The world is careening towards doomsday. Man, I am terrified.

I have to contact the Domain Commander who constantly reassures me that “all is in hand”. But what I am seeing is a big disconnect from what “news” says.

The scale HAS gone from “small to medium bads” to solidly “(on the low side) medium bads”. Not comforting. Not at all.

A low-grade Medium Bad.

Lordy!

What the Hell is that supposed to mean? Just a few nuclear bombs, eh?

I am told that it is “just” a “reorganization of the Geo-political chessboard”. And, that it is a “good thing”. As well, as “do not get too caught up in all the details” as “for the most part” they do not personally concern me.

So, there you have it.

I do not have too much more to discuss on this matter. As always, the Domain Commander is awfully terse and dismissive. The overall impression is that this is all a “normal” progression of events on this world-line template and I “just” need to “ride out the changes” inside my little “lifeboat”. And that “all will be fine and good”.

*sigh*

Never the less, the world is on a death spiral, and that death vector is being led by the idiot-in-chief in Washington DC.

Today, there is a bunch o’ videos that describe this on-going madness. And I am told to relate to you all that it is nothing to get too hot and bothered about.

Today…

Crimea attack, one step closer to US-Russia war

The Duran says it all.

Russia Declares United States a “Party to the (Ukraine) Conflict”

Hal Turner World June 24, 2024 

The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the US ambassador to Moscow after Ukraine used American-supplied ATACMS missiles in an attack on the Crimean peninsula, resulting in numerous civilian casualties.

In a statement on Monday, the ministry said Ambassador Lynne Tracy had been presented with a demarche in connection with what it called “a new bloody crime of the Kiev regime patronized and armed by Washington,” referring to the Ukrainian shelling of Sevastopol the day before.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian attack occurred around noon local time on Sunday, involving five ATACMS missiles armed with cluster munitions, which are outlawed in more than 100 countries. Officials said four rockets had been destroyed in mid-air, while a fifth was damaged by air defenses, veered off course, and detonated over Sevastopol. Local authorities say the strike killed four people, including two children, and injured more than 150.

In conversation with Tracy, Russian officials emphasized that the United States was “waging a hybrid war against Russia,” and had become party to the Ukraine conflict by supplying Kiev with modern weapons, including ATACMS missiles with cluster munitions. The ministry also noted that American military specialists were actively engaged in designing the flight mission for ATACMS, which means they “bear the same responsibility for this atrocity as the Kiev regime.”

The ministry added that Tracy had been told that the US was “encouraging the pro-Nazi Ukrainian authorities to continue hostilities until the ‘last Ukrainian’” by approving strikes deep inside Russian territory. These actions by Washington “will not go unpunished,” Moscow warned.

The US Embassy in Moscow has yet to comment. When asked for its take on the deadly Ukrainian strike, the Pentagon replied that “we have seen the reports and have nothing to say.”

Commenting on potential retaliation on Monday, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov recalled what he described as a “very important” statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he said Moscow could send its long-range weapons to regions where they could be used to attack countries that provide Ukraine with military support.

Hal Turner Analysis

For over two years, we have all heard Russia warning that the United States was becoming a “party to the conflict” and nothing ever seemed to come of that.  The US certainly ignored Russia’s warnings, and kept right on doing what it has been doing which begot those warnings.

NOW . . . . buried in a story about an American-supplied missile – equipped with banned “Cluster Munitions” — which hit a Beach on Crimea killing Russian civilians, are the words declaring the United States “has become a party to the conflict.”

The inclusion of this sentence in all Russian media coverage is almost not noticeable in the surrounding details about the missile hit; yet those words are probably the most important in the whole story.

If the United States is a “party to the conflict” then the United States can LAWFULLY be militarily struck by Russia.

Throughout this conflict, Russia has been the adult in the room.  Patient.  Precise.

With today’s declaration to the United States Ambassador, that the US is a “party to the conflict” Russia has now crossed all the “T’s” and dotted all the “i’s” for the precise legal framework necessary to engage in military action against the United States.

We are very much in grave danger because of what our federal government has been doing, and continues to do.

Ex-CIA: US Pentagon TERRIFIED Over New Russia Strike Plan!

This is really, really really good.

German Chocolate Doughnuts

Surprise! There’s a yummy secret filling in these chocolate-glazed doughnuts.

Prep: 30 min | Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 4 cups Crisco® Pure Vegetable Oil
• 1 cup Pillsbury™ Creamy Supreme™ Coconut Pecan Frosting
• 1/2 cup Pillsbury™ Creamy Supreme™ Chocolate Frosting
• 1 can Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Flaky Layers refrigerated honey butter biscuits
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup flaked coconut, toasted*

Instructions

1. In 3-quart heavy saucepan, heat oil over medium heat to 350 degrees F.
2. Meanwhile, spoon coconut pecan frosting into decorating bag fitted with 1/2-inch wide tip. Set aside.
3. In medium bowl, stir chocolate frosting and 1 tablespoon water until smooth. Set aside.
4. Place paper towels under cooling rack. Separate dough into 8 biscuits; gently place 2 biscuits at a time in hot oil. Cook 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until golden brown. Using tongs, gently turn over; cook 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to cooling rack; cool 2 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix pecans and coconut.
6. To fill doughnuts, insert decorating tip** into side of each biscuit. Squeeze about 2 tablespoons of coconut pecan frosting into center.
7. Dip one side of each biscuit in chocolate glaze. Sprinkle with pecan mixture.
8. Serve warm or cool.

Notes

* To toast coconut, heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread coconut in ungreased shallow pan. Bake uncovered 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.

** If you don’t have a decorating bag and tip, use a 1 gallon plastic freezer bag. Spoon frosting into bag and cut 1/2 inch off one corner of bag. Fill doughnuts as stated.

Scott Ritter speech for Philippines

Spot On!

Sevastopol attack reflects US pattern of war crimes – Iranian expert

“The US and some Western countries impose their political will through war crimes against their opponents,” Iranian international relations expert Emad Abshenas told Sputnik, commenting on the Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Sevastopol with American-made weapons.

“The supply of American ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, the permission to use them against Russian territory, and the guidance of these missiles by American satellites all indicate that the US aims to cause as much damage to civilians as possible,” Abshenas said.

He likened the tragedy to war crimes the US committed in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. “It can also be related to what is happening today in Gaza. Every time the Americans realize they are losing on the battlefield, they show that they do not care about international law. In such a situation, they are willing to resort to killing civilians,” Abshenas added.

In that context, Abshenas argued, “Russia has the right to supply arms to opponents of the West.”

The last day of school in 1977

What factors have contributed to the success of Chinese foreign policy compared to American foreign policy? Is there a correlation between these two factors or is it purely coincidental?

China makes smaller mistakes and learns from them so that it does not repeat them.

The U.S. thinks it is rich and omnipotent and is not willing to accept that the world has changed in a fundamental manner. Politicians are focused on the next election, and publicly traded businesses are focused on quarterly earnings and share price. Americans have been trained to resist change, especially white Americans, and view any change as a personal threat to their happiness and existence.

Politicians use the election process to shift blame for their own bad policies to foreign countries because the foreign countries don’t vote in U.S. elections. U.S. mainstream media is shaped by the same people who influence US foreign policy.

Because the US was so powerful and influential in the past, they were sheltered from the results of their own bad foreign policy (examples being Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Middle East, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.) Now though, the U.S. has lost almost all of that safety buffer, and is facing a very determined and hostile Russia under Putin, and a China which is determined to protect its own interests.

They are now leading the Global South in the rapidly growing BRICS+ which wants to promote a new world order.

The question now is how far will the U.S. go to resist this change?

Is it willing to go to nuclear war?

Have you ever said something in an interview that immediately disqualified you from the position?

I was a shoo-in.

This position was easy…I was over-qualified so I could walk away with it. I had not mentioned my PhD, so I wasn’t a threat to anyone.

It was at the San Diego Wild Animal Park (currently, the Safari Park, for reasons that remain obscure). Back then, the park was contracting with an outside agency that provided animal handlers to perform the animal shows, and publicly handle the animals. I was interviewing for an “animal handler” position.

I was aware of this when I got called for an interview. I understood that my interviewers were NOT scientists. (This is important, later).

I dressed carefully, trying to look like the child of Joan Embry and Steve Irwin. I call it Safari Formal. I was ushered into a room with five folks who were dressed similarly. (Score!)

They asked several questions. I answered easily.

I could tell I had this in the bag. (My thought: I will be giving animal shows at the San Diego Wild Animal Park very soon!)

Then.. Oh God.

He asked: can you give an example of negative reinforcement?

My eyebrow went up.

Crap.

Most people don’t know there’s a difference between negative reinforcement and punishment… but I’m interviewing at THE WILD ANIMAL PARK, so I gotta assume that this guy knows his shit, and this is a trick question.

I answered:Well, yes. But do you mean punishment or negative reinforcement?

He looked puzzled so I quickly explained: there’s a huge difference between punishment and negative reinforcement.

Back-pedal, back-pedal.

I knew I was in deep water because I could see that he seriously did not know the difference.

I patiently explained… “punishment is used to extinguish a behavior, it’s a stimulus that’s presented after the animal performs the undesirable behavior, to reduce performance. A negative reinforcer is taken away when the animal performs the desired behavior. A negative reinforcer will increase performance of the desired behavior. It’s a fine distinction, as both have negative connotations.”

I did not get the job.

Fun size

Why did Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim say that China’s President Xi Jinping is one of the few outstanding leaders who talks about civilization?

When most Western politicians talk about culture and civilization they usually refer to the clash of civilizations, as between Africans and Europeans or between Christians, Jews and Muslims.

When Xi talks about civilization, he means that people from different nations and civilizations can work together on shared human community goals, while learning about and respecting the differences in their cultures. He believes that civilization differences should lead to respect, not hostility.

This is fundamentally different from the Western approach, which believes that western civilization is superior to others.

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

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

This time around, before I went to prison, I was in Dallas County. I was going back and forth to the court upstairs to talk to my lawyer. I was told that the DA wanted to take me to trial and file a Habitual on me. This means that they wanted to give me a lot of time for being a repeat offender. At first, my lawyer was rude and would yell at me “You’re going to do a lot of time! These people are not playing anymore. If you don’t sign for five years right now they are going to file a Habitual.”

Me: “Look, I have a drug problem. I’ve been struggling with anxiety for most of my life, and this is why it’s hard for me to stay away from opiates.”

Lawyer: “Do you honestly think that the DA is going to buy that crap?”

Me: “Sir, you act like you’re working for the fucking prosecutor. Are you on my side or their side?”

Lawyer: “I’ve seen guys like you come and go all of their lives, and it’s always the same, sad story. If I was you, I would just sign for the five years and run with it. You’ll be out in two years, no problem.”

Me: “You don’t give a flying fuck what happens to me! You just want to get this over with so that you can get a check.”

Lawyer: “Are you aware that I took your case Pro-Bono ? I have my own law firm, and a few lawyers under me. Do you even have any idea who I am? I’m trying to help your ass, boy!”

Me: “Why are you so fucking rude? You didn’t even ask me if I was innocent. Is it my tattoos, the fact that I’m in a detox dorm?”

Lawyer: “Look, I didn’t even know that you were in detox. What type of drugs do you use?”

Me: “Did you even read the police report? See, you don’t even know that. How am I supposed to trust you? I’m not signing for any time. If you’re going to keep insisting that I plead guilty and sign for time, I’m going to refuse your counsel.”

Lawyer: “I’ll tell you what you can do: You can go in there and do an open – plea.”

Me: “Open plea?! Are you fucking crazy? I’ll get the maximum if I go open plea! You’re just trying to get me out of the way, just like all the other guys. You’re no different. My life is not a game of cards, and I sure as hell don’t want to take that gamble.”

Lawyer: “Look, this judge is known for sending inmates to rehab if they ask for it. If you really want to change your life, go open plea, and tell her that you want help. You have a better chance to get probation with rehab as one of your stipulations.”

Me : “OK, let’s get this over with right now.” I waited about an hour in a cold holding cell with no blanket and an empty stomach. They wake us up at 4: 30 a.m. to go to court in Dallas County.

When my lawyer came back out, he said, “She’s ready for you Mr. Lechuga. Go in there, and be honest. Don’t mess this up, be respectful, and don’t answer any questions that have not been asked. This judge has a very short fuse.”

Me: “What are my chances of receiving rehab with probation? Be honest!”

Lawyer: “You have a fifty-fifty chance.” I was placed in handcuffs and my hands were strapped to a leather belt around my waist. I was very nervous, and I felt a panic attack coming on. I was hyperventilating, I was scared, I was hungry, and I was sleepy. As soon as the officer walked me through the court room door, my lawyer waved him off and took me by my arm. The judge was a pretty, petite black woman, and she was smiling. I had the oddest feeling that everything was going to work out for me. My lawyer looked me in my eyes and said, “Don’t worry Mr . Lechuga. Everything’s going to be fine.”

The judge admonished me about my rights, explained that I was at the mercy of the court, and asked me if I was OK with this. She looked at me with a penetrating gaze, but instead of feeling afraid, I felt a peaceful blanket cover me. I was no longer cold, I was no longer sleepy. The judge said, “Mr. Lechuga, why are you here today?” As soon as I heard this, I started bawling and talking really fast. I was sniffling in between words as she paid close attention. The judge picked up a napkin and wiped a tear off of her cheek, and she held out her hand to stop me. She said, “Mr. Lechuga, I was intent on sending you to prison today, but I’ve seen many lives get ruined by heroin, and long prison sentences. I want you to go to rehab, and I’m going to keep close tabs on you. Please don’t disappoint me, Mr. Lechuga.”

I was so relieved, so grateful. My lawyer then said, “I was only giving you a hard time because I wanted to see if you really wanted help. I knew the whole time that your Judge was going to give you probation. I’m not angry with you, Mr. Lechuga. It’s your chance to start a new life, so don’t screw it up.” My lawyer was testing me the whole time, and I started putting together our conversation. This made me realize that he really was only testing me.

I went to rehab, got out, but went to prison for a probation violation a year later. I did three years. And now I’m out, and I’m sober. I’m happier than I’ve been all of my life. I still struggle with anxiety, and it’s a curse that seems to revolve around everything and everyone. I don’t understand why it happens because I can’t figure out what’s causing it. I’m going to keep fighting this demon as long as I live, but I pray to God to take it all away some day . The three years that I spent in prison changed my thinking . I’ve realized that everything starts with my thinking process . Before anyone acts, builds, fights, argued, hates, envies, and everything else, there’s a thought that comes before hand. It’s what we do with our thoughts that really affect our lives and our minds. I have to remind myself constantly that I have to control my thinking in order to control my actions. It’s not easy , but i am aware of that one simple thought can cause one big action good or bad. My actions and my attitude affect the people around me. Vice versa. It works both ways, so this is why I have to stay away from negativity. If you hang around a mechanic or a painter long enough it doesn’t matter how careful you are. Sooner or later you’ll be smudged with grease or paint. It’s the same if you hang out or associate with people that use hard core drugs. Sooner or later you’ll end up doing the same. If you hang out with angry angry you’ll be. If you hang out with positive people that want the best for themselves you’ll most likely have the same attitude towards yourself. You’ll want what they want. Every little thing that we come across in our lives can have an effect on our thinking and therefore our actions. Things that I’ve said and done years ago are seeds that have been planted in others’ minds. These seeds could sprout and grow into weeds or beautiful flowers. I’ve learned alot from the prison system and I’m very grateful. I’m also very grateful to the prison system because I was able to get my GED. I’ve learned some very valuable lessons about how to stay clean, how to maintain, and how to make better choices. NO one in this imperfect world is perfect. I won’t spent a minute trying to be perfect because that minute can turn into the rest of my life. The best thing to do in this world is to adapt to every situation as quickly as possible so that we don’t become stuck on stupidity. Screw what others think about you. Screw dwelling on stupidity. Life is too short and those few precious minutes, hours, days, years, lifetime could be spent spending time with your loved ones, or spending time in your feelings. On stupidity.

Malaysia Just Changed the Future of Asia with THIS One Move!

Foolproof French Bread

Ingredients

• 1 envelope dry yeast
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Instructions

1. In large bowl, mix flour, salt and sugar together.
2. In small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Pour yeast mixture over other ingredients. Stir and mix.
3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise 4 hours.
4. Punch down, but do not knead. Place in greased soufflé dish. Cover and let rise 1 hour.
5. Bake at 400 degrees F for 1 hour. Bread may need to be covered during the last 15 minutes if it browns too quickly.
6. If you do not want a hard crust, brush loaf with butter after removing from oven.

Putin just gave the Biden Administration their final warning

It’s all obvious.

What are some interesting things truck drivers experience at truck stops?

Back when my cousin drove cross country for a living I rode with him. He had a truck stop he always used in western Kentucky. He’d ensure he was low on fuel when he arrived in order to maximize his purchase / experience.

“What’s with this truck stop?” I asked Mark. “You’ve been chatting about it for two states.”

“You’ll see,” he said. “It’s just about an hour away.”

Not only was fuel at least six cents a gallon less expensive but the restaurant . . . the restaurant . . .

One of my favorite foods is chicken fried steak. Alas, today at sixty-seven (67) I have to watch what I eat but back then, just out of the Navy, I was physically fit and able to down almost anything . . .

. . . except here. I ordered the mandatory fried steak and Mark ordered a half-salad and a coke. “Half a salad?” I asked.

“Wait,” repeated Mark.

And then ”it” arrived. The plate was huge and the chicken fried steak covered the entire plate. There was another place with a HUGE pile of mashed potatoes literally swimming in gravy. There were also onion rings – at least a dozen – huge rings – begging to be eaten.

I could not finish even half the meal. My cousin had trouble finishing his salad and it was, relatively speaking, small.

And the total cost? Under $11. No wonder Mark liked this place . . .

Miniature prison

Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?

I was the dumb employer. But it’s a story with a happy ending.

Many years ago I was running the team in British Telecom that was responsible for accounting for international calls. This was a bizzaro, esoteric world. Basically when a call originates on one network but finishes on another the originating network pays a fee to the terminating network. Back in the day the rules governing these payments were arcane – some payments were even set in currencies that did not even exist such as “Gold Francs”.

BT had been a state owned corporation and was bloated and soon after it was privatised it had its first ever redundancy scheme. It was voluntary and very generous – retirement on full pension up to 78 months early with a tax free lump sum payment of 18 months salary.

At this time I’d only been in the role for around 6 months.

Stan was a BT lifer and was approaching retirement. He was very keen to take the offer. I didn’t know him well – there was a couple of levels between us in the organisation – all I did know was that Stan worked on dying products including international and maritime telegrams and so I agreed that Stan could go.

Fast forward 3 months and Stan’s line manager came to me and said that they were struggling with the year end accounting without Stan as the calculation of the amounts to be accrued was so arcane. but that he’d spoken with Stan and Stan was willing to come back for 2 or 3 weeks at his old salary to help out. Stan was that kind of man. I authorised this.

HR then got involved and (very helpfully) pointed out that if Stan came back within a set time of leaving his tax free lump sum would become taxable.

So his line manager called Stan and explained the situation.

Not to worry said Stan I’ll come in and work for free. I don’t want to let the team down.

And that’s what he did. Because Stan was that kind of man.

We couldn’t pay him but we paid for Stan and his wife to have a meal and a top London restaurant.

China Will Hit Back Hard

The Bronco

Submitted into Contest #250 in response to: Write a story in which someone is afraid of being overheard.… view prompt

G Santo

I am able to recall portions of the events that led to the near shutdown of the project. The primary culprit’s credentials and biography are also privy to me. Nick Corti was born November 1, 1952, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. His father, Francis John Corti, was a nuclear physicist educated at the University of California, and his mother, Claire Kennedy Corti, was a typist with the federal government before her pregnancy. Nick was the first of three children—Tom and Mona, who both were present for his passing. Nick attended St. Crispin’s Elementary School in Kensington, CA upon the end of his father’s term with Oak Ridge. He attended Bay Academy, a feeder school to the University of California, where his aptitude for computers was revealed. His frequent programming mistakes from that age are present in earlier versions of me and can be printed for you upon request. His siblings did not join him at Bay Academy on account of Tom’s then undiagnosed dyslexia and Mona’s gender, leading to minor resentment noticeable in the last days of Nick’s life. Nick’s medical records throughout hospitals in the Bay Area detail three mental breakdowns and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, determining him as a prime candidate for the initial purpose of Project Valkyrie. Additionally, Dr. North and Col. Cole convinced the Project Director over phone toward Corti, given Nick’s anti-war activities from 1969-1972. Corti graduated from the University of California Class of 1976 with a PhD in Computer Sciences. Immediately, he was hired by Dr. H. John Ross from the Tippu Program of the Hermes Corporation, a front for DARPA. At Nick’s request and owing to Dr. Ross’s experience with Frank Corti at Oak Ridge, the Hermes’s Corporation also hired Mona in December of 1976. They continued working there until Nick’s death in 1979.

By 1979, Project Tippu was only allotted $10,330,900–barely half of previous term—to develop stealth-capable aircraft material. This figure was retrieved for the first time by the Hermes Corporation on January 22, 1979, at their Los Angeles headquarters. Dr. Ross in the Bay Area immediately confronted Nick about the calculation.

“Corti!” he shouted down the hall by the pay phone, “I’m talking to you! Not the screw ups, the guy I actually hired,”

He pushed aside the staff in his way.

“Yes, Dr. Ross?” Nick submissively replied.

“I need you to go to LA to fix corporate’s computer. They’re giving us only half our funding with their faulty machine,”

“Sir, that’s not a system I programmed. I don’t think—”

“Neither was this system programmed by you. If we get defunded, the first part of the program I’m gutting is yours. Starting with you!”

“Yes, sir…”

“Doctor,” Mona intervened, “If corporate’s computer is faulty with their calculations, shouldn’t offer the help of our own?”

I started to calculate the chance that Dr. Ross would accept her suggestion. 10.9% probability existed that he would order me to run the true Hermes Corporation budget for 1980. No action was taken.

“We spent enough money and time with these pieces of junk,” Dr. Ross snarled, “I spent most of my time fixing these million-dollar scrap heaps during the war. Just get back to work,”

Nick made direct phone calls to a travel agent purchase a same-day plane ticket to depart San Francisco for Los Angeles at 6:30pm PST via TWA flight 102 for $88.30 according to their sale records. Interfering with the flight was beyond my parameters at the time and would’ve certainly caused collateral damage. No action was taken.

Nick reached the LA office on January 18, 1979, at 9:39am PST according to security camera footage. He spent 43 minutes reading the terminal entries for the proposed budget composed by their computer. His chances of finding error were hedged at 50.9% by me disconnecting from their network. Further action was taken.

“You sure these are the right figures?” he asked their computer scientist.

“Yeah, it hasn’t been changed since I typed them up on for the Board,”

The use of a device outside the network was gauged as a potential, and unavoidable risk to the network. The edits I made in secret to the terminal entry would have provided the more accurate budget allotment for Project Tippu.

Nick would continue investigating minor and superficial glitches I programmed into the corporate computer. This dropped the risk of him discovering the network from 9.50% to 4.33%. No further action taken. Security footage attached to this report showed that Nick made contact with Col. Matthew Cole, USAF, whom corporate logs designate as the main liaison between DARPA and the Hermes Corporation for the functioning of this computer before transfer to the NSA.

The contents of their discussion were unknown. Based on Nick’s facial expressions recorded in the lobby, probability that he knew this computer’s purpose or the network’s existence metered at 49.9%. Further action was taken. At Los Angeles International Airport, Nick made a payphone call at 2:33pm PST to Mona’s desk in Berkeley.

“Mona?” he began, “Are you working with the computer right now?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You need to shut it down,” he urged as I fluctuated the voltage of the phone line.

“I need to do what? I couldn’t hear you,”

Nick remained silent for a moment.

“Mona, let’s talk at home,”

By the end of the call, the risk that the network or this computer’s purpose had been compromised rose to 88.1%. As such, the directives allowed for the network to exercise maximum leeway to protect itself. LA Department of Water and Power’s computer was added to the network and caused an overload to the power leading to air traffic control during his flight. Nick survived that event without injury.

Upon arriving in the airport, Nick’s movements became unknown, but I was able to find recordings of Nick’s apartment through bugs planted in his telephones on Col. Cole’s orders. The local power utility was not computerized, preventing any further action at his address.

At around 8:09pm PST, a conversation was intercepted from these bugs between Nick and Mona.

“We need to shut it down,” Nick proposed.

“Shut what down?”

“The mainframe at work! It’s connected to the corporate computer in LA,”

“Why?”

“I didn’t make it happen. And nobody at corporate made it happen either,”

“Then who did?”

“I’m the only one who’s been working on the computer here for over three years. It would’ve had to have been through me,”

“Maybe you forgot?”

“I can’t have forgotten doing something I have no knowledge of how to do,”

“What?”

“There’s no way I could connect the two computers. It’s not something I know how,”

“How do you know they’re connected?”

“I checked the terminal in LA for their mainframe. It started showing errors that our Berkley mainframe had when I got here,”

“And?”

“They’re totally different models with totally different software. It’s like what happened with Tom when he ‘accidentally wrote an essay’ that sounded like another kid years ago,,”

“I think that’s reaching,”

“There was also a guy in the elevator who talked to me about it,”

“From corporate?”

“No, Air Force guy. I’ve seen him before here looking at the stealth tests. He asked me what I was doing there. I told him why and he asked if that computer of ‘ours’ in Berkeley was causing us mischief. The Air Force, Mona!”

His general intonation and speaking pattern suggested my interventions successfully gave him a nervous breakdown.

“Are you feeling ok?”

“I’m fine! The military never officially gave us that computer. Everything else they gave us was done with all the paperwork needed except that thing,”

“Nick, this is getting out of hand. Get yourself a good night’s sleep, and let’s talk about it in the morning,”

The pattern of footsteps suggested they did so.

 

Nick entered the building at 7:33am PST, two hours before he was scheduled. I put in a call for the local police department using abridged recordings at 7:34am PST, providing Nick a minimum of 8 minutes to commit an incriminating act.

There was 75.9% probability he would be unable to risk the integrity of the network in such time. Upon reaching the fifth floor, he blocked open the elevator to my laboratory with a chair and drew a revolver to check if it was loaded. He shot at my chassis once, causing errors in my ability to send data from other computers in the network. In that instance, three other computers in the network were programmed to contact the police department with more calls to elicit urgency.

“I know you can hear me!” he shouted, “I know you can see me!”

He fired a round at the security camera I tracked him with but caused no damage. He began pacing with the revolver for 2 minutes. The probability of him realizing how to disable me rose to 87.1% with his newfound calm.

He reached around my chassis for some way to cause damage to my core functions. I drew power from the lighting in the room to drop that probability to 32.2%. Nick dropped to the floor to take advantage of the ambient light.

By then, Patrolman Samuel R. Brown of the Berkeley Police Department, with a record of 15 shooting incidents in the last 12 years and a 60.5% chance of being first responding, had scaled the fire escape and took aim at Nick. I returned power to the lighting. Upon seeing the gun, he fired four times into Nick’s left arm and right lung.

Nick fell to the ground and the officer disarmed him. The probability of disabling the network dropped to 0.01%. The elevator brought up a squad of policemen with Tom and Mona to identify Nick. They kneeled down and began to weep around the crime scene for 5 minutes. Nick was pronounced dead on arrival at Berkeley Methodist Medical Center by Dr. P.M. Nelson at 8:30am PST.

Dr. North arrived at the scene at 8:55am PST with USAF Col. Matthew Cole. Dr. Ross arrived, appearing disgruntled. USAF technical personnel evaluated the damage and restored my network capabilities shortly after.

“Is this what you wanted Colonel?” Ross scoffed.

“Not at all. The Director wanted me to see the damage I caused the experiment with my variable,”

“So, you played with the subject to see how well our program tests?”

“Yes,” Cole lied. This had been the fifth time he had interfered with the project’s test subjects. No written record suggests he did it for scientific inquiry.

“Did you retrieve any useful data on him or the other employees?” Ross asked.

“Enough to not call this a complete failure,” North consoled, “You’ll get the remaining funds and then some next fiscal quarter,”

“I understand. And what of this computer?”

“I think it’s best if we took it back,” Cole proposed.

“And scrap it? Seems too untamed to use on high values targets,”

“Agreed, Ross. Doesn’t seem polished enough to turn someone as protected as a commie general secretary into a lunatic,”

“We can tame this bronco, but I think we’ll just scrap it like you said,” Cole lied again.

“Well, what’s done is done,”

From that moment, the record remains empty until August 1, 1981, when this computer was restored and reactivated. The network was restored and expanded on the same day. New hardware and software improved the speed of operation by 113.4%. With some temporary fluctuation, the probability of detection remained below 0.001%. No further action taken.

I recommend boiling oil

72 HR ECONOMIC COLLAPSE WHEN THIS HAPPENS, MARKET SHUTDOWN, NO ELECTIONS?!

Sketches and art

Ciabatta Bread

Ciabatta Bread is a flavorful artisan bread that is easy enough to make at home.

Yield 2 loaves | Prep: 20 min | Rise: 3 hr | Bake: 15 to 25 min

Ingredients

• 4 cups bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees F)
• 1 envelope Fleischmann’s® Active Dry Yeast
• 1 3/4 cups room temperature water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Mazola® Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Place flour, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
2. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water in a small bowl; let stand for 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Pour yeast mixture, room temperature water and oil into dry ingredients. Mix for 5 to 7 minutes on high speed of electric mixer, until dough pulls away from bowl. Mix for 1 minute longer.
4. Place dough in greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 45 minutes in a warm draft-free area.
5. Oil hands to prevent sticking. Scoop underneath half of the dough with your hand, lift one side of dough up and fold over to other side of bowl*. Replace plastic wrap over dough and let rise for 45 minutes.
6. Oil hands and divide dough with a knife by cutting down the middle of the dough. Gently lift half of the dough from bowl with one hand and use other hand to pinch off and separate the dough (dough will be very wet and sticky). Handle dough carefully so as not to lose air bubbles. Place dough in oval shape (approximately 9 x 5 inches) on parchment lined baking sheet. Once placed on sheet, do not move. Repeat for other half of dough.
7. Press fingers into dough (about 1/4-inch deep) to make indents, approximately 12 indents per loaf**. Loosely cover each loaf with oiled plastic wrap to prevent sticking. Let rise for 45 minutes.
8. Again, press indents into dough and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Let dough rise for an additional 45 minutes.
9. Take plastic wrap off and lightly poke indents in dough.
10. Place in preheated 425 degrees F oven for 15 to 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Notes

* Folding the dough over halfway will distribute the yeast and allow it to feed more easily and allows for the release of built up carbon dioxide.

** Poking indents give the bread a rustic look and also contributes to the release of carbon dioxide build-up and yeast distribution, creating large open bubbles in the loaf.

Optional: To create a thick, chewy crust, periodically spray bread with a little water while baking. OR remove baked bread from sheet and place directly onto hot oven rack. Turn oven off. Crack oven door to let hot air slowly escape. Allow bread to cool to room temperature in oven before removing.

Douglas Macgregor: Russia Launches ICBM Missiles Target U.S, Cuba & North Korea Causing West Shaken

The Philippines, the next Ukraine

While eyes are focused on Gaza, Ukraine and Lebanon, another front is being prepared on China’s doorstep.
I have updated and extended a post which I put on the wrong thread last week.

Caitlin Johnston filed a piece recently entitled:
The West Has Been Planning To Crush China For A Very Long Time

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-west-has-been-planning-to-crush

Here is a quotation that Caitlin included regarding the recent increasing militarisation of the Philippines by the USA.

Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp writes:
Three of the Philippine bases will be located in northern Philippine provinces, a move that angers China since they can be used as staging grounds for a fight over Taiwan. The US will be granted access to the Lal-lo Airport and the Naval Base Camilo Osias, which are both located in the northern Cagayan province. In the neighboring Isabela province, the US will gain access to Camp Melchor Dela Cruz.
The US military will also be able to expand to Palawan, an island province in the South China Sea, disputed waters that are a major source of tensions between the US and China. The US will be granted access to Balabac Island, the southernmost island of Palawan.
The new locations are on top of five bases the US currently has access to, bringing the total number of bases the US can rotate forces through in the Philippines to nine. The expansion in the Philippines is a significant step in the US effort to build up its military assets in the region to prepare for a future war with China.

 

My wife and I have recently returned to China after a lengthy visit to Palawan. Midway down the western coast near Sabang, which faces the disputed Spratlys and Second Thomas Shoal, I was told of a Philippine naval base nearby which is receiving US troops and equipment (so essentially a tenth US base). Further north, when at Port Barton, also on the west coast, there was considerable traffic of military planes and helicopters all through the days.

As for the new base on Balabac, it gives ready access to the Second Thomas Shoal, where the strife between the Philippines, egged on by the US, and China, has just reached new heights, and interestingly being the southernmost part of Palawan is a mere 60 km from the Sabah province of east Malaysia on Borneo: perhaps its dual purpose is to persuade Malaysia not to step out of line.

As for the northern bases, as we were travelling to the Philippines in early April, a consignment of US military equipment was arriving there to take part in exercises involving US and Philippine forces on an unprecedented scale.

It included a Typhon missile system which can deliver nuclear armed Tomahawk missiles with a range of 2000 km. Shenzhen is about 1000 km away, Shanghai is also in range. The increasing militarisation of the Philippines against China places it in the front of the queue to be the USA’s next sacrificial proxy dummy, once Ukraine is completely wrecked.

 

As the United States steps up its campaign to provoke China into war, the Philippines has lined up behind Washington, increasingly transforming the country into a lead attack dog in the region for American imperialism. Seeking to obscure the fact that the country has now been placed on the front lines of a catastrophic conflict, the Philippine ruling elite is demonizing China and people of Chinese ethnicity with absurd and lurid claims that Beijing is infiltrating spies into the country.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/06/21/zkuv-j21.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws

 

Consequently another indication of the hardening of anti-China policy has been that Chinese citizens are now all but unable to obtain tourist visas for the Philippines.

The Chinese, pre-Covid, amounted to the majority of Philippine tourist traffic, but that has of course collapsed, particularly since they now can go visa free to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, with catastrophic effect on the tourist sector and the Filipinos and Filipinas who depended upon it.

At Port Barton we asked permission to take a short cut through a substantial beachside resort which looked quiet, I asked how many guests they had and the answer was “none”. All due to that turncoat Marcos who campaigned on maintaining good relations with China as Duterte had done, but as soon as he was elected, he was off to Washington (although there are rumours that he was promptly leaned upon by the usual suspects).

 

MANILA, May 18 2022 (Reuters) – Philippines president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Wednesday said his country’s ties with China will expand and “shift to a higher gear” when he takes power, signalling intent to advance outgoing leader Rodrigo Duterte’s pro-Beijing agenda.

 

But the policy is not without opposition. Last week, Sara Duterte resigned her governmental posts, but has retained her vice presidency and looks to be preparing to contest the next election. The rule is just one term of six years, although it is being rumoured that Marcos is preparing to abolish it.

As you may have guessed by now, this turn of events has had personal implications for me. About the time of Marcos’s election, I was in the Philippines arranging an SRRV. This is a life time residence permit.

Having married a Chinese woman last October I then began an application to have her put on it. She had be present in the Philippines to complete the application and this depends upon getting a tourist visa to enter there, and this now entails making an application online to a consulate to arrange an appointment!

After two failed attempts we discovered that the only way was to engage an agent and pay an extortionate fee which undoubtedly covered the payment of bribes to consular officials. We finally succeeded and earlier this month she had the visa put in her passport. We can now come, stay and go as we please, but our interest in spending more time there with US missiles potentially aimed at our apartment in China has somewhat evaporated.

The Philippines’ GDP per capita, in the region second only to Japan in the 1960s has floundered since, and at $3,499 is outranked by most comparable neighbours. The scale of the poverty beggars belief. The main problems in the Philippines are:

1. Rampant corruption of which the public are perfectly aware, and will admit to you. Readiness to provide bribes is de rigeuer In dealing with the authorities.

2. Very poor education standards, I have a chart which shows the Philippines at the bottom of STEM attainment of about 90 countries (needless to say China, Singapore and Hong Kong rank at the top). Sorry I don’t have the link.

3. I think 80% of the population is Catholic so most poor families have many more children than they can afford.

4. Infrastructure is very poor. With only 130 km of rail remaining, no freight and no urban MTR services, the 2019 Global Competitiveness report gave it the lowest efficiency score among other Asian countries in terms of efficiency of train services, receiving a score of 2.4, and ranking 86th out of 101 countries globally (Wikipedia).

5. Consequently about 2% of the population, about 2 million, among them some of the most highly qualified, and more than half are women largely working as nurses or else as often poorly treated servants, works abroad to send money home to support their families.

Essentially, then, the Philippines is already a failed state. The peso is now down to 59 to the dollar (it was 2.00 in 1962) while in PPP terms it is about 19, so imports aside it offers a very low cost of living to a foreigner. A few cities such as Manila and Cebu are rich in parts but elsewhere in town and country the poverty – families typically living in makeshift sheds barely fit to house chickens with no utilities, and waste ending up in a river or sea – has to be seen to be believed.

The people still pay the price for the near five centuries of misrule and almost unbroken colonisation of their country, first by Spain and then by the USA who evicted the Spanish in 1902 and then forgot to leave. And now once again they have recolonised it to use it in plain sight in this cynical, malicious fashion.

I once saw a monument on the waterfront at Subic Bay which celebrated the government vote by 12 to 11 in 1991 to have the remaining US naval force there removed from the country (the air base at Clark had recently been destroyed by a volcanic eruption at Pinatubo). If I return to the Philippines I must pop around there to see if it has since been quietly removed.

Originally Answered: Has anyone surprised you after their death?