you to your table and handed you a menu has to be paid. So does the young fellow who took your order, brought you a drink and delivered your burger. Someone had cook the burger, shred the lettuce, slice the onions and tomatoes and prepare the secret sauce that’s slathered on your bun and they get a paycheck. The plate, fork, knife and glass you used need to be washed, which means there’s someone doing that job as well and they need to be paid too. Finally, there’s the owner and his investors. They all demand a profit from the sale of your burger. If there’s no profit, there’s no point in being in business. So they tack a profit onto the price of your burger because they want to be paid too.

There’s also the rent that has to be paid on the building, the electricity and gas that were used to cook your food, light the dining room and power the AC that’s keeping you cool and comfy. A portion of those things are paid for via the sale of your burger. Sell enough burgers and the restaurant stays in business. Don’t sell enough, or sell them too cheaply and you close the doors.

Understand?

Satellites Show Location of USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group Heading toward Israel

World Hal Turner

European Space Agency (ESA) imagery shows the USS Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier and its Strike Group, moving south past the Island of Sardinia, enroute to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, closer to Israel.

Iges released by the ESA show the ship and its group:

Alongside the Ford—USA is sending the cruiser USS Normandy, destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney, USS Roosevelt.

The Ford and its Strike Group are being sent to “Make certain Iran does not escalate the ongoing hostilities in the region.”

When HAMAS, which is fighting Israel, got word the Carrier was on its way, they issued a statement saying the ship does not make them afraid.   One government official – I won’t say from which government — told me “It isn’t coming to scare them; it’s coming to kill them.”

That aside, there is real danger for that ship and its Strike Group, if a confrontation develops. You see, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, has, in its possession, a known quantity of twelve (possibly many more) P-800 “Oniks” anti-ship missiles, built by Russia.

The Oniks missile is either land-launched or air-launched.   It has a range of 120 to 300 km (75 to 186 mi; 65 to 162 nmi) depending on altitude (Yakhont export version). But Russia has also made a version for itself with a Range of 500 lm.

It flies very close to the surface of the water, with an operating altitude of 10 meters (32 ft) or higher.

But its real danger is its speed.  The missile travels at Mach 2.6, which means 3180 km/h which translates to 1998 mph  (884 Meters per second)  The human eye — in general — cannot even see this thing moving . . . it moves so fast.

The missile has already been used against Ukraine and Ukraine had a lot to say about these missiles:

The Oniks has proved to be a difficult threat for Ukrainian Air Defenses. Air Force Spokesperson Yurii Ihnat mentioned (to Wikipedia) that the flight profile of the missile is of particular concern; “Onyx missiles are designed to destroy watercraft, and ships, it flies at a speed of 3000 km per hour, that is, very fast,…On the march [cruising], it can rise high, and when entering the target, it can actually fly 10-15 meters above the water to destroy the ship.” He concluded that it was “impossible” to shoot them down with available anti-air means.

Which brings us back to the USS Gerald R. Ford and its Strike Group.

They will be in “the eastern Mediterranean.”  

One hopes they will remain far enough off shore to be out of range of these missiles.   But the farther offshore they must stay, the less flight time for their fighter jets without refueling.   So the Ship has to try to strike a balance between getting as close as possible so fighters can have good range, or putting themselves farther away for their own safety, which lowers fighter jet range.

OTHER SHIPS, EVEN CLOSER!

Other US Navy Ships are even closer to the threat of these missiles.   The ships and 3,000 US Marines onboard, are in the Persian Gulf! 

Unless, of course, the USS Gerald R. Ford and several (or ALL) of the ships in its Strike Group, are being set-up to be sunk, to provide an excuse for the US to go to war.

No, such a thought isn’t far fetched, the US knew the Japanese were going to attack Pearl harbor, and they let it happen on purpose.   

Who knows if the same, sick, mentality, is at play in the federal government today?  Another “Gulf of Tonkin” type situation, perhaps?

I guess we’ll see.

The Gerald R. Ford and its Strike Group should be in the eastern Mediterranean Sea later this week.  The other vessels are already in the Persian Gulf off Iran’s coastline.

Have you ever had a job where you did nothing for years and nobody found out?

I worked for a 150-person manufacturing and assembly plant. We made small engines and parts for aircraft.

I was the HR person.

While doing a payroll audit after we switched to a new system, I found this guy on payroll. He was supposed to mow the grounds and provide janitorial service.

Except we had a service do it all for over 8 years. So this guy was paid a not-so-bad hourly rate and just never showed up. For 8 years. We never could find him to tell him he was terminated.

A few months later, we found a small room in the upper mezzanine of the warehouse. We found a small color tv, a cot, a refrigerator and microwave, a desk and chair, a radio, and easy chair, clothes, etc.

From the things we found on the small desks in the room, we figured he had been living in the room rent-free and he went unnoticed for years.

We finally caught him sneaking in late one evening and escorted him off. He was actually pretty clever.

Brian Berletic: China is Ready for War as South Korea and Japan Join Alliance with US

Brian Berletic of The New Atlas discusses Biden’s latest escalation with China, this time in the form a new military alliance with South Korea and Japan.

China develops new record-breaking ‘Jiuzhang’ quantum computer prototype

Chinese scientists have developed a new quantum computer prototype known as “Jiuzhang 3.0” with 255 detected photons, pushing the boundaries of photonics quantum computing technology on a global scale.

Led by the renowned Chinese quantum physicist Pan Jianwei, the research team has successfully accomplished this quantum computing feat, achieving a speed that is 10 quadrillion times faster in solving Gaussian boson sampling (GBS) problems compared to the world’s existing fastest supercomputers.

Gaussian boson sampling, a quantum computation intractable for conventional computers, was employed in this study to provide a highly efficient way of demonstrating quantum computational speedup in solving some well-defined tasks.

The study was published online in the journal Physical Review Letters on Wednesday.

Lu Chaoyang, a member of the research team and professor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), said that a series of innovations, including a newly developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detection scheme with fiber loop-based configuration, increased the number of detected photons for “Jiuzhang 3.0” to 255, greatly improving the complexity of photonics quantum computing.

“By demultiplexing photons into time bins through delays, we’ve achieved capabilities of pseudo photon number resolving,” Lu added.

According to the state-of-the-art exact classical simulation algorithm, “Jiuzhang 3.0” is a million times faster at solving GBS problems than its predecessor, “Jiuzhang 2.0.” Moreover, the most complex samples of GBS that “Jiuzhang 3.0” can calculate in just one microsecond would take the world’s fastest supercomputer, “Frontier,” more than 20 billion years to complete.

Quantum computing, a new computing paradigm, features extremely fast parallel computing capability.

It has the potential to achieve exponential speedup through specific quantum algorithms compared with classical computers in solving problems of great social and economic value.

Therefore, the development of quantum computers is one of the biggest challenges in the current scientific and technological frontier of the world.

In 2020, a USTC research team led by Pan, established a quantum computer prototype named “Jiuzhang”

with up to 76 photons detected, marking the first milestone China reached on the path to full-scale quantum computing – a quantum computational advantage, also known as “quantum supremacy,” which indicates an overwhelming quantum computational speedup.

In 2021, the team further developed the “Jiuzhang 2.0” with 113 detected photons and a 66-qubit programmable superconducting quantum computing system named “Zuchongzhi 2.1,” making China the only country to achieve a quantum computational advantage in two mainstream technical routes – one via photonics quantum computing technology and the other via superconducting quantum computing technology.

Girl Dies of Hypothermia; Shown Past Lives & Gets To Choose Her Future (NDE)

This young girl’s story is so authentic and original. Thank you!

What did someone do that made you think they were really smart?

I worked with an older geophysicist with a PhD from MIT. He did a lot of research for us. We needed to compare the force generated on a hill side, using 200 grams of dynamite, to the force felt on that hillside by an earthquake, that was rated at 5 on the Richter scale, a certain distance and depth away.

We hired a PhD physicist as a consultant, to write us an unbiased report.

After 3 days, he admitted to us, that he could not find a way to compare the two, unless we could give him a method that did the work for him. Very embarrassing.

We approached our MIT PhD, and asked him if he could work out an equivalency. He looked at us, stunned that we didn’t see how obvious it was. He tried to explain, but he was talking so fast, he lost us.

He then went to his white board, and broke the Richter scale down to its basics, then broke the dynamite down to its basics, in Joules, which is kg m squared per second squared.

Then derived a formula that tied them together.

He did this in less than two minutes, and only took that long, because that was as fast as he could write.

I was impressed, that he even remembered how to calculate the force used to measure the richter scale, without looking it up. But for him to solve in two minutes, what our high priced consultant, couldn’t solve in 3 days, says a lot about the difference in quality of PhDs.

He was the smartest functional man that I ever met. I knew smarter people ,but they couldn’t fit into society.

I know that once I was out of school for 10 years, I couldn’t work things out from basic principles, without researching it. Yet he could after 45 years.

What will it take for the U.S. to sanction China the same way that it has sanctioned the Russian economy and restricted Russia’s ability to issue sovereign debt? Has China become too powerful to sanction?

America CAN sanction China, but the cost of doing so won’t be low like doing the same to Russia.

America must pony up the cost, like Apple losing 90 percent of its manufacturing capacity, or Americans losing access to Tiktok or half of Walmart. Jp Morgan and Goldman Sachs will lose access to greater China. Many companies will lose their biggest market, including Volkswagen which sells half its production to the Chinese today.

Yes, 50 percent.

Apple sells more iphones in Greater China than it does back home.

Let that sink in.

Sanctioning China won’t land exclusively on chinese laps. It will hurt the first world too and directly affect the quality of life.

When it comes to China, even America must count the cost. China on the economic battlefield is what Russia on the military front means to the Americans.

Plenty of respect, that is.

Plenty.

U.S China Technology War Panics US as it Sanctions Middle East on AI!

“I love China, from East Africa Kenya, and the whole of Africa stands with China”.

https://youtu.be/E6feth6M3Us

Why do so many people like China?

I was once part of a government delegation to Italy to partake in a conference being held by energy industries world wide. It was a pretty diverse event. There were speeches by energy experts on a variety of energy related topics. Panels that debated the future of the energy industry (the Nuclear Energy proponents vs Anti Nuclear energy lobby had some fiery debates!). We had some activities in which we would come up with our own amateurish proposals to resolve energy issues in the developing and developed world.

Perhaps the most time was dedicated to the exhibitions where different industries set up their booths which would offer company products and services to prospective clients.

The exhibitions weren’t really of much interest to us. The company employees knew Pakistan was “small fry” (back in 2007 we didn’t have much purchasing power or budget dedicated to energy related issues). So we Pakistanis were largely ignored by the American and European execs who were more interested in the big fish like Saudis, India, China, Brazil etc. We just mostly meandered about.

During one of our strolls, we passed the Chinese delegation. All serious, taking notes, being engaged by this stunning Italian woman from Shell i think who was explaining some kind of product to the head of the Chinese delegation.

We stood a bit to the side and listened in politely, when the head of the Chinese delegation caught our eye, offered a friendly smile and handshake and asked if we were waiting for them to finish up.

“Oh no no, please continue.”, we replied. “Just wanted to say hi, we’re from Pakistan”

The Chinese gentleman’s face lit up instantly. “Pakistan!” He shook my hand warmly “Our brother!” he exclaimed.

It was quite a moment. I remember every tiny detail from it even till today. The Italian lady’s surprise at how warmly we were being greeted. The other booth employees turning around to see what all the fuss was about. Their own looks of surprise at how the small fry, largely ignored Pakistani delegation was being treated so warmly by the most watched delegation of all, the Chinese.

It’s these small moments, these isolated incidents of human magic that people tend to miss out when they get confused over why China is so well liked by many of the developing world nations. Over the course of the conference, i interacted with other delegations from Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and so on and they all had the same respect and positive impression for the Chinese delegation. Whether it was a delegate from Africa or Asia, no matter what their country’s size and importance, they were treated warmly and with mutual respect by the Chinese as if their country was the same as China in size, importance and power.

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Several analysts and commentators want to see something empirical, some hard data that quantifies this respect, that explains scientifically why China is held in a high opinion by developing world countries. They look at investments and trade, look at China’s growing foreign worker and student populations, analyze the spread of Chinese media.

And of course, they do hold true on their own. You can see from this entire thread the vast variety of reasons why people like China (economic might, non-interference in other country’s affairs, an affinity for Chinese culture etc).

So take my answer as one part of the entire canvas of reasons being presented here when i say that a lot of developing nation people, be it government employees or just common folk everywhere, like China because the Chinese still consider themselves as one of us. Not imperial overlords or racial superiors or strict masters and so on. But comrades to the developing world, partners in our struggles and a developing country just like us who share in our troubles, concerns and visions for a mutually beneficial future.

I’m no China expert so i can’t explain where this comes from. Perhaps its still the old Communist ideology at play? Back during the cold war years, the USSR and Chinese communists partnered with a lot of the developing world back then as we struggled to overthrow the colonial and imperialist powers (as well as their local feudal, tribal and monarch proxies). I’ve met old Leftists in their senior years today who tell me about how they would go to the USSR and China back when Pakistan was a dirt poor country to get training, education and what not. Revolutionaries and Leftists from Pakistan, other Asian countries, Africa, Latin America etc would go to the USSR and China in cheap, patched up suits with tattered shoes and not a dime to their name and be greeted warmly by their comrades in Beijing and Moscow and given the top notch treatment. Nations that managed to overthrow their tyrants in a successful coup would send delegations to China and the USSR who would come back full of praises for the hospitality and camaraderie of the Chinese and USSR brother Leftists. Whereas the “Free World” would only choose to associate with our feudal lords, our Shahs, our Kings and our dictators and not step foot in a single street populated by the common man.

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I don’t even have to wax poetic about the old days of the Cold war. In my own experience working side by side with my Chinese coworkers, this same feeling of partnership and camaraderie is on display as well. The Chinese who come to work with us, work side by side with us, in the same heat, the same muck, the same mosquito, freezing temperatures, rain and what not. The same hectic schedules and daily annoyances are shared by us equally. We also eat at the same table, play football in the evening with each other and exchange movies and TV shows in USBs with each other.

When i told all of this to my friend who works in the Gulf at an MNC he wouldn’t believe me. His experience with Gulf Arabs and the Western Expats there has been nothing like this. Even students and workers that i know who went to South Korea are a bit amazed when they hear this.

Outside of the work place it’s the same story. Western Expats in Pakistan tend to live in huge, well guarded, walled off compounds with these giant electric generators and might as well be living on another planet given how cut off they are from the rest of the populace. Meanwhile, just 2 days ago, i reversed my car past a Chinese couple getting on their motorcycle in a busy, crowded bazaar typical of any major Pakistani city.

The Chinese live, walk, breath, eat and work among us, on our streets, our cities, our home soil. They face the same problems we do whether its load shedding, low gas supply or slow internet. And when we see them share the realities of our lives, it creates this mutual bond and sense of respect between us. They could have chosen to live in their own huge compounds and indeed, the Pak government is trying to force the Chinese expats in Pakistan to live in compounds away from ordinary Pakistani citizens due to security concerns. But the Chinese refuse. They CHOOSE to live with us. Despite the dangers they face. And that makes all the difference in the world for us.

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I had similar positive experiences with the Chinese in Egypt and the African delegations and Middle Eastern delegations were absolutely delighted with the Chinese, how willing to explore the local culture they were, how respectful they were of us and how they would engage with us in social activities and general chit chat everywhere, whether at work or leisure. In the meantime, we didn’t even see the European delegations to Egypt even once (separated for security again i guess).

And my own visit to China a long time ago was no less positive for me. Senior government, military and diplomatic officials would engage with us, discuss with us, seek our view point, offer their own. They would even share stories from their personal lives and listen attentively when we told our own. We were given a royal treatment, housed in comfortable hotels, provided medical assistance immediately if someone got sick, accompanying us to the hospital to make sure we were ok, guiding us in the city. Whether it was common citizens or senior officials, they treated us like equals with a lot of protocol.

Maybe I’ve lost a few folk at this point who have no idea what i’m talking about because they can’t relate. But as a Pakistani, our country is associated only with poverty, violence, terror and instability abroad. No one is impressed when we say we are from Pakistan. No one cares either. So much so that we have become accustomed to it, built our lives around it.

So when i was at that exhibition and the Chinese delegate warmly shook my hand, proclaimed my country a brother in front of the entire exhibition to the surprise of onlookers, when the citizen of a country touted as the next super power of the world gives respect to the citizen of a country that’s touted as a failed state in western publications, it creates an impact on our lives.

I know there are thousands of more like me. In 10, 20, 30 years we will be senior officers, politicians or executives in our own countries. And when we see a Chinese official ask us for a favor, a Chinese company bid us for a project maybe some of us will think back to when the Chinese gave us so much respect on so and so occasion. And we will favor the Chinese because of it. Don’t believe me? Just look at the bonhomie between the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who was so dazzled to hear that the Chinese were referring to rapidly implemented Pakistani Projects as “running at Punjab speed” as a compliment to his administrative skills, that he granted several projects to Chinese companies without bidding or on very favorable terms.

Based on how i saw the delegates from Africa, Middle East, Asia also be impressed at the humble, respectful and partner like attitude of the Chinese during their interactions with them, i have no doubt the same kind of positive image of China will be created in the minds of those delegates as well. And when they rise to senior positions, they will also hold the same positive image of China and favor her. All that influence and positive image built across the globe for no cost and without needing 12 Aircraft carriers.

There was once a time i thought that maybe our positive experience of China was because of us mostly experiencing China’s “Golden Generation”. By Golden Generation i mean a generation of people who are born when their country is poor and life is hard, enter young adult life when their country is rising rapidly and go into their senior years when their country is a global power. Kind of like the US’s golden generation. This Golden generation has all the power available to a citizen of a super power but at the same time the same humbleness and respectful nature of a modest power. A person from this generation could become king of the world and still rise to meet a person of more modest means.

I would resign myself to the fact that as younger Chinese came of age who had never seen the struggles of China when she was a poorer country with less power, and he grew up only knowing China as a great, powerful nation then perhaps the Chinese too would become more arrogant and assured of their greatness like the US has become. But my interaction with the Chinese youth of Quora has put to bed such fears as i find them as respectful to us, the people of the developing world, as i found their parents and older siblings etc.

I hope this answer didn’t sound too much like rambling or disappointing due to lack of quantifiable data and science. And i hope this answer isn’t interpreted as a diss of people from the West with whom i also have great experiences. But as someone who as worked in Data analysis so long, i can tell you, some things aren’t there in the data. Some things are in the mysterious, murky sphere we call the human aspect. And in that aspect, you’ll find that this mysterious pull and attraction China has on so many people in the developing world from Africa, Asia, Middle East is based on the smallest, but oldest of all things: Respect. Equality. Partnership. Camaraderie.

What is the strangest reaction of someone who has just been fired?

This happened to a friend of mine. He’s a PhD in Mathematics and was working for Silicon Valley firm writing mostly encryption algorithms, but some firmware stuff as well. Very very well paid — but not the most social person in the world. Being around people causes him anxiety. This isn’t a minor thing for him — it’s a real pathology.

Anyway, He’s a Los Angeles guy — and hated living so far north. His employer worked with him and let him work remotely 4 out of 5 days a week — he would just need to show up for “face” time once a week. Basically show up Sunday, sleep in the company flat, drive home Monday.

That was grinding him down after a year. His employer dropped that down to once a month. After six months, this was still too much and he decided to turn in his resignation on the next “face” day.

He drove up there, spent the night in the company flat, got up to go to the office with his “notice” papers and his boss calls him in.

They’re laying him off. This means, he keeps the stock options he’s earned (would have lost them if he quit), he gets 3 years of paid medical insurance and a 3 year severance package per his contract.

He sent me a pic of himself after he got the news. The biggest sh*t eating grin I’ve ever seen on him —ever — in front of his “beater” pick up truck. .

This was about 20 years ago.

Has anyone at your workplace ever been fired for something they said or did?

A very long time ago, when I was new to working in Corporate America, an employee was reprimanded for refusing to do an assigned task given by a new supervisor and then fired for insubordination.

Sheila had worked in the unit for most of her 7 years with the company. She was hardworking, never missing a day, and knew every aspect of the department’s purpose and work. She was ‘right there’ when any of us needed info or help, something that our supervisors were not always able to do.

She SHOULD have been the supervisor, but she had 3 strikes against her: she was still in school (no paper), she was female (most management positions were filled by males), and she was black (the company had a 7% minority hire, mostly in lower positions).

The new supervisor had worked with us for 6 months when he told Sheila that he wanted her to change a major procedure. When she asked why, he became belligerent and refused to discuss it.

Sheila knew (to summarize) that the new procedure would create a multi-level bottleneck in our area and would ultimately lessen efficiency within a third of the company.

When she attempted to explain this, the supervisor accused her of insubordination and threatened her with termination.

He then began a whisper campaign against her. In hindsight, it was based on racism and misogyny that others (especially in management) seemed happy to join.

Sheila did as she was told, and we all watched as our department’s efficiency rapidly fell and began to adversely affect other units.

When the problems couldn’t ‘work themselves out,’ the supervisor accused Sheila of sabotage.

Some of us went to Personnel (HR) in support of Sheila to no avail. Sheila produced the supervisor’s written instructions, but he continued to call her an incompetent, vindictive, ignorant saboteur and in private, added racist/misogynistic terms.

Sheila was fired based on that man’s accusations and in spite of her denials and proof.

Sheila landed a great position with a competitor within days. (She ultimately lured 4 of the department’s best to join her several months later.)

The supervisor crowed that she had been a spy all along, but as the effeciency still fell, management FINALLY saw that department disruption came from the ‘incompetent, vindictive, ignorant’ supervisor.

He was moved to a different position within the company with no reprimand.

This was my first exposure to how unfair and hateful some ‘management’ can be.

Who are some generals that had a high regard as battle strategist geniuses but actually aren’t?

Erwin Rommel is probably one of the most over rated so called geniuses. Rommel had a good sense of tactical employment of certain equipment particularly tanks, but he was greatly aided by the fact he mostly fought an outpost of Britain, rather than the full might of any of the allied armies, and his tactics were never tested by the Soviet armored branch, unlike most German generals.

Furthermore, he was operationally inept and strategically an imbecile. Rommel was the ultimate “i know better than you”, and circumvented the command chain to get his way. For example, he appealed directly to Hitler in order to launch the attack on Egypt, that totally failed and cost the Axis their foothold in Africa, and undermining the Wehrmacht plan made to occupy Malta and cut off the British navy.

At the strategic level Rommel never understood Germany’s actual position, and certainly did not contribute to it. He left this entire theater of command on June 5th despite the Germans knowing that an invasion of France was imminent. He had also previously spent massive resources on creating additional anti air borne defenses, none of which had an impact on the outcome of D-day.

Rommel was defeated in Africa, defeated in Italy and defeated in France, before he was a high level leader he was an insubordinate divisional commander who got lucky mostly. His ghost division was called such because no one knew where it was or what it was doing. That is not a good thing.

Despite all this, Rommel is often mentioned as one of the greatest generals in World War 2, but I really see no reason for this, when von Rundtstedt and even the self aggrandising Mannstein, clearly had far more success and skill than Rommel did.

Star Trek – Two Captain Kirks

Spock makes his way to the control room with a phaser…only to find two identical Captain Kirks (Whom Gods Destroy)

Who benefits from the ban on Huawei by Western nations?

Huawei and China. It force China to speed up dominating the industry and make all the money. It no longer need to share with the west and U.S. The U.S. has to pay and lose in trillions of dollars to build big white elephants, subsidise a dozen countries and the entire industry for decades to come!

Meanwhile it has to contend with poorer technology, higher inefficiency and humongous cost of connectivity! It loses competitive edge and allow its people to fall behind in technology!

But you know who else benefits. Your media and your politicians. The media sell hate and the profit. Your politicians show hates and the win votes!

So who benefits? China, the Chinese people, the global south, the U.S. media and the U.S. politicians.

Who lose? Americans. The U.S. taxpayers. Your U.S. companies, your U.S. dog nations, you U.S. slave vassals, your cronies nations! Too bad karma. You guys deserved it.

Are Humans the First Civilization? The Silurian Hypothesis

Another fun video.

What is the most ridiculous thing that happened to you in your career?

I had applied for a job with a company where my friend worked. She had sent me the posting even though I was extremely under qualified and the job was 400 miles away.

I applied, not thinking I actually had a chance. The posting was for a SysAdmin, and at this point in my career I had only worked in computer repair shops. I had some server experience and did some side work for a few clients, but I wasn’t a full SysAdmin by any stretch of the imagination. But what could it hurt to apply. The worst they could do is throw out my resume. So I was surprised when they called me for a phone interview.

I got through the HR interview no problem. I have a good work ethic and am generally a pleasant person, so it was a breeze. Next came the tech interview. The guy who was leaving called me and was immediately concerned about my complete lack of experience as a SysAdmin. We went through the technical interview and I figured that would be the end of it. He asked some pretty tough questions about things I had never done before. So I didn’t think I did that well.

Surprise! I got another call from HR. They wanted to interview me in person! Wow, was I shocked. I agreed and immediately started packing a bag for a road trip. I left early the next morning and drove the 400 miles in one day. I crashed on my friend’s couch and went in to work with her the next morning for my interview.

Again, I was interviewed by a technical person, this time a consultant. Again, he grilled me on a bunch of technology that I had never used before. I answered to the best of my ability, but more than once I had to admit that I didn’t know the answer. Again, I didn’t think I did very well. I basically got the “We’ll call you if we’re interested” response when I asked what the next steps were.

I chalked it up to just being a road trip. I spent the rest of the day exploring the city and taking in a few museums. I had a good time with some friends in the city and then headed home the next morning. This was a Wednesday.

The very next day, Thursday, my phone rang. “Hello, this is X from company Y. We were really impressed with you and would like to offer you the job.”

I almost dropped my phone I was so shocked. All I could do was stutter out a “Ok. I’d love to take it.”

Then the twist. “We absolutely need you to start on Monday. Is that going to be a problem? If you can’t we’re going to offer the job to a local candidate.”

I looked around at my house full of stuff that wasn’t packed and replied the only way I could. “Sure. Looks like I’m moving to Washington DC tomorrow.”

So I did. It took about a month of crashing on my friend’s couch before I found a place to stay and move all our stuff down there.

It was surreal to say the least. In one week, I went from being unemployed in Cleveland to getting a job in DC that I wasn’t qualified for and moving my entire life 400 miles away.

UN GIVEN 24 HOUR WARNING, IRAN SENDS TANKS TO BORDER, SYRIA AIRPORT BOMBED

What is the nicest thing a stranger ever did for you?

Two months ago, I got a call that my home was on fire. I rushed home with my 4 year old, found my house uninhabitable and all of my pets deceased. While the fire marshal was finishing up paperwork, and I was covered in soot and tears, a man came up to me with condolences and placed $200 in my hand and said he’s sure I could use it. We had never met; I found out later that he lived in the neighborhood and just felt the need to help.

This man’s actions impacted me in a big way. Of course $200 wasn’t going to rebuild my house, but it did cover getting us pajamas, a change of clothes, toothbrushes, and other essentials that we needed immediately, as well as a hot meal, with some left to spare. Most importantly, it gave me one less thing to worry about at the moment.

Moving forward, I want to be more like that guy. Offering thoughts and prayers through Facebook when people go through tragedies is nice, but actually being present and offering assistance is what makes a difference. Thanks, stranger!

What are some interesting facts about the FBI?

Operation Abscam was the sting of the decade. In 1978, the FBI set up a fake company to snare New York gangsters selling stolen art. The company was called “Abdul Enterprise” hence the name Ab(dul)Scam, and owned by a fake Arab Sheik looking to invest in art.

They recovered two paintings worth 1 million dollars, and during the operation they were introduced to more criminals dealing in stolen stocks and bonds, which stopped 600 million dollars in fraudulent securities.

It was through this operation they were introduced to politicians willing to take bribes. The sting brought the FBI to Washington DC, where their criminal contacts introduced them to shady politicians willing to take bribes for the Sheiks business which was a fake Casino in Atlantic City.

These politicians wanted to arrange a meeting between the Sheik and a US congressman who could make happen any private legislation the Sheik wanted for the price of 50,000 dollars.

This led to the arrest of one senator, six congressmen, and more than a dozen corrupt officials.

The sting was surrounded in controversy because it raised many question regarding the FBI tactics being considered entrapment.

This infamous sting was the inspiration behind the movie American Hustle.

This Cat Was Left Behind When His Owner Moved Away | The Dodo

Oh my goodness!

What did someone say/do that made you close down your account and go to another bank?

Citibank. Went to the bank to deposit a ~$26k check into a checking account with many times that amount, then pay my credit card bill which had all the charges from a 15-day Disney vacation.

They deposited the check, but put a ‘hold’ on it, making only $100 of the balance available. Then they debited my checkbook, to pay the CC balance in full.

About a week later the statement arrived. The CC was paid in full, ~48 hours before it was due, but somehow managed to accrue >$100 in interest charges. — First time for that.

The checking account also generated about a dozen overdraft charges despite the balance never dropping below $100k! — It’s not like there was a six-figure minimum balance on that account.

And to top it off, every one of my $25k 7-day certificates of deposit forfeited their interest for the week that included that fiasco.

I went to the branch on the next business day. I waited patiently in the line for the teller. When I got to the window, I quietly explained that they had messed up. The teller *insisted* that they followed procedure. I asked for the manager to come out and explain their procedure in more detail.

I listened to 5+ minutes or doubletalk in stony silence. The manager finally saying he could reverse the charges & credit the interest “… this one time as a courtesy.” I allowed him to proceed and complete the tasks.

When I had the corrected receipts in my hand, and in my wallet, I said to him: “Now I want you to close all of my accounts.” There was indignity & quite anger in his face.

He asked me to step aside into his office. I politely declined saying that until you hand over my money, I’m still a customer. I waited 45 minutes in your line and I’m not giving up my spot so you can hide me away from the people who are still in line. I think they deserve to know how badly you treated me, and maybe some of them will get the idea to leave the bank too.

He tried to maneuver me away from the window. I refused to budge. He tried empty threats, even up to calling the police. I told him go ahead. I have witnesses. Then I said, he *SHOULD* call the police because I want my funds in *CASH*.

He then tried to explain how that much cash would generate a CTR, and I’d be investigated by the IRS. I said, that’s fine. I’m clean, you’re dirty. I welcome the sunlight.

Within an hour I walked out of the bank with a thick manilla envelope under my arm and was walked to my car by the armed security guard. I had informed the manager that my safety was *HIS* personal responsibility until I drove off the bank property. The reason was that because of his incompetence, several people in the lobby *KNEW* that I would be leaving the branch carrying substantial cash, and that the potential for me being robbed once I walked out the door was non-zero.

I left the parking lot and drove to the First Union branch nearer my house, asked for the branch manager, told him a short version of what had just transpired, and in less than 30 minutes walked out with a brand-new leather-bound checkbook, and started earning 0.25% more interest on my money.

—

I had been increasingly frustrated with Citibank in the months leading up to that fiasco. To be fair, it was their electronic banking that had lured me into doing business with them in the first place. Their systems integrated with Quicken better than any other I had used up to that point. BTW this all happened between September 1997 & August 1999. The Disney vacation was from the last day of school in June 1999 thru the 8th or 9th of July. It was a big deal for the kids when we pulled them from school early that day and they got to say to their classmates “I’m going to Disney!”

So, literally every time I visited the Citibank branch to conduct business, I walked out feeing like something was wrong. They always did things out of order from the way I presented them to the teller. It was mildly frustrating most of the time. Irritating on many occasions; and maddening when I’d make large deposits & purchase one or more of their $25k 7-day CDs. The $25k CDs were nice because although they were illiquid for the first 14 days after the 2-week hold the most I could forfeit was the interest on the last week — in theory. There were a number of occasions when they would deduct 8 or more days of interest, when I cashed more than one at a time. I’d get to the office, plug the amounts into Quicken and there would be a ‘discrepancy’. That necessitated another trip to the bank to get it corrected. Or a phone call and an up to 60 day wait.

The bank offered these products to attract deposits. They worked, but they inevitably tried to cheat me out of hundreds if not thousands of dollars in interest earned. But in all candor it was the $400plus in *OVERDRAFT* charges on a well-funded account that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Several years ago Costco ended their arrangement with American Express and switched to Citi. I wasn’t happy. But they gave me a new Blue card with my Costco photo on the back. I only used the card at Costco. And each February I’d await my ‘love check’ aka “My Costco Rewards Voucher”. It usually came by April.

About a year ago, I hadn’t been to Costco for a while and so the automatic $50 payments I made to avoid any possibility of a missed payment fee had accumulated. I had visited Costco on the 92nd day following my last bill and the charge was less than $150. But true to form, the bank had cut me an unrequested paper check on the 91st day (supposedly) recorded the charge on day 92, then hit me with a $35 late fee for not receiving another check before the close of the 3rd statement! Can you imagine?

That was the last time I used the Citi card for *ANYTHING* — except… Now, when I go to Costco, I show the Citi card to prove my membership, but I pay with my Chase. Then when I finish shopping, I stop at the lunch counter and buy a Costco signature Hotdog & Pepsi for $1.50 which comes to $1.61 with the tax. When I return home, I schedule a ebill-pay check to be sent to the bank 15 business days later.

And lastly, I disabled electronic statements, forcing them to send me a paper invoice for $1.61 each month. I did this when they failed to send me an email statement or notification then had the nerve to again charge me $35 after a minor error on my part that had left me with a $0.50 *CREDIT* balance which I was allowing to roll from month to month. That was until the bank decided that since the credit was less than $1.00 they were entitled to absorb it and not issue me a check. They also absorbed my then insignificant Rewards balance ~$5.00 as a co-consequence of the late fee assessed. That too earned them another phone call and cost them >90 minutes of agent time, and a replenishment of the rewards balance.

In 2022 my accrued rewards were $0.12 I don’t expect a voucher, but I will call them to inquire why it wasn’t sent. Come to think of it It’s May 16th. I think I’ll do it tomorrow morning.

Twenty plus years and I’m still mad at them.

“Citibank SUCKS!!!” and you can quote me on that.

As someone who supports China’s model of development and other areas where we need to learn from China, did you find anyone else close to your thoughts?

Rule no 1

We need to ACKNOWLEDGE China IS SUPERIOR in these areas

That’s Rule No 1

…

You have nutters who claim we have nothing to learn from China and if these people are the majority than India will be the perpetual loser like always

We built so many toilets, We built so many trains, IMF says we are No 1, ABC says we are No 2 etc etc

India is a country where mediocrity dominates

…

The Cream is in US or UK or Canada or Australia or Europe or Singapore or Malaysia

Achievers think differently

They always look at others strengths and decide to incorporate them and grow and develop

Mediocrities think differently

They bury their heads in the sand, and keep quoting random nonsense to feel good

India sadly belongs to the latter groups

---

Thus Rule No 1 is to say

Alright these are Chinas strengths, these are Chinas weaknesses

Let’s try to achieve Chinas strengths without going into Chinas weaknesses

---

The Basic Truth

China and India started together in 1982 and today China is six times larger

That is a truth that’s out there

That means China did something right or infinitely better than us

That means China has to be superior to us in many areas

That’s Logic

We have the same populace at the end of the day

We don’t have a single viable achievement where we have beaten China

Not one

So obviously China did something better

---

How many actually say this?

Say that – Wow!!! China is indeed better than us in so many aspects. Let’s learn from them.

My guess is very few

Most of us can’t accept this very basic thing

---

So this answer isn’t for an Indian sadly

Indians today aren’t built to assess others strengths and evaluate the same

Nopes

The West: China Is Collapsing!

Great video! Some people choose to be so ignorant of China even when there are so many vlogs of those exploring the country.

This is worth viewing.

The Split In Israel And The War Of Al-Aqsa

What is the reason for the ‘Al-Aqsa Deluge’, as Hamas had named its terror operation against the Zionists?

On October 8 Alastair Crooke, one of most experienced Middle East hands, wrote in AlMahadeen:

“Israel” has shattered into two equally weighted factions holding to two irreconcilable visions of “Israel’s” future; two mutually opposing readings of history and of what it means to be Jewish.

The fissure could not be more complete. Except it is. One faction, which holds a majority in parliament, is broadly Mizrahi — a former underclass in Israeli society; and the other, largely well-to-do liberal Ashkenazi.

Mizrahi are mostly the original Middle Eastern Jews and often on the religious far right, Ashkenazi are mostly liberal European ones. The current Netanyahoo government is the first which includes far-right Mizrahi ministers.

Most Mizrahi follow the Sephardi religious rites. They want an religious state based on Jewish law.  They are as radial as ISIS.

The high court of Israel has 14 Ashkenazi judges and one Mizrahi one. It is one of the reasons why the Netanyahoo government wants the parliament to be able to vote down high court judgements. There have been large, U.S. sponsored ‘regime change’ protests in Israel against that move. The leaders of the military and security services, mostly Ashkenazi, have also opposed the government move against the court.

I therefore think that it is quite possible that there was intelligence pointing to the Hamas attack, but that it was not revealed to let Netanyahoo fall into a trap. We have however no evidence that there were reasonably precise intelligence warnings, or that they were held up.

There are already demands for Netanyahoo to go. If only for his long term sponsoring of Hamas as a counterweight to the more secular Fatah Palestinians. Should he no longer be prime minister the courts will take up the three bribe cases against him which are currently pending. He would likely end up in jail.

Another reason for Hamas’ success was the fact that three of the four infantry battalions, with 800 soldiers each, that usually guard the Gaza strip,  had been moved to the West Bank to protect right-wing Zionist settlers during a religious holiday. This allowed for Hamas’ easy breach of the fence.

Back to Alastair Crooke on the real motive of the Al-Aqsa flood:

Well, the Right in Netanyahu’s government has two long-standing commitments. One is to rebuild the (Jewish) Temple on ‘Temple Mount’ (Haram al-Shariff).

Just to be clear, that would entail demolishing Al-Aqsa.

The second overriding commitment is to the founding of “Israel”, on the “Land of Israel”. And again, to be clear, this (in their view) would entail clearing Palestinians from the West Bank. Indeed, the settlers have been cleansing Palestinians from swaths of the West Bank over the past year (notably between Ramallah and Jericho).

On Thursday morning (two days preceding Al-Aqsa Flood), more than 800 settlers stormed the Mosque Compound, under the full protection of Israeli forces. The drumbeat of such provocations is rising.

This is nothing new. The First Intifada was triggered by (then) PM Sharon making a provocative visit into the mosque. I was a part of Senator George Mitchell’s Presidential Committee investigating that incident. Even then, it was clear that Sharon intended the visit to fuel the fire of religious nationalism. At that time, the Temple Mount Movement was a minnow; today it has ministers in Cabinet and in key security positions — and has promised its followers to build the ‘Third Temple’.

So, the threat to Al-Aqsa has been building for two decades, and today is reaching an apex. And yet US and Israeli intelligence didn’t see resistance coming, and nor did they see the settler violence building in the West Bank?

What happened on Saturday was widely expected and clearly extensively planned.

There is by the way no archaeologic evidence, none, that a Jewish ‘Temple’ ever existed in Jerusalem. If it did, it was most likely not on the hill of Al-Aqsa but one of the six other ones.

Al-Aqsa is holy to all Muslims, Shia and Sunni alike. Its destruction would inevitably lead to war. The West is clearly underestimating what forces calls like this one can rise:

Khalid Aljabri, MDد

.خالد الجبري

@JabriMD – 11:52 UTC · Oct 13, 2023

Friday sermon from the Grand Mosque in Mecca prays for the “liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque” in Jerusalem.

This is significant for two reasons:
• Audience of 2 billion Muslims.
• Such sermons have been significantly censored under MBS. Today’s sermon was likely pre-approved.
Video

Israel has used White Phosphorus on the people in Gaza, another war crime. Israel has given all people in north Gaza, 1.1 million human beings, 24 hours to move to south Gaza. That is impossible and will not happen. It is an attempt of ethnic cleansing.

Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz – 10:52 UTC · Oct 13, 2023

If there were two million Jewish people trapped by Christians in a giant open-air prison and placed under total siege, being told that half of them had 24 hours to relocate into the other half or be killed, nobody would have any confusion about what they were witnessing.

If Israel makes, as announced, a ground attack on Gaza, Hizbullah in Lebanon is likely to attack Israel. The U.S. has allegedly let Syria know (via France) that Damascus, and President Assad personally, would be attacked if that were to happen. This is a miscalculation. It is far from certain that Assad, or even Iran, has the means to hold Hizbullah back.

A U.S. attack on the government of Syria would bring Russia into the war. Iran would also respond which is exactly what some of the neocons want.

The war could easily escalate further from there.

Posted by b on October 13, 2023 at 15:46 UTC | Permalink

Wife Self-Deletes After Husband Discovers All 4 Kids Aren’t His

Paternity fraud should be a felony.

Do you think America is falling apart?

I live in a wealthy suburb on the outskirts of Silicon Valley in California; trees, flowers, birds, mostly nice neighbors of diverse backgrounds. On the surface, it seems a wonderful place to live, and in many respects, it is, however, if I look out my front window, I see this:

The electricity is distributed via overhead lines, due to an underinvestment in infrastructure: last month, I lost power for over 36 hours because it got a little windy (the world headquarters of Apple, Facebook, and Google are within a ten mile radius of my place). When I ride my bike to the local supermarket this evening, I will have to be careful not to slip on a large and growing patch of gravel on a road that hasn’t been repaired for many years: this, in one of the wealthiest parts of the wealthiest country in the world.

The above is a map of the SF Bay area, a densely populated part of California with an almost continuous ring of urban development. As you would expect, the traffic can be pretty bad, so you might expect that there would be a single circular light rail system linking the many cities around the bay; there is not: if I want to travel from my place to Fremont by rail alone, the quickest way with the most frequent service is via San Francisco. US infrastructure is truly abysmal.

Why is America in such poor shape, with its crumbling roads, crappy power distribution, and pitiful public transport systems? It is because Americans have been propagandized for decades into believing that “liberty” is the ultimate virtue, and this “liberty” is so valuable that it justifies the cost of living as a selfish asshole under a dysfunctional government. “Raise taxes to pay for public infrastructure?” “Jeez Louise; over my dead body! Taxation is theft, government is bad!” For much of the 20th century, America defined itself against the collectivist USSR, and the fatuous argument was made that since everything was under the control of the state in the USSR, the US government should do as little as possible, apart from outspending the evil Commies in national defense.

The infrastructure is just one symptom of America’s degradation: the streets of major cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles are filling up with homeless drug addicts, leaving the sidewalks littered with tents, needles, and human waste. Next to nothing is done for these people because it is seen as “their problem” that they are mentally ill, and lack access to mental health services and affordable housing. The irony is that there are so many of these people now that they have become everyone’s problem. Retailers in downtown SF are closing down their stores because the conditions in the streets are keeping paying customers away, whilst the cops barely regard shoplifting as a crime.

The only way this person lying on the ground can guarantee access to shelter and minimal medical care is to go to jail. Land of the free…

The US is run by an oligarchy of libertarian fantasists, who have spent so long sucking hallucinogenic bile from the withered teats of Ayn Rand that they have lost all contact with reality. The government is not entirely to blame for the current situation; a lot of the social problems are the result of the narcissistic counter culture that started in the 1960s, but now that these problems are getting worse, the question is, can the government continue to pretend that they don’t exist, or that there is somehow a “free market” solution to mass shootings, drug addiction, and homelessness?

Living in my little enclave, with its fragile electricity supply, and crumbling roads, it’s easy for my neighbors and I to think that things aren’t so bad, but in under an hour, I can travel to SF and see scenes exactly like the one in the last photo. Whilst people are constantly harping on about whether the Democrats or the Republicans are better or worse than each other, they are ignoring the fact that both parties have done nothing to seriously address the severe decay that is undeniably afflicting America’s social and physical fabric.

Edit: My apologies to those who may have wished to leave reasonable and informed comments; I got tired of being notified of comments that were rude and stupid, and there are already plenty of comments in the thread that disagree with my point of view.

Edit 2: There appears to be evidence that it was uninsulated overhead powerlines, such as the ones in my photo, which led to the fires in Maui, which killed hundreds of people.

Have you ever conned a car salesman who thought he was going to con you?

Not me, but my Uncle Bill sure did.

He himself was a salesman at our local Ford dealership back in the 1960’s. He was a good and honest man. Around 1967 he had several customers reject the deals he was making with them and instead buy cars from another dealership about an hour away, in Amarillo, thinking that they were getting a much better deal. However what was really happening was that other dealership was quoting them a lower initial purchase price but “making it up” with their financing interest rates. Several times, when they came back and talked with my uncle to tell him that they’d “beat his price”, he showed them how they were going to end up paying a lot more for their purchase than they would have with him once all the finance costs were considered, and they got angry about how they’d been tricked, but of course then it was too late.

So, one day he made a trip to Amarillo to that other dealership and posed as something of a ‘rube’ customer. He started trying to make a deal on a new 1967 Ford Mustang coupe, 289 V8, 3-speed manual. Ford called the color “Dusk Rose” but to look at it, it was obviously “Pepto Bismol pink”. He played the usual games with the salesman, going back and forth “to check with his manager” and all that. (As an aside here, if you’ve ever wondered if sales offices are bugged so that they can hear the private conversations that happen while they’re out of the room, you can stop wondering now. They are. What they’re actually doing when they go “talk to their manager” is running a credit check on you to find out if you’re “worth their time” and listening in. They like nothing more than to have a couple in their office and hear that one of them “is in love with” the car they’re considering. They know they’ve won at that point.)

Anyway, my uncle took advantage of all that back and forth, took advantage of what he knew was the actual dealer cost of the car, took advantage of the bug, “talked to himself” while the salesman was gone about how much he liked the car and hoped he could get a good price, and kept at it until the salesman offered to sell him the car at a price that my uncle knew was hundreds less than what the car had actually cost the dealer. The salesman wrote down the deal, and my Uncle Bill reached over and snagged the paper.

Salesman, as he reached into a desk drawer to get the finance agreement forms: “Mr. Garrett? How much would you like to pay down on this car today?”

Uncle Bill: “Oh, I’ll just pay the full price in cash. Right now. No trade in.”

Salesman, now flustered and getting angry: “But you kept haggling about price and wanting it lower!”

Uncle Bill: “I never said I couldn’t afford it, I just said I didn’t want to pay that much.”

The salesman, and the dealership, were so mad at him that they practically threw the keys at him and refused even to wash the car for him prior to delivery. Uncle Bill paid for it and drove it home.

Back then, in our small town, everyone knew “the pink Mustang” and thought it was funny/ugly. Turns out, that Dusk Rose color was very rare and only a very few of them were built (gee I wonder why?) – but documented originals are quite valuable now.

I miss him.

Leaked CIA Documents REVEALED China Has Powerful SPACE WEAPONS

The Chinese Space Program has often found itself at the centre of allegations and accusations, primarily originating from the United States. More recently, the international community was stirred by the disclosure of a classified document, which brought to light China’s formidable space capabilities, notably featuring a device that can be referred to as a ‘satellite hijacker’—an asset reportedly within China’s grasp. Today’s episode will cover a leaked CIA documents contents and a potential arms race in space.

What did you assume was exaggerated until you experienced it?

Grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Im an African American male, okay? I come from the DEPTHS of the hood. In the hood, we don’t eat this. In my culture, we don’t eat this.

Well when I graduated college, I moved to Austin Texas. I have a Caucasian wife, okay? She always talked about this. Her family talked about it and even random people. I was like ummm how good can this be because it sounds pretty gross.

One night, 8 years ago, we made it for dinner. And just know that 8 years later, im still dipping my grill cheese in tomato soup at least 4 times a month.

Happy addict.

What is the highest form of freedom?

My grandmother, who is now 96, marched out of Auschwitz in broad daylight after taking off her striped uniform and changing into normal clothes.

A Polish friend who worked in the camp as a secretary and wasn’t corrupted by the racist propaganda had risked her own life to bring her the outfit.

Out she walked, past guards with rifles, attack dogs, and hatred so intense it would make your skin crawl with fear.

Her parents, and almost all living relatives, weren’t as fortunate.

The rest of the war, she spent in hiding.

“At that time,” she explained to me during a recent visit, “we couldn’t set goals, let alone pursue them. We were deprived of our agency, of freedom.”

That’s why she always encouraged me to go as far as possible in life.

Because the highest form of freedom— the ability to actualize your dreams, to create a life of meaning, purpose, and wellbeing—is not something to be taken lightly.

Whatever you choose to do with yours, never forget that it’s a gift of the greatest magnitude.

Parents Took $120k Loan On My Name To Fund Spoiled Sister Studies & Claimed It’s My Responsibility

His family STOLE HIS money. They needed to pay it back.

Pro-Israel Propaganda Is Stupid

It is somewhat amazing how low the quality of western propaganda has become. Especially when it relates to hobbyhorses like Israel.

Here is NBCnews testing not only the stupidity of its viewers and readers but also demonstrating the fatuity of its ‘journalists’.

‘Top secret’ Hamas documents show that terrorists intentionally targeted elementary schools and a youth center

Documents exclusively obtained by NBC News show that Hamas created detailed plans to target elementary schools and a youth center in the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Sa’ad, to “kill as many people as possible,” seize hostages and quickly move them into the Gaza Strip.

The attack plans, which are labeled “top secret” in Arabic, appear to be orders for two highly trained Hamas units to surround and infiltrate villages and target places where civilians, including children, gather. Israeli authorities are still determining the death toll in Kfar Sa’ad.

The documents were found on the bodies of Hamas terrorists by Israeli first responders and shared with NBC News. They include detailed maps and show that Hamas intended to kill or take hostage civilians and school children.

One page labeled “Top Secret” outlines a plan of attack for Kfar Sa’ad, saying “Combat unit 1” is directed to “contain the new Da’at school,” while “Combat unit 2” is to “collect hostages,” “search the Bnei Akiva youth center” and “search the old Da’at school.”

The attack happened in the early hours of October 7, a Saturday.

What do Zionist children do on a Sabbath, before dawn? Are they sitting in school? Do they visit a youth center?

If Hamas terrorists maneuvered around schools to kill children they came at the wrong time and the wrong day.

At least to me that does not seem to be the most plausible explanation for their carefully planned operation.

The Israeli army is going all in. The plan is to push all people in Gaza into the desert of Sinai:

“This is thought out… There is a huge expanse, almost endless space in the Sinai desert, just on the other side of Gaza. … The idea is for them to leave over for the open areas where we, and the international community, will prepare the infrastructure, ten cities, with food and water… just like for the refugees of Syria that fled the butchering of Asad…. There is a way to receive them all on the other side for temporary time on [sic.] Sinai… and Egypt will have to play ball.”

That is from an ex-deputy foreign minister of Israel. If he says “for temporary time” he likely means centuries.

There are clashes in the West Bank where Israel is trying to incite a third intifada. Some 43 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank over the last six days. Nine of them during the last 24 hours. There are also clashes and artillery exchanges along the boarder with Lebanon.

People who try to flee from north to south Gaza get bombed along the evacuation route.

The Times and The Sunday Times @thetimes – 12:41 UTC · Oct 14, 2023

A convoy of vehicles heading south after Israel ordered more than one million Palestinians to leave the north was struck at about 5pm yesterday

Israel also bombed the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza. Neither was unintentionally.

Israel can do that because western politicians and ‘journalists’ are covering its ass.

They live in the wrong quadrant.

bigger

Posted by b on October 14, 2023 at 13:39 UTC | Permalink

Girls Standing In The Middle of Tokyo to Sell Themselves.. Japan Has A Serious Developing Problem.

Why are so many young women in Japan recently “standing” in the middle of Tokyo? We find the answer to this question through the story of Yuka in this video, and the important message of takeaway in which this alarming phenomenon has for all of us, when visiting, or considering any social issues regarding Japan.

https://youtu.be/yo3IUSfTiMY

The Split In Israel And The War Of Al-Aqsa

What is the reason for the ‘Al-Aqsa Deluge’, as Hamas had named its terror operation against the Zionists?

On October 8 Alastair Crooke, one of most experienced Middle East hands, wrote in AlMahadeen:

“Israel” has shattered into two equally weighted factions holding to two irreconcilable visions of “Israel’s” future; two mutually opposing readings of history and of what it means to be Jewish.

The fissure could not be more complete. Except it is. One faction, which holds a majority in parliament, is broadly Mizrahi — a former underclass in Israeli society; and the other, largely well-to-do liberal Ashkenazi.

Mizrahi are mostly the original Middle Eastern Jews and often on the religious far right, Ashkenazi are mostly liberal European ones. The current Netanyahoo government is the first which includes far-right Mizrahi ministers.

Most Mizrahi follow the Sephardi religious rites. They want an religious state based on Jewish law.  They are as radial as ISIS.

The high court of Israel has 14 Ashkenazi judges and one Mizrahi one. It is one of the reasons why the Netanyahoo government wants the parliament to be able to vote down high court judgements. There have been large, U.S. sponsored ‘regime change’ protests in Israel against that move. The leaders of the military and security services, mostly Ashkenazi, have also opposed the government move against the court.

I therefore think that it is quite possible that there was intelligence pointing to the Hamas attack, but that it was not revealed to let Netanyahoo fall into a trap. We have however no evidence that there were reasonably precise intelligence warnings, or that they were held up.

There are already demands for Netanyahoo to go. If only for his long term sponsoring of Hamas as a counterweight to the more secular Fatah Palestinians. Should he no longer be prime minister the courts will take up the three bribe cases against him which are currently pending. He would likely end up in jail.

Another reason for Hamas’ success was the fact that three of the four infantry battalions, with 800 soldiers each, that usually guard the Gaza strip,  had been moved to the West Bank to protect right-wing Zionist settlers during a religious holiday. This allowed for Hamas’ easy breach of the fence.

Back to Alastair Crooke on the real motive of the Al-Aqsa flood:

Well, the Right in Netanyahu’s government has two long-standing commitments. One is to rebuild the (Jewish) Temple on ‘Temple Mount’ (Haram al-Shariff).

Just to be clear, that would entail demolishing Al-Aqsa.

The second overriding commitment is to the founding of “Israel”, on the “Land of Israel”. And again, to be clear, this (in their view) would entail clearing Palestinians from the West Bank. Indeed, the settlers have been cleansing Palestinians from swaths of the West Bank over the past year (notably between Ramallah and Jericho).

On Thursday morning (two days preceding Al-Aqsa Flood), more than 800 settlers stormed the Mosque Compound, under the full protection of Israeli forces. The drumbeat of such provocations is rising.

This is nothing new. The First Intifada was triggered by (then) PM Sharon making a provocative visit into the mosque. I was a part of Senator George Mitchell’s Presidential Committee investigating that incident. Even then, it was clear that Sharon intended the visit to fuel the fire of religious nationalism. At that time, the Temple Mount Movement was a minnow; today it has ministers in Cabinet and in key security positions — and has promised its followers to build the ‘Third Temple’.

So, the threat to Al-Aqsa has been building for two decades, and today is reaching an apex. And yet US and Israeli intelligence didn’t see resistance coming, and nor did they see the settler violence building in the West Bank?

What happened on Saturday was widely expected and clearly extensively planned.

There is by the way no archaeologic evidence, none, that a Jewish ‘Temple’ ever existed in Jerusalem. If it did, it was most likely not on the hill of Al-Aqsa but one of the six other ones.

Al-Aqsa is holy to all Muslims, Shia and Sunni alike. Its destruction would inevitably lead to war. The West is clearly underestimating what forces calls like this one can rise:

Khalid Aljabri, MDد

.خالد الجبري

@JabriMD – 11:52 UTC · Oct 13, 2023

Friday sermon from the Grand Mosque in Mecca prays for the “liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque” in Jerusalem.

This is significant for two reasons:
• Audience of 2 billion Muslims.
• Such sermons have been significantly censored under MBS. Today’s sermon was likely pre-approved.
Video

Israel has used White Phosphorus on the people in Gaza, another war crime. Israel has given all people in north Gaza, 1.1 million human beings, 24 hours to move to south Gaza. That is impossible and will not happen. It is an attempt of ethnic cleansing.

Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz – 10:52 UTC · Oct 13, 2023

If there were two million Jewish people trapped by Christians in a giant open-air prison and placed under total siege, being told that half of them had 24 hours to relocate into the other half or be killed, nobody would have any confusion about what they were witnessing.

If Israel makes, as announced, a ground attack on Gaza, Hizbullah in Lebanon is likely to attack Israel. The U.S. has allegedly let Syria know (via France) that Damascus, and President Assad personally, would be attacked if that were to happen. This is a miscalculation. It is far from certain that Assad, or even Iran, has the means to hold Hizbullah back.

A U.S. attack on the government of Syria would bring Russia into the war. Iran would also respond which is exactly what some of the neocons want.

The war could easily escalate further from there.

Posted by b on October 13, 2023 at 15:46 UTC | Permalink

MAJOR RED FLAGS: SOMETHING ISN’T RIGHT HERE…

JESUS.

What would happen if a high-ranking admiral or general visited a military base without telling anyone first and did not like how things were being done there?

Originally Answered: What would happen if a high ranking Admiral or General visited a Military base without telling anyone first and didn’t like how things were being done there?

Admiral Rickover no-notice visited a nuclear boat in civilian clothing, was admitted, and began touring the boat. As he approached the reactor room a second class (E-5) stopped him from entering.

When the Admiral went to push past the man, he picked up a very large wrench and offered to split the Admiral’s head open.

Later 0, during a post-tour discussion, the Admiral asked the sailor if he recognized him (the Father of the Nuclear Navy) and if so, why the young sailor wouldn’t let the Admiral enter the reactor room.

The sailor said “Because, sir, you didn’t have the boat’s Reactor Room badge. No one comes into my reactor room without the proper pass, not even you.”

The next day the young man was spot promoted to E-6.

I was told this story by a roommate that was an MS1 (cook) on the boat at the time.

What is the main point of Confucius’ Analects?

The key sentences in the Analects are:子罕： 無意無必無固無我：Have no preconceptions, do not insist on a certain course of action, don’t be obstinate, keep your ego out of things. The other one is: 里仁：君子之於天下也無適也無莫也義之與比：There is nothing in the world you have to be for, there is nothing in the world you have to be against; the only standard is what is appropriate for the situation at hand.

These were balanced by 禮 cultural standards. You should maintain a balance between 智仁勇 thinking, feeling (kindness), and courage. In all matters, 中庸 keep a balance, don’t go off far ends, never become an extremist.

In a nutshell, that’s it. I could go on for days, but that gives you the key points.

A large group of Russian soldiers in the border area in 1939 are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a small hill

A large group of Russian soldiers in the border area in 1939 are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a small hill:

“One Finnish soldier is better than ten Russian”.

The Russian commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the hill where a gun battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, then silence.

The voice once again calls out: “One Finn is better than one hundred Russian.”

Furious, the Russian commander sends his next best 100 troops over the hill, and instantly a huge gunfight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again Silence.

The calm Finnish voice calls out again: “One Finn is better than one thousand Russians!”

The enraged Russian commander musters 1000 fighters and sends them to the other side of the hill.

Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets, and cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought…

Then silence.

Eventually, one badly wounded Russian fighter crawls back over the hill and with his dying words tells his commander:

“Don’t send any more men… it’s a trap. There’s two of them!

What gives you peace of mind?

1. Pay no attention to criticism or to authors of lies. They wouldn’t be doing it if you hadn’t created something to make them jealous.
2. When people troll you, this means that you’re important. Pretend that you’re depressed, but smile inwardly because deep inside, you know that you’re somebody significant.
3. Have a good reason to put a smile on your face. Even when you’re hungry or broke, that’s not a good reason to frown, for you never know when your help is arriving.
4. Happiness can be faked. This is probably a good thing for your health because your subconscious mind can’t tell the difference.
5. You can probably tell who your best friends are since they’ll not be easy to find. However, you can easily tell who your fake friends are since they’ll bring themselves to you.
6. It’s important to connect with as many friends as possible, but the most important way to have inner peace is to connect with yourself.
7. Whatever happens in your life, try to remain as calm as possible, despite all that’s going on around you.
8. People who can control their emotions are stronger than fortresses. Most of the problems that take away our inner peace come from reacting to situations we shouldn’t react to.
9. Don’t look for internal peace externally, where everybody is looking. To have peace, you have to look for someone who already has it. Unfortunately, most people don’t have inner peace, so you must change your focus to rely on your internal resources.
10. Despite all the noise, there’s still a central place where you can find peace. The heart is a central place where you can find almost anything that needs to be found.
11. You will never have peace watching the daily news, for it is the bad news that sells for TV stations and makes a slave to negative news. A person who watches much TV will always wake up with a headache, hangover, or depression.
12. Happiness is the secret to inner peace. Avoid people or situations that deprive you of happiness.
13. Nothing is as infectious as a good laughter, yet most people want to look depressed for no particular reason. Why don’t you lock yourself in a room and laugh even when there’s no particular reason to laugh?
14. Whatever situation you find yourself in, there’s no good reason to lose hope. Hope is like advance payment on something valuable you’re eagerly awaiting.
15. In most cases, you have innate peace inside of you, but other people come and take it away through discouragement, bad news, and idle talk because they don’t have peace in the first place and they don’t feel comfortable when you have it.
16. When people tell you something negative, the best thing to do is to remain calm. Try to assess it, and if it doesn’t make sense ignore it. The worst thing you can do is to react to it, but the best thing you can do is to avoid negative people.
17. Inner peace is more valuable than all the peace in the world, because when you have it, you can think more clearly and know how to react to situations and problems.
18. The natural inclination for humans is to dominate and control others. Know that if you’re a person given to this instinct, you’re courting misery, unhappiness, and grief, for the same people you seek to control, will turn upon you and tear you apart, the moment they realize you’re also human.
19. The number one killer for peace of mind is when you lose sleep as a result of another person “getting there” quicker than you. No two people are the same. No two people have the same abilities, and no two people think the same way. Don’t feel jealous because someone else is succeeding where you failed. Instead, be happy for them and your own success will arrive faster than you think.
20. The number two killer for peace of mind is anger. Anger is like a tornado, destroying everything in it’s wake including you and your loved ones.
21. Pay attention to what you eat. Neurochemicals in the brain that control mood, peace of mind, love, happiness, anger, and other factors, depend on the kind of food you eat, your particular environment, and the people you live with. Changing any or all of these factors, can greatly boost your inner peace that you didn’t believe existed.
22. There’s a reason why people take a break. Although worrying your head off won’t solve any problem, you might find it reasonable to find a solitary place where you can spend time alone. Enjoying solitude, meditation, and prayer, especially where there’s a body of water like the sea, river, or lake, are great ways to get away from people and all the noise, mobile phones, internet, social media, and rejuvenate your life. Find time to connect with your soul, and understand better what’s ailing you.
23. The phrase that “music heals your soul” can’t be more true. I’d say that making music your close companion is a great way to relax, whether you’re depressed or not. Music relaxes the mind and body, soothes the nerves, recovers your lost energy and focus, and immunizes you from the stresses of life.

DID YOUTUBE SABOTAGE US? WHY IM CLOSING MY 808,000 SUBSCRIBER CHANNEL

Changes going on.

Which single soldier, not a General, has had the greatest effect on a battle in history?

A Turkish artilleryman lifts a 215 kilogram shell singlehanded for loading in a cannon. Corporal Seyit (Seyit Onbasi) is famous for having carried three 215 kg shells to an artillery gun during the Allied attempt to force the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915. Born in a village of Havran, he enlisted into the army in April 1909. After serving in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 he was transferred to the forts defending the Mediterranean entrance to the Dardanelles. Following the heavy naval bombardment of the forts guarding the Narrows on March 18, 1915, the gun he was serving in the Mecidiye fort remained operational but its shell crane had been damaged. Seyit carried three 215 kg artillery shells up to the gun enabling it to continue firing on the attacking Allied fleet. One of the shells reputedly hit the British pre-dreadnought HMS Ocean, most probably contributing greatly to the repulse of the Allied naval assault.

After that Seyid was promoted to corporal and publicised as an iconic Turkish hero. He was discharged in 1918 and became a forester and later coal-miner. He took the surname Çabuk in 1934 with the passing of the Surname Law. He died of a lung disease in 1939. A statue of him carrying a shell was erected in 1992, just south of Kilitbahir Castle on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Edit: There are some skeptics who think that this story might have been invented for propaganda reasons. First of all, the Ottomans were not as sophisticated as the Allies or the USA regrading propaganda strategies. When it comes to propaganda, misinformation and psychological tactics for manipulating the masses, the Western countries are way ahead of the Turks. Secondly, the only eye witnesses were the few soldiers operating the gun. Nevertheless, according to military records, the crane of the canon was broken and the rounds fired. The battleship Ocean was hit by a cannon shell exactly at a position where it was facing this particular fort. (The picture was shot after the war, to imitate the moment.)

“What’s happening In the Middle East is Shocking…”

https://youtu.be/Nq3EVT_QKvs

What are the implications of China’s declining semiconductor imports?

Stockpiles!!!!!

Nothing else but Stockpiles

You see, when Trump imposed the Huawei Ban, China and Chinese entities were very concerned that they would be next

Thus they began stockpiling massive quantities of Chips & Semiconductor equipment

From 2020–2022 , China kept on buying Chips from the world though it’s demand thanks to the lockdown was down by almost 45%

That’s a huge chunk of chips purchased and equipment purchased between 2020–2022 when the total demand was far lesser both within China and outside China

Hence China has a Supply Glut of Chips & Semiconductor Equipment

This surplus has to be first utilized for China to begin placing orders again

Meanwhile China is also developing it’s own industry in Chips and Semiconductors

Thus the fall in imports is unlikely to be ever reversed

In all battles in history, which battle had the filthiest, dirtiest, and the harshest battlefield?

My vote goes to the battle of Passchendaele.

Imagine you’re the unlucky bastard who gets to be positioned behind the machine gun. While most of your brothers in arms have died long ago from climbing out of the trench, you remain shackled in place to provide them supporting fire, watching them each die in the process. What was once your childhood friend Richard presently sits motionless forty paces before you, in the middle of no mans land, tangled in a mess of barbed wire. The flies have largely left him alone by now.

At the same time, you get to fire endlessly at young men your age, of a different uniform, charging blindly towards you. You used to scream at the top of your lungs for them to turn back, to stop running forward. You stopped trying a few hundred kills back.

You’ve witnessed technological marvels unlike anything else you’ve ever seen before. Airplanes. Flamethrowers. Automobiles and tanks. And yet, just a few days ago, you saw your friends beat down an enemy using a primitive spike-covered club, like a caveman might.

Over the permanent ringing in your ears you gained from endless rounds fired and near misses of enemy grenades, you hear a corny, empty song of patriotism for the fourteenth time that day off of a distant gramophone. It’s words cruelly mock you anymore.

You’re covered in fine layers of semi-dried mud, thrown up in your face from a distant artillery hit. It’s the cleanest substance presently adorning your person. Your boots and wraps are wet from the blood, urine, and vomit. Some of it is your own. You can almost remember the last time you took a bath.

The cloth near your ankles has been shredded from the rats, who grow more brazen and hungry every day. The last one you saw was the size of an opossum, and took a nasty bite out of your left leg. Bartholomew, the man who helps feed bullets to your iron beast, stabbed it with his bayonet and tossed it in the pile: the sixteenth one he had killed that day alone.

Your nose has grown numb to the overwhelming odor. The winter season approaches, and everything’s become colder. All your aches and pains hurt more with the cold. Until now, things have been relatively dry, which means you have yet to drown in your own trench from the rainfall.

The sound of a shell impacting the ground crosses the land. The color of the air begins to turn a funny color again. You quietly put on your gas mask and hunch over your weapon. You first heard that this war would be over before Christmas. You then heard that this would be the war to end all wars. You now wonder if this war would ever end, or if it’d merely become the introductory section to the new era: the era of modern warfare.

Death cannot come soon enough for you.

What is wrong with Social Justice?

Well, to start with, nobody in the world actually wants social justice.

There. I said it.

Okay, lots of people sincerely believe they want social justice; the people who say they want it aren’t lying, exactly. It’s way more complicated than that, and a lot happens between “I’d like to live in a just world” and “I am going to work to make a just world happen.”

Buckle up, this answer is gonna get loooooong.

---

Let’s start here: The real world is complicated. Really, really complicated. You might think getting your scanner/printer to work with Windows is complicated, but that’s peanuts compared to socioeconomic and geopolitical reality.

And people, even smart people, handle complexity poorly.

Topical case in point: What’s happening in Israel and Gaza right now.

If you want to understand what’s happening, you need to know quite a lot of history from the 1940s on. There’s a lot of “there” there: the Israeli offer, turned down by the Arabic population; the reasons Egypt and Jordan closed their borders to the Palestinians; the history of Hamas, which is both a terrorist organization and also a government (and before that, the Muslim Brotherhood); the way Egypt has deliberately played the Gaza refugees as political pawns…it’s complicated and ugly and no side has totally clean hands, but even understanding where the balance lies requires a pretty thorough history lesson…

…and oh God that’s, like, sooooooo complicated, whyyyyyyy can’t someone just tell me who the good guys are and who the bad guys are?

That’s the thing: a lot of people want to treat actual, real-world political situations like football matches or WWF wrestling, with a clearly defined good guy and a clearly defined bad guy, so they know who they’re supposed to root for.

Even people who start out genuinely, sincerely interested in social justice can easily get bogged down.

That’s the heartbreaking thing about, you know, empathy and compassion. When you sincerely want to leave the world in better shape than you found it, you soon find yourself fighting an uphill battle. Injustice doesn’t exist because someone woke up one day and said “Hey! You know what? I think I’ll be a dick to other people today!”

Injustice exists because entrenched economic, social, and political systems with roots thousands of years deep have entrenched ways of doing things because the people atop those systems benefit from doing things that way.

Fighting against that is hard. It grinds you down. However energetic and idealistic you were when you started, it pulverizes you.

Nobody has infinite time. Nobody has infinite energy.

Which is fine, except that most people want to believe themselves to be one of the good guys, on the side of Truth and Righteousness and Justice, even when we don’t want to—or can’t!—do the work of getting there. It’s not enough to say “You know what? I’m not informed enough about this to have a reasonable opinion.” Oh, no, no, we want to take sides but we don’t want to invest the time or labor in making sure we pick the right side.

We just want to know who to blame.

Knowing who the bad guy is helps define us as the good guy. If we’re against the bad guy, that makes us good, right? Right?

So what do we do?

We develop heuristics. Cognitive shortcuts. Quick and dirty rules of thumb to simplify complex situations and help guide them toward the ‘right’ team to root for. These fast and easy heuristics, at least in theory, cut through all the tedious drek of having to learn all that history and become informed of the goals and grievances of all the players and untangle a knotty and nuanced tangle that’s been all balled up for decades.

But here’s the thing:

Heuristics are not subtle. They’re fast intuitive guidelines that substitute for actual understanding. They feel right, but that doesn’t mean they are right.

Those heuristics—“believe women,” “always side with the most historically oppressed,” whatever they are—gradually become rules, then social tribal markers, then symbols of moral purity. Heuristics become adopted by tribes as ways to tell the in-group from the out-group. If you see a hashtag like #believewomen, you can probably make a pretty good guess about the politics of the person who subscribes to it.

Before long, it actually becomes morally wrong not to obey the heuristics.

Enforcing moral purity becomes a way to feel powerful, to feel like you’re accomplishing something, in the face of the overwhelming hopelessness and despair that comes from fighting an entrenched system day after day and ending each day with nothing to show for it.

What it feels like to care about justice

Say your crusade is animal welfare, for example. You’ve fought for years and what do you have to show for it? There are even more factory farms now than when you started. Consumption of animals is up, not down.

But then let’s say Bob, your staunch and stalwart ally, your comrade in arms, reveals that he’s not a vegan…he thinks it’s okay to eat fish. And…and…and eggs. And he wears leather belts.

You can’t end factory farming, you can’t stop the senseless slaughter of animals…but hey, you can rally the troops against Bob, because he betrayed the cause! You can destroyed his reputation and cast him out! Look! Look! You accomplished something!

This is inevitably what happens in social justice circles. We end up here because:

1. People want a morality simple enough to fit in a hashtag; and
2. Any morality simple enough to fit in a hashtag cannot capture reality, and therefore is rather limited as a tool to change reality.

People tend to think of “social justice” as a left thing, but this process knows no political bounds. Those on the right do it just as often—they simply don’t call it “social justice.”

But the same things still apply: they have a way they want the world to be; changing the world requires tremendous amounts of effort and work; people don’t have limitless resources; they fall back on simple rules to tell them who the good guys and bad guys are; those eimple rules become tribal markers; before long, it becomes morally unacceptable even to question those simple rules.

We see the world not at it is but as we are. We invent narratives to describe the world, and to tell us who the good guys are, and who we should be in order to think of ourselves as good. Anyone who can co-opt those narratives can control the lines between Us and Them, the boundaries that define our tribes.

So here we are. We’re terrible at nuance, we don’t have tome to get informed, so we let the hashtag mentality do the work for us.

What are the main successful experiences of the Belt and Road Initiative in the past 10 years?

The UK colonized many nations to procure the raw materials to fuel it’s empire worldwide

They enjoyed 80% of the cream and barely gave 20% to the Colonized Nations, of which 15% was taken back vide Taxes and Protection and payment for British Troops

Chinas BRI is a modified version of the same thing UK used to do but a fairer economic sharing platform

China gets Raw materials worldwide through the BRI to fuel it’s mammoth economy and production machine

However instead of the unfair British division, China enjoys maybe 60% of the cream and ensures 40% to the BRI Nations of which maybe 20% is taken back vide Infrastructure projects, Power Projects etc

This while Britain gave only 5% of the Cream to the Colonies, China gives 20%

And while Britain paid most of the Cream to Corpulent Rajahs and Maharajahs, China spends a lot on building Schools and Roads and Bridges

Plus China also uses BRI Countries to outsource it’s low grade manufacturing

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Hence BRI is essentially a ‘You help me fuel myself and i help you grow’ mode of economics

Here are some stats from Chinas forum in 2023:-

• China sources 66% Rare Earths vide the BRI and controls the Production
• China controls between 30–45% of the Tungsten, Nickel, Copper and Mercury vide the BRI
• China sources Wheat, Soybeans, Pork, Beef and Eggs vide the BRI
• China supplies Chemicals, Machinery, Low Cost Goods, Medium Cost Goods, Textiles and Semi finished goods vide the BRI to various nations. Almost 70% of the supply of these come from China including Paper & Ink
• Chinas Energy needs from Enriched Uranium, Uranium Ore, Oil, Gas come vide the BRI at an average discount of 31% from World market prices. Thus outside of interest, China saves at least $ 70 Billion a year on market prices

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Thus Chinas BRI is definitely not a Utopian Charity

It is a business arrangement where Chinese win big time with supplies, raw materials, chance to invest their money and prevent accumulation & gain soft power

Yet the BRI nations in return get money from sales of goods plus a lot of modernization at minimum cost (China averages $ 2.19 Million per Mile against $ 17 Million for the US)

Its the best deal for BRI nations today if they want to grow

Best example is Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam which have all seen a CAGR of around 12.2% a year with the BRI over the past 10 year

26 out of 50 African Nations show a CAGR of 6% or more with BRI

Why Is Another Young American Woman Arrested And Jailed In Dubai ? A Critical Review.

Stupid American… the “ugly American”.

What would be the focal point for a possible WWIII that encompasses the major world powers, as per Ray Dalio’s warning?

Right now, there are at least 4 potential trigger points. Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, North Korea, and China. Any of these could flare up because of an accident or false narrative. WW2 had the Japanese taking a risk by attacking Pearl Harbor, but that was being fought by China much earlier than that. Vietnam was the Gulf of Tonkin false narrative by the US accusing Vietnam of attacking its destroyer. We stayed for 10 years and lost. Iraq was the infamous WMD that proved a false narrative by the US. Afghanistan was the witch hunt for Ben Laden that took 10 years and we stayed for 10 more years only to leave ignominiously. Ukraine is the invasion of Ukraine by Russia because the west continued to move east with NATO. All had reasons for the start of a conflict that potentially could have become much wider, most because of a false narrative by the US, leading one to suspect the US wanted a conflict.

Texas Beef Brisket

Ingredients

• 4 pounds beef brisket
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 1 bay leaf, crushed
• 1 (10 ounce) can beef broth

Instructions

1. Make a dry rub by combining chili powder, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, sugar, dry mustard and crushed bay leaf.
2. Season the raw brisket on both sides with the rub.
3. Place in roasting pan and roast, uncovered, for one hour at 350 degrees F.
4. Add the beef broth and enough water to make 1/2 inch liquid in roasting pan. Lower oven to 300 degrees F, cover pan tightly and continue cooking for 3 hours or until fork tender.
5. Trim the fat and slice meat thinly across the grain.

What do the mainland Chinese think of the Palestine issue?

They see as a western nation hypocrisy. Screaming human rights but doing human wrongs. The see everything wrong about US and UK unilateral decisions. They decide to plant Jewish people in the middle if Arab land to do U.S. and western shit on Arabs and Muslim nations and the Palestinians must be happy about it.

The wonder why the people who truly own this land has to give it all up and agree to live as slaves and asylum seekers in their own lands. The Palestinians are the living in the world’s biggest open prison in a land they owned. Who the fxxk gives the US and UK to give something that don’t belong to them away!

The cannot understand why the west can be so foolish to think that Palestinian must be happy and contented in such a terrible outcome for them! Surely they ought to expect incidents like what happened if the Palestinians got a chance? Why do the west not expect that?

Blind? Foolish? Do they see Palestinian as sub humans? Like their African slaves? 4/5 of a human? Imagine instead of choosing Palestinian lands it choose Wales or Burgundy or Texas, will the people in these region accept their fate lying down? I doubt so.

I think they will do what Hitler does! Why do they think Palestinians must accept this fate!

Chinese people cannot understand why the west thinks it can get away with it. That is what the Chinese thinks! I think the Chinese is pragmatic and highly intelligent. They see an unworkable solution while the West thinks it can do what they wish!

Russia Signals The Unthinkable, U.S. Warns Iran, Oil Crisis Coming

Wing Dings

Wing Dings are a Texas specialty!

Ingredients

• 1 cup beer
• 1/4 cup unsulphured dark molasses
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
• Juice of 1 medium lime
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon aniseed, toasted and ground
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 dozen chicken wings

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease a large baking pan or dish.
3. Combine everything except the wings in a large, heavy pan. Simmer them over medium heat 15 to 20 minutes, until they have reduced to a thick sauce.
4. While the sauce simmers, prepare the chicken wings.
5. With a butcher knife, remove the wing tips, then cut each wing in half at the joint.
6. Add the wings to the sauce, and stir to coat them.
7. Ladle the wings and the sauce into the baking dish.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, then stir the wings in the sauce.
9. Turn the heat up to 425 degrees F and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until the sauce glazes the wings.
10. Serve the wings hot with Ranch dressing, if desired.

US-backed Terrorism Targets Vietnam & Myanmar in Wider War on China

• Two terrorist attacks this month (June 2023) in Southeast Asia have been carried out by groups backed by the United States government and its allies for decades;
• This includes a singer murdered in Myanmar and a series of armed attacks carried out on police stations in Vietnam killing 9 including several civilians;
• British state media, the BBC, and US government-funded media platform Radio Free Asia have attempted to spin and even justify this terrorism as part of a much wider pattern promoting and defending terrorism as a means to counter China’s rise and punish nations working closely with China;
• The opposition in Myanmar has openly been backed by the US and UK for decades – fighting to reinstall Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy back into power;
• In Vietnam, the ethnic Montagnards had fought alongside US invaders in the Vietnam War, and since then have worked closely with the US through the National Endowment for Democracy toward separatism;
• Much of this context is omitted from Western state-media accounts of the terrorism;
• Both Myanmar and Vietnam’s current governments have close relations with China. Vietnam, while depicted in the Western media as “anti-China,” has worked with China to build infrastructure within its borders and access Chinese rail projects to bring their products all the way to Europe;

US Encircling of China Explained

The US claims that it is not seeking conflict with China – but a look at what the US is doing all along China’s peripheries reveals the US is already in a conflict with China and has been for decades.

The US pursues this conflict – admittedly – not out of national security concerns, but to preserve what it itself calls its “primacy” in the Indo-Pacific region.

China’s New Maglev, High Speed Rail, & What it Means for Belt & Road Partners

China has unveiled a 600kph maglev train that will eventually be used on lines connecting China’s major cities. It is part of the nation’s much larger high speed rail (HSR) network.

I discuss China’s HSR network, the foresight required to implement such an ambitious infrastructure drive, and how the West is trying to foil it both within China’s borders and beyond them as HSR lines begin moving outward as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Bully or Builder? China Finishes Vietnam’s First Metro Train

While the Western media attempts to convince the world China is “bullying” its neighbors in Asia, upon closer examination it is clear it is instead building projects with its neighbors.

This includes with Vietnam which does have a complicated relationship with Beijing – but has not let that get in the way of progress – including cooperation in building the country’s first metro train.

China’s Laos High-Speed Railway is Already Delivering

The Western media continues its attack on China depicting the nation as a global threat. However, what the West says about China and what China itself is doing are two entirely different stories.

The high-speed railway being built between Kunming, China and Bangkok, Thailand is a perfect example of how China is helping the rest of Asia rise with it. The only thing being threatened by China and Asia’s rise is the West’s unwarranted influence over the rest of the globe.

Inflection EP20: China Builds Up ASEAN, the US Bullies it…

While the Western media insists China is a threat to global peace and prosperity, an objective look at China’s role in ASEAN development versus US coercion, political sedition, and even proxy conflict reveals the true threat to both Asia and the rest of the world.

Inflection is a weekly show featuring Angelo Giuliano and Brian Berletic, discussing recent headlines and in-depth discussion of topics shaping the shift from West to East and unipolarism to multipolarism.

Inflection EP23: As China Rises, Southeast Asia Rises

The US is obsessed with containing the rise of China. But China is not rising on its own. With its rise, all of Asia is rising with it.

The notion of the globe’s center of power shifting from West to East is at the heart of Washington, Wall Street, London, and Brussel’s growing desperation and aggression toward China – the engine of Asia’s rise.

Inflection is a weekly show featuring Angelo Giuliano and Brian Berletic, discussing recent headlines and in-depth discussion of topics shaping the shift from West to East and unipolarism to multipolarism.

The US Just Did Something CRAZY!

Biblical collapse coming to the West.

REFLECTION

“My parents were married for 55 years. One morning, my mom was going downstairs to make dad breakfast, she had a heart attack and fell. My father picked her up as best he could and almost dragged her into the truck. At full speed , without respecting traffic lights, he drove her to the hospital.

When he arrived, unfortunately she was no longer with us.

During the funeral, my father did not speak; his gaze was lost. He hardly cried.

That night, his children joined him. In an atmosphere of pain and nostalgia, we remembered beautiful anecdotes and he asked my brother, a theologian, to tell him where Mom would be at that moment. My brother began to talk about life after death, and guesses as to how and where she would be.

My father listened carefully. Suddenly he asked us to take him to the cemetery.

Dad!” we replied, “it’s 11 at night, we can’t go to the cemetery right now!”

He raised his voice, and with a glazed look he said:

“Don’t argue with me, please don’t argue with the man who just lost his wife of 55 years.”

There was a moment of respectful silence, we didn’t argue anymore. We went to the cemetery, we asked the night watchman for permission. With a flashlight we reached the tomb. My father caressed her, prayed and told his children, who watched the scene moved:

“It was 55 years… you know? No one can talk about true love if they have no idea what it’s like to share life with a woman.”

He paused and wiped his face. “She and I, we were together in that crisis. I changed jobs …” he continued. “We packed up when we sold the house and moved out of town. We shared the joy of seeing our children finish their careers, we mourned the departure of loved ones side by side, we prayed together in the waiting room of some hospitals, we support each other in pain, we hug each Christmas, and we forgive our mistakes… Children, now it’s gone, and I’m happy, do you know why?

Because she left before me. She didn’t have to go through the agony and pain of burying me, of being left alone after my departure. I will be the one to go through that, and I thank God. I love her so much that I wouldn’t have liked her to suffer…”

When my father finished speaking, my brothers and I had tears streaming down our faces. We hugged him, and he comforted us, “It’s okay, we can go home, it’s been a good day.”

That night I understood what true love is; It is far from romanticism, it does not have much to do with eroticism, or with sex, rather it is linked to work, to complement, to care and, above all, to the true love that two really committed people profess “.

Peace in your hearts.

You Won’t Believe What Ugandan Women Think About Black Americans

My African sisters looking beautiful and sounding intelligent. On another note, most human beings are unique so lumping a group of people into a stereotype isn’t always advantageous.

What was the strangest piece of evidence ever shown to a judge in a courtroom?

One day, Saskatchewan farmer Cecil George Harris was out in his field when his tractor got stuck. Unfortunately, while trying to extricate it, he got trapped beneath one of the tractor’s large wheels.

He wasn’t found for nine hours, by which time he was near death even though he was still conscious. He was taken to the hospital, but he died two days later.

The question was, how should his estate be handled. He had never gone to a lawyer to prepare a will.

But while lying there, trapped and knowing he was going to die, he had the foresight to scratch something into the fender of his tractor with his penknife.

In case I die in this mess I leave all to the wife, Cecil Geo. Harris.

The fender was entered into evidence in the probate court as a holograph (handwritten) will. It was approved for probate. The fender was stored for years in the county’s courthouse and instead of going to the archives it was sent to the University of Saskatchewan Law School for safekeeping, where it now appears.

What is one thing that I can learn from you today?

Treat someone who’s never been treated well as a genuine human.

This Spring I had a few moments in New York City, and a bit of spare cash. Nothing too large that’ll make a difference, but an amount that could buy a meal at Halal Guys.

I saw a man having his head in his palms, sunken with the weight of the world around him. What most people never ever have to experience is having a social net you thought existed fall below you, and then continue falling in life without having a single moment to grasp or gain your balance. Things like this can really screw with any mental problems that may never have existed, and also create anxiety that comes with the insecurity of the most basic human support.

Out of respect, I didn’t take Jake’s photo, but he looked like this

“Hi sir, what’s your name?” I asked him. He replied Jake, and whether I had any spare change.

I told him, “How about this. Let me get you something nice to eat. You must be cold out here by yourself, right? Does that sound good to you?” One thing I remember was how a lot of homeless people never eat food given to them as they don’t know if someone tapered it or poisoned it, which is a real concern.

“Bless you, sir. That’ll be amazing, thank you.” He replied

We went to Halal Guys and I learned that he was in the military, but he fell upon some hard times. He used to work as a mechanic of sorts but lost it all in a divorce and “money mismanagement”. He didn’t have a family to really go back to so tried to find work in New York but couldn’t and ended up on the street. He told me he was planning to leave soon, and I kept on listening to what he was saying.

I think the look on his face as I got him chicken over rice was something that I rarely see in people, which is a form of gratitude you can never express unless someone lends you a hand as you fall through every social net.

I told him I had to catch a train, but he shook my hand and kept saying “God took you to me, sir. Bless you, bless you.”

Now, regardless of whether his story was true, it doesn’t really matter. I knew this man had to fight off his own demons.

There’s a word in Russian called umilinie (умиление) which roughly translates to “tenderness”. My professor once called the tenderness “melting of the heart”, and that’s what the other man felt at the moment.

I had given him one moment of peace as a human being, and that was all I cared about. When you treat someone well who usually doesn’t and give them some of your time, you’ll truly see someone’s heart melt from a moment of humanity.

Last Gasp of Western Hegemony

The US-NATO group are drowning in debt. The ability to wage war is limited by their debt. They have no military industrial capacity, just corruption. Russia and China are free of debt and have extreme advantage in any war.

Why is it so hard for China to make a fair trade deal with America?

As long as it is win win for China and for the U.S. China will sign a deal. But the U.S. cannot say you must buy what we like to sell you and you must sell everything we want at a dirt cheap prices and pay us in dollar!

The U.S. says your products cannot be spied on but we have a right to spy on each and every one of your phone!

The U.S. says when the U.S. introduce G1 to G4 you must trust us blindly but when China build G5 we must not only use your initiative but we will forced everyone else to stop using you too!

The U.S. says you must make all simple chip products and sell it to us as dirt cheap prices and we sell you cars and planes at astronomical prices and don’t you dare make these products!

To China this is wrong and unfair so it’s says go sell to one of your cronies. No thanks U.S.! China say over our dead body will we listen to you! China do what is good for China and the Chinese people. And it will always do so. If you don’t like it tough! Go bang your head against the wall!

What’s the most inaccurate thing your child has ever been taught in school?

The state of Virginia has a “Standards of Learning” end of grade testing, called SOL’s (yeah, that’s what I thought too).

Anyway, my nephew was taking the test (or a practice test that uses old questions) that asked what the Native Americans foraged for in the spring. The answer wasn’t there.

My sister happens to specialize in edible native plant of the Blue Ridge Mountains. My nephew not only knew what was growing in the spring in Virginia, but he could name them and find them in the wild.

His answer was counted wrong and the correct answer, according to the State of Virginia, was berries. My sister asked the school system to identify just one berry that ripens in Virginia in the spring. They couldn’t.

Edit: I was a CTE high school teacher for a little while (Career & Technical Education) and I certainly got things wrong. Everyone does. But I would share the correct answer, apologize if I felt it necessary, and if it was something graded, I would change the grade. I also rarely used a textbook with the exception of specific practice sessions.

As a CTE teacher, I had much more autonomy than math, science or English. They were strictly controlled. Our department was lucky but the state was slowly tightening down on our classes too.

The SOL test wasn’t graded by a teacher or even the school. It was strictly controlled by the state. Each question has to go through a review process and be approved and the grading isn’t subject to revision by the local school.

What is the general situation in China? Are majority of the Chinese people happy?

There are four things that can be regarded negative , as part of the feelings by the people of China

#1 Blaming the Lockdowns – Many Mainlanders especially in the Big 4 Cities blame the lockdowns, kind of like Indians blaming Demonetization. The impact of the Lockdowns was maybe 10% of the Impact of demonetization but China is such a rich and prosperous country now that the slightest slowdown annoys the hell out of the people

#2 Cautious to Invest – Gold & Jade Investments in China have piled up almost by 41% in the last 3 years by Individuals. That’s because Chinese Mainlanders are not having many areas of investment and it’s either Gold Or Banks. They don’t seem to trust the share market and the real estate market is in a glut. Thus China has almost $ 16-18 Trillion in Savings against $ 4.82 Trillion that the US has

Chinese Individuals thus need more Venture Capitalists and Technology Investments to invest their funds in

#3 Generation Gap – The Gen Z of China work smart rather than hard. The policies of Chinese companies still mirror those of the 2000s which focus on time rather than value of work. Rather than the TARGET ORIENTED approach, the approach is TIME ORIENTED meaning working 54 hours a week seems more important than meeting performance targets

The Gen Z feel that if they can work 35–40 hours a week and achieve the same targets , they can enjoy the remaining 14 hours a week

Huawei, Tencent, Alibaba, DJI, Baidu etc already changed their workstyles to make them flexible and based on Targets

Yet 60% of Chinese Employers still have the TIME ORIENTED mentality and pay on a PER HOUR basis

#4 Inability to understand Hostility of the West

Many Chinese are unable to understand why the West is hostile to them and why the sanctions.

This is because the CPC is too nice and doesn’t promote hate against the West in their propaganda

Luckily in this area the CPC has worked tirelessly to ensure alternate economic routes

If exports to the US fell for a Chinese company, Russian markets are a virtual monopoly for the Chinese now (Indians failed to capitalize this market in any way) plus newer markets in South America plus Middle East

Likewise if Investments from US have dried up, Germany and Russia have tripled their investments into China, making up potential deficits

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Yet the key thing about China is the TRANSPARENCY in the Country

No lies, hidden from the public, the Positive Side l

• Costs are very low, Rents, Food are at their lowest. Savings potential is at 43% , highest in the world against 7% in USA
• Rapid Development
• Excellent Education
• Very good employment despite the slowdown without creating Government Jobs like India or SL
• Rapid Technology development
• Growing Soft Power of China and Tourist related power in Thailand and other places

So Chinese are extremely content though they wouldn’t mind some reforms which the CPC is likely to implement in the coming 6–24 months

Project: STARGATE. The CIA Mars and… Time Travel.

Lots of fun in this video!

What made your “jaw drop” during a job interview?

As a new PhD , I interviewed for an entry level academic position. The afternoon prior to the interview, I flew in to a large airport, rented a car as instructed, and drove nearly 200 km out to a university in a rural setting. The next morning, a gray, dreary day, I found my own breakfast and then went to the University, let’s call it University A, to find the interviewer. His first question was, “Are you sure you can tolerate living here?” Odd question, but I could imagine the location probably could have been a problem for some candidates like me, who got his degree at an urban university. I grew up in a place that looked and felt nearly identical, so I was on board. The rest of the morning went well.

For lunch four of the professors and I piled into an older car. The senior professor was in the front passenger seat. The younger two professors and I were in the back seat. Before we start moving, the senior professor turned around, looked me in the eye, and asked, “What do you think of Professor X at University B?” I knew Professor X well. He was a mentor of mine when I was a contract teaching hire at University C several years prior. Both Professor X and this senior professor were well known experts in our field. My Mama told me to always say something nice in such situations. So I made a single sentence that Professor X was a wonderful man to have the privilege of learning from. The senior professor said nothing more the rest of my two days of interviews. Though I did not realize it at the time, the interviews were over when I made that statement. I did not get the job.

I found out later that the senior professor considered Professor X to be his mortal enemy. They had started at this same University A as entry level professors many years prior. After gaining their tenure together, Professor X left for University B while the senior professor stayed. Both became prominent in the same field. But somewhere along the line, their relationship failed. I unwittingly stepped into the crossfire. I never asked Professor X about this, considering it to no longer be important. I also found out that the position was available because the senior professor was running off a young professor that he disliked. A year later at a conference, I met the candidate who won that position. He looked like he had a big dark cloud over his head.

Soon after this interview, I interviewed at another university much farther away. The people were bright and kind. The students were excellent and enthusiastic. The location was also a long way into a scenic rural setting with many gray, dreary days. By the time my flight arrived home back East, their job offer was waiting for me. I still work there, more than three decades later.

The man who lives with the 17 tiny kittens he rescued is experiencing an explosion of happiness.

What has President Biden done to bring the US one step to the situation of World War Three? A weak president leads to war. A strong president prevents the war before it starts.

WWIII will not happen, but the United States is essentially on the road to collapse. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which was a federal system, it was the turn of the United States, which was a federal system.

As far as the current world situation is concerned, the United States will certainly support Israel without a second thought. In fact, Hamas has already achieved its goal. What happens next:

1. The EU is forced by the United States to support Israel as it supports Ukraine, but they forget that there are 50 million Muslims living in Europe.
2. The national image that Israel had previously created for itself collapsed straight away.
3. The Arab countries will further turn against the US and the West and de-dollarisation will further accelerate.
4. Further shaking up the US petrodollar system
5. Ukraine is being collectively ignored by the Western bloc, and the longer the Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues, the better for Russia.
6. The U.S. doesn’t have the time or the strength to compete with China

In short, the United States has lost so badly this time that there is no room for redemption.

If the only reason China is a threat to the West economically, why doesn’t the West, instead of building war machines to invade China, build up their own economy?

The US is broke, its strategic oil reserves are running on fumes, and it is out of ammo. Ditto for the EU, except the EU is already an economic basket case. The US seems to have this fixation that conflict creates a win for the US so it continues to fund its MIC with only window dressing for its infrastructure and economy.

What Ukraine has shown the US is that it is not invincible and that Russia is not only stronger than the US thought, but more adaptable to the changes in tactics and technology. Ukraine has been a black hole for US and EU wealth and it is no longer in a position to strongly support its domestic needs. The US keeps printing money and raising interest rates, a sure formula for the failure of the US economy.

But, your point is well taken, the US should have been doing that for the last 20 years or so and it would be in a better condition domestically, economically, geopolitically, and relations with other countries. At this point in time, the US is almost beyond repair.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Israel’s attacks in Gaza were beyond the level of self-defense. How do you see it?

Look

Israel sucks at fighting terrorists

It hasn’t resolved anything in the last 40 years

The Idiots couldn’t negotiate with the PLO and later created the Hamas and ended up making the Hamas their enemies as well

Like I said THEY SUCK AT THIS

Just like their masters the US

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They keep killing Civilians and always the Terrorists never die

They change from one form to another

So it’s time Israel starts NEGOTIATIONS and uses the Arab Nations to use their leverage with the Hamas

I firmly believe if Israel agrees to the Two State Solution, the whole world including Russia, China, India and even Iran would cooperate in fighting against the Hamas

Even the Hezbollah believe in a Two State Solution now.

Were you aware that a Chinese fighter jet intercepted a Canadian surveillance plane taking part in a UN operation to enforce sanctions against North Korea?

1. The red circle is China, the green circle is Canada 
2. The red arrow is where the “interception” occurs. 

1. The red circle is China, the blue circle is North Korea 
2. The red arrow is where the “interception” occurs. 

The Canadians said they were in “international airspace,” but the Chinese said the plane was near the Diaoyu Islands and that this airspace was China’s airspace.

I don’t want to discuss which one of them is telling the truth.

At least I’m not a fool.

Canadian planes flew from 10,000 kilometers away between mainland China and Taiwan. They said they were to monitor North Korean cargo ships, not to provoke China.

Are Canadians smoking too much marijuana?

The Chinese Navy actually let them fly back intact. This is so merciful.

By the way, the Canadians say that their “Operation Neon” is to uphold the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

But the Chinese say they have never signed such a mandate in the Security Council.

We know that the authorization of the Security Council requires the signature of the five permanent members.

What Canada means is that they are carrying out an operation authorized by China.

Canadians are so stupid.

Why The American Dream Is Dead

Clearly stated. Really crystal clear.

If the assumption is correct that airplanes are more efficient than high-speed trains over long distance, why is China building so many railways as opposed to airports relatively speaking?

Simple. It’s all in the numbers.

A Chinese hsr train is formed from 8-16 carriages, capable of carrying 500-1,300 passengers. Up to 8 trains per hour serve the busiest routes at peak times, which can average 100 services per direction per day.

That’s 260,000 carrying capacity a day, both ways, or 95 million a year, for a single route.

An airport serving the route will have to handle more than 470 Boeing 777 flights a day.

That’s 1 takeoff or landing every 3 minutes, which is obviously untenable.

China has more than 160 cities with population more than 1 million. This number is expected to grow, with Chinese urbanization at 55-60 percent, quite some distance from the 80-85 percent typical of the developed world. The density of Chinese populations make high speed rail a viable proposition.

Airplanes are not more efficient than trains. However, they make more sense for longer trips, with the average air trip being 1,400 km. Hsr trips rarely extend beyond 800 km, and make the most economic sense below 500 km.

The Chinese hsr network is built to handle huge numbers, particularly over the Chinese new year holidays, the largest human migration known to man. China does not have enough planes to handle that kind of demand.

And yes, hsr trains run on electricity, a much greener option than avgas.

Man Dumps Bride Months Before Wedding After Learning She Participated In Group Activities For YEARS

Jesus H Christ

I would like to say a few things here.

• Honesty is the foundation of a long-duration relationship
• People, however, are permitted to have secrets. It is a human need.
• When confronted with this situation, there are many ways to handle it. This man saw it as no-starter, unfortunately. I believe that the issues could have been worked out.
• There is nothing wrong with alternative lifestyles, or what-have-you, but if you are married, you lose part of yourself and join with another. For good or bad.
• Apparently everything was perfect with them, except for this one issue. Could the issue be resolved, or mitigated? I do not know.
• For men, “respect” is the biggest and most important aspect of a relationship. Not sex. So I see this as a sequence of lies on the gals part because she showed him no respect.
• Like I said, I would have done things differently, now as an older man. But when I was younger, maybe not…
• All in all, the most disturbing thing about this video is NOT that she was having group orgies for the entire time they were living together and him being clueless. It is that she hid that part of her life from him, and told her rotating partners, that he was just fine with it. These lies are what broke up the relationship.

People! Accept who you are. Good and bad. Say things as they are and let the world howl. This goes for both the guy as well as the girl.

The girl, obviously was ready to settle down; get married, have kids and a stable family life. But that is not going to happen if she wanted to continue a free-wheeling 20’s single lifestyle. She wanted what she was clearly not ready for. Sigh.

What is the most savage revenge you’ve seen a renter get on a sleazy landlord?

I rented a caretaker apartment that was attached to a horse stable. The owners were an elderly couple who lived in a house behind the barn. The owners were fantastic people and I got along with them splendidly.

One day they advised me they were selling the property. A few weeks later after the property sold I met the new owners. I immediately did not get a good feeling about the owners. Within the 1st month I started noticing things in the apartment were not where I had placed on. I confronted the new owners who denied going into the apartment. One day, I left for work and did the old tape on the door trick. When I came home sure enough the tape was broken. I again confronted the owner who stated somebody else must have gone into the apartment. I also had some property in the barn that suddenly turned up missing. I asked the new owners about the property and they denied taking it. I ended up finding the missing property in one of their storage sheds hidden underneath some tarps.

I had been dating my girlfriend for several years and at that point we decided to move in together at her place. The caretaker apartment was rather old and the door locks used old style keys that you could not have duplicated at your local hardware store.

I immediately moved out and took the keys with me. I got a call from the owner demanding that I return the apartment key. I advised him I didn’t have the key and told him I left it on the kitchen counter. The owner started yelling that if I didn’t return the key he would sue me for theft and the cost of putting new locks on the doors. I chuckled and said that “Someone must have gone in and stolen the key off the counter. Maybe it’s the same person who stole my property that I found under the tarp in the storage shed.” There was silence and then the phone hung up. I never heard from him again.

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