Crazy times. Check out today’s installment.
European Stainless Steel Mills Are Closing Due To Energy Crisis
Ya don’t say!
Stainless steel prices continue to struggle as we approach the final quarter of the year. Meanwhile, nickel prices float just above their 2021 average, closing August at $21,320 / mt. Both indices seem to indicate an overly-cautious marketplace, with buyers and sellers seemingly waiting to see what the other will do. This sort of “commodity” standoff is less than ideal. MetalMiner has recommended that buyers of flat-rolled stainless expect lower transaction prices as we move into autumn. After all, alloy surcharges are low, and competition between service centers is higher. In fact, many U.S. flat-rolled mills have no customers on allocation, thanks to imports affecting overall supply. Still, the battle between supply and demand is a never-ending one. And in a tight market full of people looking to maximize their dollar, anything can happen. Stainless Steel Mills Shut Down Across Europe What would happen if the stainless steel market suddenly lost millions of tons of production? We won’t have to wait long to find out the answer because it’s already happening. As August ended, more and more reports came in detailing European stainless steel producers having to scale back or shut down production altogether. Of course, Europe faces a catastrophic energy crisis. While many economists remain focused on the coming winter, Putin’s retaliatory gas cutoff has done plenty of damage already. So far, around three million tons of Europe’s stainless steel capacity is at risk. With energy costs surging, many plants simply can’t afford to “keep the lights on,” so to speak. Earlier in August, the Belgian Aperam Mill shut down its mill in Genk. Soon after, they reduced production at their Chatelet Mill. More recently, Spanish company Acrinox announced it would cut production and place around 85% of its employees on short-time work. Obviously, all eyes are now on other major European producers, many of whom have just as much incentive to cut and run.
Some real talk about GDP
Listen up!
GDP comes from many sources. However, GDP derived from wall streets' speculative activities on real estate, currency, and / or stocks does not represent the entire nation. It only represents who benefits from those ventures. Which is the obvious profit venues; only a handful of billionaires and millionaires. So, GDP (in and by itself) is meaningless. This is why Xi Peng (China) focuses on something different from the West. China focuses on quality and sustainable growth. [1] Xi regards clear water and green mountains (绿水青山) as wealth [2] In Chinese, this means "gold mountain and silver mountain" (金山银山) [3] Thus, a nation that is full of resources, and an excellent living environment is regarded as an ideal that nations should aspire toward. That is driver behind the massive R&D, development, production, and roll out of green technology, EV vehicles, public transport, greening of deserts that have all become a major part of the Chinese economy. Think about it. This is why China controls the cost of living on basic necessities such as electricity, water, internet access, food, housing. While the outcome is low overall wages as a whole, the fact is that Chinese factory workers are better off than their equivalent in the West. Cheers
On Comment Moderation
This is from MoA. -MM
In April this year a new commentator appeared on this blog under the name of ‘ostro’. Some of his comments were reasonable, some were a boring one-liners. There were many of them. Overall he did not bother me or others and time will always sift out commentators who do not fit the Moon of Alabama community.
At the end of July I noticed by chance that ‘ostro’ was not as harmless as he seemed. He had started to post under two names, ‘ostro’ and ‘ppp’. The comments did not relate to each other but came just minutes apart from the very same Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. That does not happen by chance. Again – the comments in themselves were not that unreasonable though at times a bit too aggressive.
Here it how that looked on the comment management screen of the software this blog is running on:
A complication in finding out what was happening was the fact that ‘ostro’ was using a proxy network. The IP-addresses where his comments were coming from were not his but from a larger proxy network provider which rents servers all over the world to disguise the locations of its users. Nothing new, nothing nefarious in itself, just something that requires a bit more work to police the comments here.
A person who uses several usernames to post comments here is a sockpuppeteer. He plays one character and another and another – all at the same time and often in concert to push the general tone of the comment section into a specific direction. This confuses other commentators. It disrupts threads. It is the opposite of being honest.
In consequence I banned ‘ostro’ and ‘ppp’, i.e. I blocked the IP addresses his comments were coming through. I did and do so with any sockpuppeteer who tries to comment on this blog under multiple names. The general Internet rule for this is simple. Choose one not yet used username and stick to it. Otherwise you will be banned.
After ‘ostro’ finally recognized that he was blocked from the comments he attempted to take revenge by really messing with this blog. Around August 7 he started to comment under a myriad of different usernames. The most prolific monikers ‘ostro’ used were ‘Gilbert’ ‘Maxx’ ‘rp’ ‘Steve’ etc. All were coming through the same large proxy network, i.e. from the same pool of IP addresses. Here is an example from one IP address.
biggerMost of the comments under those thirty plus names were not even unreasonable. That is why it again took me some time to notice that something was wrong. At the end of August I finally started to systematically search for and block comments which had different name tags but came through the very same IP addresses. As ‘ostro’ is using a large proxy network with multiple IP addresses it took hours to block most of them. There were dozens and I am pretty sure there are still some I haven’t yet caught.
In response ‘ostro’ did something that was even more nefarious. He started to comment under the name of well known commentators here to attack other commentators. Some of the names and persons he abused in such ways were ‘Peter AU1’, ‘pretzelattack’ and ‘Helmuth von Moltke’.
The faked comments were not harmless but designed to disrupt the community by making it look as if some prominent members of this community were out to attack other prominent members.
I have since cleaned up that mess as good as I could by deleting the faked comments. The ‘ostro’ addresses where those were coming through were of course also blocked.
Those commentators who were affected by this should calm down. Your anger towards this or that other community member is unfounded as their names were probably or even likely abused to attack you.
This all could be prevented if I would demand that commentators somehow verify themselves and use some login process to comment here. The software this blog is running on allows for that. The Saker blog has recently switched to such a process after its comments section was overrun by shitposters.
I’ll try to avoid that. I like that this blog does not require user verification. It is important to me to leave the comment section as untouched as possible. Sure, I will continue to block haters and abusive language or other misbehavior whenever I see it. But it is not my task to police well formulated opinions.
‘Ostro’ is a person (or a group?) who seems to have a lot of time at his hand. He will continue to bother this blog and I will continue to fight against that. I have run Moon of Alabama for some eighteen years now and there have been dozens of abusers, some extremely tenacious, who have tried to disrupt it. I have so far beaten them all.
Other commentators, especially the longtime regulars, should be aware that this or that ‘attack’ on them may not be real. It is better to hold back than to start bar fights over stuff that was probably intentionally posted to incite you.
It is impossible for me to read and check every comment and to immediately react to abuses. If you see a problem with some comments or commentators please notify me by email. I will then handle the issue.
Thanks!
b.
Posted by b on September 4, 2022 at 10:25 UTC | Permalink
The United States ongoing provocation is only helping to push reunification
You don’t say!
China has warned the United States it will take "counter-measures" after the Biden administration approved more than $1.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan. Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said Saturday China was "firmly opposed" to the sales, which "severely jeopardize China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," and called on Washington to "immediately revoke" them. Liu's comments on Twitter came after the Biden administration on Friday formally notified Congress of the proposed sales, which include up to 60 anti-ship missiles and up to 100 air-to-air missiles.
Joe and Jenny
A friend asked me to take her to a local animal rescue place to drop off some supplies we had bought them. She had been trying for ages to persuade me to get a cat for company. She insisted we walk through the cages of cats waiting for adoption. As we approached one particular cage a black and white cat started jumping up and down against the wire trying to attract attention. The woman who ran the shelter said his name was Joe and he was only 9 months old, and that his twin sister Jenny was also in the cage, hiding in the sleeping area too scared to come out. I talked to Joe for a minute then he walked back into the sleeping area and we could see him nudging Jenny, trying to get her to come out and meet us too. Jenny eventually moved closer to the door of the sleeping area but wouldn’t come any further. She looked terrified and very unhappy. My heart melted and so I welcomed Joe and Jenny into my life. That was in 2008 and they are still with me and I love them both.
More thoughts on GDP
Why do schools punish someone in a fight who is defending himself?
Are people really expected to let themselves get beaten and suffer possible severe injuries instead of protecting themselves?
About 20 years ago, my wife’s son was being bullied at school. My wife told him to talk to a teacher or the school’s ‘Dean of Students’ (because being a high school Vice Principal was not a big enough sounding title, I guess) – this moron did NOTHING! Her son, finally called me, directly. At this moment, I had served in the Marines & I was a federal agent. I told her son to go to his favorite teacher – & DOCUMENT in his notebook, the teacher’s name & all of the details. The few days later, called me again, to tell me nothing happened & the bully again hit him. Again, I told him to go directly to the ‘Dean of Students’ & to do the exact same thing – DOCUMENT all of the details, as well as the results of talking to the Dean of Students.
2 days later, my wife’s son called me early on Thursday morning, about 9 am, from the school’s pay phone – collect to my office. He told me that the bully hit him & split his lip. I asked what happened with the Dean of Students, & apparently the Dean told the bully that was a report of him bullying- NOTHING else happened to him! NOW, the Marine in me took control of my reaction – I told my wife’s son, as soon as the bully touches him again, kick him in the balls & start punching until the bully isn’t moving or someone pulls him off the bully. I also told him that I was leaving work immediately on my way.
My wife decided it would a good idea for her to join me on the way to the school – she knew that I was going to defend her son with everything I feel needed. Before we got to the school, the Dean of Students called my cell phone to tell us that my wife’s son was suspended from school for fighting. I told the Dean that I was on my way & he had better be there, with my son (yes, my wife’s son, but I always treat him as my own son & always will). I got to the school & my wife’s son was sitting in the office waiting room – the bully was also in the waiting room, nursing a bleeding nose & fat lip. I walked up to my wife’s son & told him give me the notebook & come with me. Without asking for the Dean, I walked into his office & threw the notebook on his desk. Before he could say a word, I told him to read OUT LOUD, EXACTLY WHAT IS WRITTEN ON THE NOTEBOOK.
The Dean tried to excuse the notebook & tried to give me the ‘School standard of no tolerance’. At this point, I told him that I didn’t give a “F’’ about their standard, because my standard is that if someone puts my family in danger, I WILL USE ALL OF MY RESOURCES & TRAINING TO PROTECT MY FAMILY. At this point, he called for security, the fact that I’m a large man – 6′3′’, 240 lbs added to the Dean’s fear of me, also that my badge was showing. I explained to the Dean that whether or not he or anyone else likes it, humans ARE ANIMALS – meaning that some things are NATURAL ENGRAINED INSTINCTS, just with any other animal – & we also have the instinct of flight or fight. My (wife’s) son did the right thing throughout the bullying & the school, the teacher, HE & the SYSTEM were putting MY SON IN DANGER by their lack of enforcing their OWN RULES! I also, in front of the school safety officer, explained that IF he didn’t understand that my son was correct in his actions, I was going to show him EXACTLY how that works – that I was going to start assaulting him to see if he can take a beating without trying to defend himself. The funniest part of it was that the officer started laughing, because he knew I was correct & my son was.
In the end, my son was NOT suspended – he did enjoy a 3 day weekend with me & my wife, rewarding him for doing exactly as he was told. He was excused by the school for the day without having to make up missed classes. I followed with going to the school district & having a LONG visit with them about it with my attorney. The Dean of Students was relieved of duties & in the end lost his job over this, as well as it came out that NOT ONE BULLY HAD BEEN REPRIMANDED FOR BULLYING during his tenure.
NOTHING pisses me off than the biggest ‘rules’ that allow others to do things to harm others. & it’s high time for parents to START GETTING INVOLVED!
Do you want to stop the violence, shootings at schools? GET YOUR ASS UP & INVOLVED! IF YOU are parent, YOU KNOW if your kid is bullied – or you should – & if you are the parent of a bully, GET INVOLVED! When rules are put in place & NOT enforced UNILATERALLY, it is when the bullied kids feel they can’t take anymore & they then become the aggressors in any means they can – VIOLENCE.
More steel mills are closing
Well. Duh!
The world’s second-largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, is the latest industrial company to announce a plant closure in Europe due to soaring gas and energy prices. ArcelorMittal will shut one of its two blast furnaces at its steelworks site in Bremen, Germany, from the end of September until further notice, due to the “exorbitant rise in energy prices,” the company said in a statement on Friday.
Are the Chinese leaked documents about Uyghurs authentic?
I opened the link to view the image of the alleged evidence and can confirm that, as with the question, there are obvious problems of expression in it.
1, far right, top to bottom, fourth box.
1.1 Chinese people do not use “国语”, but “汉语” or “普通话”. “国语” is the customary language in Taiwan.
1.2 “本人” is used to address oneself and does not appear when addressing others.
2. Right-most, from top to bottom, second cell.
2.1 Chinese people do not use “该人”, but “此人”.
3. Rightmost, from top to bottom, fifth box.
3.1 “本人系80后不放心人员”, which is obviously not normal Chinese, but rather like a machine translation of the language.
There are also a bunch of other presentation problems, such as the use of “研判” instead of “经过分析”, “碰撞分析” and other strange words.
My analysis concludes that the content of the image was most likely machine-translated into Chinese, and that there are many obvious misrepresentations. It has also been manually corrected by Taiwanese, which is why there are so many words that are specific to Taiwan.
I am a native Chinese speaker.
I have found something very interesting
I saw someone comment that I was wrong and that there is also a use of “国语Mandarin” in China.
——-
The link provided in it opens with this
h t t p s : / / w e b.a r c h i v e.o r g/web/20171008231624/http://www.xjzj.gov.cn/2017nzd/2017fhj/zjgzq/seventh/52325.htm
I tried to open
http://www.xjzj.gov.cn/2017nzd/2017fhj/zjgzq/seventh/52325.htm
Failed, the link does not exist
but opening 学国语促交流共发展 – 新疆维吾尔自治区质量技术监督局
but it does open.
———–
As a 20 year old programmer, I clicked on it to view the source code and it showed.
Hahahahahaha, here’s the truth.
href=”/web/20171008231624im_/http://www.xjzj.gov.cn/assets/i/favicon.png”
This is a link to the picture, know web code friends know that this (href=”/web) beginning to say, this is a station address, why should use
/web/20171008231624im_/http://www.xjzj.gov.cn/assets/i/favicon.png
to provide an image address?
I then tried to open
http://www.xjzj.gov.cn/assets/i/favicon.png
It doesn’t open either.
But when I open
h t t p s :// w e b . archive.o r g/web/20171008231624im_/http://www.xjzj.gov.cn/assets/i/favicon.png
(I split the link to avoid direct conversion by quora, so remove the spaces if you want to open it)
it opened successfully.
—————–
It is obvious that the so-called “Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision新疆维吾尔自治区质量技术监督局” webpage is actually on the Wayback Machine website.
Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine
It is a storage platform for manually uploading web pages, videos and other data.
Therefore, the so-called “Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision” page is actually a manually uploaded page on the archive website.
It’s fake.
Basically, it can be ascertained that the page is a forged, modified “Mandarin” page.
Fake.
Fake.
Fake.
Then search for the content “Recently, the villagers’ group and village committee of Ruoqi village in Minfeng County pointed out that a press conference had recently been held by the village team and village committee of Chasianbazar village in Ruoqueya township in Minfeng County” and find the press release that appears on the Sohu website (this is a general press release, which means that the propaganda department sends the same content to many websites).
It says “learn the national language and script to learn the common national language and script学习国家语言和脚本学好国家通用语言文字”, not “国语”.
It is 100% certain that the page provided is a deliberate forgery
———–
I’m curious why someone was quick to provide a modified version of the page and answer questions when we pointed out that the use of “国语” was an obvious loophole?
That’s very interesting!
Issues worth thinking about:
The South Korean government has identified (the American demand of) slowing trade with China as a major national risk. Instead, they vowed to strengthen economic cooperation with their neighbor after the country logged its highest ever trade deficit in August. South Korea’s overall deficit hit US$9.47 billion last month, according to the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the highest figure since records began in 1956. It also marked four consecutive months of trade deficit with China, its biggest trading partner, following decades of surpluses.
Article HERE
The battle of Nagashino
All right, before we begin, we need some background information.
It was right in the middle of the Sengoku period(戦国時代) a period of all out war that happened all over Japan, various warlords fighting each other over control of Japan. It wasn’t a good time to live really, if you were a peasant you could be conscripted into a army and forced to fight, and if you were a samurai you would be fighting.
Several decades before the battle, on a island called Tanegashima(種子島) a ship with some Portuguese people came there, and introduced the arabesque, something the Japanese had never seen before, although they have encountered gunpowder from the mongols.
Anyway, the lord of the island bought several of them and ordered them to be manufactured. Pretty soon, it spread all over Japan.
It was a good weapon, anyone could be trained to use it, and it could kill or wound fully armored samurai with a shot. But it was inaccurate over long distances, took way longer than a bow to reload, and it was pretty costly to make, since metal isn’t the most common resource in Japan. Due to this, many questioned if this was a good weapon to use, so while guns were introduced, it didn’t play a significant role at first(I think).
But several Damiyo really liked these newfangled guns, especially this man named Oda Nobunaga, a warlord who liked all the new western stuff that was coming into Japan.
He was quite successful and very ingenious.
Now, Oda and his allies were now in conflict with the mighty Takeda clan, renowned for it’s cavalry.
They met on a plain near the besieged Nagashino castle, and June 28, a mighty force of around 38,000 men on Oda’s side came. The Takeda clan spent 12,000 to face the enemy, leaving 3,000 to continue the siege.
Now Oda knew that Takeda cavalry was a force to be reckoned with, but he had a plan. He had thousands of arabesques position themselves behind a small stream that would slow down the horses and had a palisade erected. He also had his flank covered by his allies. He also developed a tactic no other damiyo had used. Since reloading was slow, he had the shooters line up in three’s, and ordered them to fire in volleys so that a continues barrage of balls could be fired.
Meanwhile on the Takeda side, they were confident they would win. There had been rain, which Takeda assumed would render the guns useless, and the distance wasn’t that long, a few hundred meters at best. Also, their cavalry was the best in Japan, so how could they lose? They had defeated Oda and his allies in previous battles.
With these advantages, the Takeda cavalry charged. But they were wrong. One thing, the guns were still usable, and two, the enemy did not break ranks. The stream and the fortifications slowed the calvary charge and we’re fired upon continuously by the guns when they got close.
The few Takeda samurai that made through were quickly killed by spears and swords. Again and again they charged but by midday, they turned and fled. They were pursed relentlessly, and the battle was lost after losing around 12,000 men while Oda forces suffered only 6,000 losses. The Takeda clan never recovered and eventually lost everything.
This battle was some of the most important in Japan. This resulted in a new era for warfare in Japan. Although guns had been around for some decades and had been used, never in the thousands, and as effectively as Oda did. These new experiences also was the reason of the early success in the Korean Invasion by Oda’s successor.
Oda never got to see the unification of Japan. He was betrayed by one of his allies for disputed reasons and killed in a temple. He only had a few dozen bodyguards while a whole army numbering in the thousands stormed the temple. Oda had the temple set on fire so his head wouldn’t be captured and his remains were never found. His successor defeated said traitor and unified Japan.
Fun fact: The smith who was tasked to reproduce the guns had trouble with screws, because screws weren’t a thing in Japan. A Portuguese smith had to come a year later.
Pivot towards China Dr M implores
Dr. M at the age of 97 is full of wisdom. US has no friends in Asia. The only two surrogates; Japan and South Korea are still under US occupation. If there is a war, they will chase the US military out of their countries to prevent being the target of Chinese bombing.
Is it true that many anti-CCP Chinese became pro-CCP after having learnt how Western media are biased against China?
Exactly Right.
As A CHINESE CITIZEN, I didn’t like the CCP until I went to Japan to study for my medical doctor degree.
After I was free to use Google, Facebook, and Twitter, I found that the Western media was full of lies, prejudice, discrimination, and fooling.
Although I think the CCP sucks, I find that the political parties in other countries are worse. One is worse than the other, full of politics, interests, lies, deception and contempt for the people.
compared to CCP, Regardless of the purpose, the least CCp helps the poorest people have eat and live in a house, rather than letting them hang out on the street aimlessly.
In China, whether you are a child from a remote rural area or born in a big city like Beijing or Shanghai, as long as you work hard, you will have the opportunity to change your life and live a life of the American middle class.
My parents, a pair of ordinary Chinese residents, their salary can support my tuition and living expenses in Japan. I talked with an American college student, and when I mentioned the student loan, the sadness on his face shocked me. He said he needed at least 10 years to repay his college tuition.
China’s medical system and medical insurance allow my parents to get comprehensive medical treatment in a timely and fast manner with little money when they are sick. As a medical practitioner, I think that the average American middle class can get the same medical services as my parents in my hometown, but it will cost more money, dozens or hundreds of times.
I am from a small, remote city in China and I don’t think the quality of life in a big city in Japan is higher. The law and order situation in Japan is also similar to my hometown. The most furious thing is that I have lost my third bicycle downstairs in my Japanese apartment. Similarly, call police are useless for lost bicycles.
I can see that the CCP has moved many poor people from China’s harsh environment to my hometown, giving them land, seeds and machines to farm them. I even saw a lot of large agricultural drones flying over rice fields.
The infrastructure in my hometown is also very good. The roads are smooth and the traffic is developed. I must drive to go out to buy food more conveniently. I don’t think my life in China is different from that in the United States or Japan.
So, since the CCP is good at governing China, why should I abandon such a life to embrace hypocritical Western democracy, I don’t want to be robbed or shot after 10pm.
Triple-Crust Peach Cobbler
When two crusts just won’t cut it, make it three with this popular triple crust peach cobbler! It’s layered with irresistibly sweet peaches, making it perfect from summer all the way to fall. Any season, any time, this recipe never falls short of amazing.
Ingredients
- 3 boxes (11 oz) Betty Crocker™ Pie Crust Mix
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract
- 2 cans (29 ounces each) sliced peaches in syrup, undrained
United States and Europe Shoot Themselves In the Head and Blame Russia
We are now officially in “Roll On The Floor Laugh Your Ass Off” territory. The United States and Europe, which are on the precipice of economic collapse, are blaming Russia for their problems. I suppose when you are deaf, dumb, blind and stupid to boot, it is wonderful to have Russia around to blame for everything.
- Are you ugly? That is Russia’s fault.
- Fat? Putin did it.
- Broke and bankrupt? A nefarious commie plot by Putin and his Russia cronies, who are not communist.
But why let troublesome facts get in the way of telling a gargantuan lied.
This headline from Bloomberg, Holiday Season Airfares Soar on Pricey Fuel and Revenge Travel, is representative of the collective dishonesty and madness that has seized Biden and the clowns of Europe:
Russia’s strategy of curbing supplies of natural gas to Europe has sparked a full-blown power crisis and spurred a rush for alternatives such as diesel that can be used for heating, industry and electricity generation. That’s creating a shortage of jet fuel — which is made from the same type of oil as diesel — just as demand soars. Airfares to Europe and the Americas from Asia have at least doubled from pre-pandemic levels on the back of limited capacity, as well as the jump in jet fuel prices,” said Mayur Patel, head of Asia at OAG. Prices aren’t likely to get back to 2019 levels until at least early 2023, as it will take a while for “the frenzied travel demand that has built up in recent years” to taper off, he said. The surge in aviation fuel is most pronounced in Europe, where the energy crisis is most acute. Prices there are up about 56% this year, with Asia and the US not far behind. By comparison, global oil benchmark Brent crude has risen around 21%.
Excuse me. Russia’s strategy? Now I realize that the demented Joe Biden cannot remember what day of the week it is, but what is the excuse for a supposedly professional economic news outlet like Bloomberg.
Let us stroll down memory lane.
Do you remember this announcement from the Biden White House in early March of this year:
Today, President Biden will sign an Executive Order (E.O.) to ban the import of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas, and coal to the United States – a significant action with widespread bipartisan support that will further deprive President Putin of the economic resources he uses to continue his needless war of choice. The United States made this decision in close consultation with our Allies and partners around the world, as well as Members of Congress of both parties. The United States is able to take this step because of our strong domestic energy infrastructure and we recognize that not all of our Allies and partners are currently in a position to join us. But we are united with our Allies and partners in working together to reduce our collective dependence on Russian energy and keep the pressure mounting on Putin, while at the same taking active steps to limit impacts on global energy markets and protect our own economies.
These guys make Alec Baldwin look like a professional firearms safety instructor.
They are not shooting the director. They pointed the gun at their own heads and pulled the trigger. BOOM!
The United States and Europe imposed sanctions on Russian oil and gas and shutdown the international financial system, which provided a mechanism for Russia to sell oil and gas to the west, and that is Putin’s fault?
I have always lived by the motto, if you’re going to jump out of a plane at altitude make sure you have a parachute attached to your body.
The same principle applies to imposing economic sanctions. If you are going to try to punish one of the world’s largest producer and exporter of oil and gas, make damn sure you have ample alternative supplies.
Paying higher airfare is chicken feed compared to the economic ass whipping the United States and Europe, especially Europe, are now starting to feel. Here is some cheery news, also courtesy of Bloomberg, about the energy tsunami that is clobbering Britain:
Soaring energy bills are threatening to put six in 10 British manufacturers out of business, according to a survey that lays bare the extent of the crisis facing the next prime minister. “The current crisis is leaving businesses facing a stark choice,” the report said. “Cut production or shut up shop altogether if help does not come soon.”
Just taking a wild guess here, but it seems that losing 60% of your manufacturing capability is a pretty big deal and might, just might, hurt the national economy of the Brits.
Again, I’m spitballing.
The news from Germany is similarly bleak:
German exports and imports both fell in July as surging prices and the war in Ukraine threaten to send Europe’s largest economy into a recession. The trade surplus shrank to 5.4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) from 6.2 billion euros in June, as exports dropped by 2.1% and imports by 1.5%, Germany’s statistics office said Friday. Goods sales to the US, the country’s biggest market, fell by almost 14%.
Why is that? What could have caused such economic turmoil in Russia. Reuters provides a tantalizing clue:
Germany faces the “bitter reality” that Russia will not restore gas supplies to the country, the German economy minister said on Monday, ahead of planned halt by state energy giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) of exports to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. “It won’t come back … It is the bitter reality,” Robert Habeck said in a panel with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Russia will halt natural gas supplies to Europe for three days at the end of the month for unscheduled maintenance to the Nord Stream pipeline, Gazprom said on Friday, piling pressure on the region as it seeks to refuel ahead of winter.
Golly gee willikers.
It only took the Germans six months to figure out that kicking Russia in the testicles would make Russia reluctant to be friends and sell the Germans gas at cut rate prices.
The Russians understand how to fix the problem, but many European leaders are blind, intransigent and certifiable cretins:
“The energy security of Europe without Russia is impossible,” Volodin wrote, noting that the EU had two options: “The first one. Lift illegal sanctions against our country and launch Nord Stream 2. The second one. To leave everything as it is, which will lead to problems in the economy and make life even more difficult for citizens,” he said, according to Reuters’ translation. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnston accused Russia of weaponizing natural gas in retaliation to western sanctions at a press hearing on Wednesday, though he emphasized Europe would not back down from its support of Ukraine, with countries like Germany shifting away from Russian energy supplies entirely. Europe is also on track to meeting its natural gas storage targets this winter, a positive sign as countries try to get by without Russian energy flows.
There you have it.
The west impose sanctions on Russian oil and gas, but it is Russia, not the west, that is weaponizing gas.
I have a suggestion for Vladimir Putin–let the western politicians and their people who embrace sanctioning Russia, suck on the results.
Winter is not here yet, but it is nigh.
Soon the stinky, sweating Europeans who have been compelled to cut back on hot water and air conditioning will be shivering in the hovels trying to figure out how to kindle a fire without putting their whole complex up in flames. I recall another relevant aphorism, “revenge is a dish best served cold.”
Looks like Europe has conjured up its own wintry buffet.
Bon appétit.
Plato’s Fight Against Apollo’s Temple of Delphi and the Cult of Democracy
Homer’s great poems that are left to us today, The Iliad and The Odyssey, describe the events of the Trojan War and its immediate aftermath, events which marked the descent of Greece into a Dark Age. Following the Trojan War, c.1190 BCE, the civilization of mainland Greece collapsed, written language was lost, and cities disappeared.
During this period, Greece suffered an almost complete lost of its history. To this day, we do not know much of what Greece was before and during this Dark Age.
The Iliad and The Odyssey, written around c.720 BCE heralded the reversal of the collapse, and the beginnings of Classical Greek culture.
In Plato’s Timaeus, Solon (630-560 BCE) visits the Egyptian priests of Neith to discuss Greece’s history, for unlike the Greeks, the Egyptians had done well in preserving a record of their history for over centuries. The Egyptian priests say to Solon, that this is not the first time that Greece had nearly lost all record of their history, that the Greeks had been an advanced civilization before this last deluge, and that there had been many deluges prior, each time wiping all record of the previous civilization. A very aged priest tells Solon, in Plato’s Timaeus, that several centuries earlier, Athens had been in conflict with the great power of Atlantis, which was then destroyed in a catastrophe.
The Egyptian priests recount to Solon how the Greek people had gone from an advanced civilization to being like children every time there was a natural calamity.
Solon (630-560 BCE) is considered the greatest of the seven sages of Greece, and is famous for writing the code of laws in Athens and establishing the Republic of Greece, which laid the foundations for how government and society would be organized for the next 2500 years.
Among Solon’s great deeds was the abolishment of the debt moratorium. He outlawed the sale of free men into slavery to pay their debts, and encouraged craftsmanship and industry knowing that these were among the greatest expressions of human achievement. This propelled Athens to become a world leader in the arts and sciences.
Solon also set up the Council of the Areopagus, which was made up of aristocrats, were selected based on their merit, and served the council for life. The Council of Areopagus played a major positive role in Greek politics (more on this shortly).
It is said that with these laws in place, Solon left Athens for 10 years, since the people had agreed to give the laws this amount of time, and visited Egypt among many other places. Plato, would make a similar trip two hundred years later.
Cyrus the Great (unknown-530 BCE) from around 550 to 539 BCE led a military campaign that is recognized as the reunification of the Iranian people, but also entered the territories of Lydia and Ionia. In these areas considered to be the reunification of Iran, he united the tribes, set up a common language and promoted the sciences and industry, and thus contributed much as a builder of these cities.
The reason why he went into Lydia and Ionia is a bit of a controversial case because King Croesus of Lydia had basically become convinced by the Assyrian Empire and also the priests of the Temple of Delphi that he would be victorious in an attack against Cyrus the Great, despite Cyrus being ready to leave Lydia and Ionia alone.
Cyrus the Great appears to be an exception to what followed him afterwards during the reigns of Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes who led the Persian Empire and who we will discuss further later on. [Military Campaign of Darius I 521-486 BCE, Xerxes I 485-465 BCE, Artaxerxes I 464-424 BCE.]
Babylon was the last conquest of Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE.
According to Charles Tate, author of “The Truth About Plato,” the Babylonian priesthood (led by the priests of Marduk) seeing what Cyrus the Great was accomplishing, thereupon decided to open the doors of Babylon to him. They did this partially because they knew they would not be able to resist him anyway, but also because they thought that they could use him.
When Cyrus enters Babylon, he slaughters the Babylonian King and all those considered loyal to the King. But the Marduk priests were allowed to go about their daily rituals as if nothing had happened. This was because they had made an agreement with Cyrus the Great.
Thus ended the reign of the Babylonian Empire (1895 – 539 BCE). However, as often occurs with the collapse of a powerfully ancient empire, much of the seed of that empire was transferred over to a new host.
The Marduk priesthood was ancient, and rose to prominence during the reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE) and continued to be venerated in the city throughout the time of Persian rule.
The Marduk priesthood always believed in the right to enslave and brutally tax the populations of Mesopotamia.
It is not clear if Cyrus the Great was aware of what the Marduk priesthood was as a global force of evil, nevertheless, he did officially recognize the god Marduk and would publicly worship him during his stay in Babylon.
However, to put things into balance, no king appeared to be free of this form of control. No Babylonian king ever made war, or peace without first consulting the oracles of the Marduk Temple. This was the exact system later put in place at Apollo’s Temple of Delphi in Greece. In fact, Marduk is the equivalent to Zeus and Apollo in Greece and Phoebus in Egypt, first originating in Babylon. And temples were set up with these priesthoods under this common network.
Not even King Leonidas with his legendary force of 300 against Persia was able to avoid paying a visit to the Cult of Delphi before setting on to the Battle at Thermopylae in 480 BCE.
One of the most famous prophecies made by the Cult of Delphi, according to the ancient historian Herodotus, was to King Croesus of Lydia in 550 BCE. King Croesus was a very rich king and the last bastion of the Ionian cities against the increasing Persian power in Anatolia. The king wished to know whether he should continue his military campaign deeper into Persian Empire territory.
According to Herodotus, the amount of gold King Croesus delivered was the greatest ever bestowed upon the Temple of Apollo. In return, the priestess of Delphi, otherwise known as the Oracle, would spout nonsensical babble, intoxicated by the gas vapours of the chasm she was conveniently placed atop. The priests would then “translate” the Oracle’s prophecy.
King Croesus was told as his prophecy-riddle, “If Croesus goes to war he will destroy a great empire.” Croesus was overjoyed and thought his victory solid and immediately began working towards building his military campaign against Persia. Long story short, Croesus lost everything and Lydia was taken over by the Persians.
It turns out the prophetic riddle was not wrong, but that Croesus mistook which great empire would fall.
The Cult of Apollo thus destroyed the Greek-allied kingdom of Lydia, misleading King Croesus. It also derailed Ionia’s resistance to the Persian invasion, countered Athenian intervention to aid Ionia against Persia, attempted to sabotage Greek resistance in the Persian War, and encouraged the suicidal Peloponnesian War launched in 434 BCE.
The priests of Delphi were also spreaders of occult superstition.
For instance, whenever the populace would be mobilized towards a certain action, such as the support for the Ionian uprising against Persia (more on this shortly), the Cult of Delphi said that terrible things were going to happen if the Athenian people supported this. The people were told that Apollo would be very upset and that plagues would be unleashed on the people if they supported such a cause.
The Apollo temples were also the wealthiest banking centers in the Mediterranean world. They would finance military campaigns, politicians, and the careers of generals who could be used to advance their agenda.
Two stories that give us an idea of what sort of god Apollo was, are those of Marsyas and Orestes. In one story, Marsyas and Apollo enter a music competition that is judged by the Muses. Marsyas, a Phrygian Satyr, was an expert player of the double fluted instrument known as the aulos.
Apollo is known for playing the lyre. The Muses decide that Marsyas is the better instrumentalist, however, in the final round Apollo sings while playing the lyre and the Muses are won over and ultimately favor Apollo.
Since the victor decides what they wish to do to their competitor, Apollo decides to flay (peel the skin off) Marsyas alive, for he was technically the better player and Apollo was so jealous that he had Marsyas slowly tortured to death.
The other well known story is by Aeschylus (524-456 BCE), in his famous Orestes trilogy. [I will go into a little bit of the political and artistic role of Aeschylus in Greece shortly.]
In the Orestes story, there is a curse that follows Agamemnon (the General of the Greeks) back from the Trojan War, since it was not a Just war.
The war started when Menelaus’s wife Helen (known as one of the most beautiful woman in the world) was seduced by Paris, a prince from Troy and ran off with him. Thus to save face, Menelaus (the brother of Agamemnon) decides Greece must go to war with Troy, a war which lasted anywhere between ten and twenty years.
In order to have good weather for the voyage, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to the gods. This crime sets a terrible cycle of an-eye-for-an-eye retribution that would go on for years.
Orestes is the son of Agamemnon and the story focuses on this cycle of vengeance and destruction. Creatures known as the Erinyes (aka: Furies) torment and hunt those who have committed a crime and are harbored in the temples of Apollo, who is the god of distance, death, terror, and awe.
In Aeschylus’ story, the resolution to this ongoing vicious cycle of destruction is the creation of the Council of the Areopagus, which was the council that had been set up by Solon earlier. The Erinyes are able to find their place in a more noble form of natural law and secondary to the Council of the Areopagus, which functioned like a court of law with Athena as its symbolic head.
***
By 499 BCE there was the Ionian Uprising against Persia. As you can see in the map the Ionians are in the center, and the rebellion is occurring on the right side of the map in Asia (with the left side being mainland Greece).
After Solon, there was a period of tyrants who ruled Athens followed by the period of the Greek democrats. These Greek democrats were the force most controlled by not only the ever-abundant Persian coin, but also Persia’s intelligence apparatus. Hold in mind that Babylon was still at the center of the Marduk, Apollo, Phoebus network.
In 499 BCE, anti-Persian forces revolted against King Darius I. The leader of the revolt, Aristagoras of Miletus traveled throughout Greece seeking support for the rebellion. In Athens, his call was heeded with the city sending ships and heavily armed Greek soldiers resulting in many military successes.
After about a year, Greek democrats in Athens began saying that they should not be supporting the Ionian Uprising because they were led by Ionian aristocrats, thus Greek democrats should not be supporting these landowners who, it was claimed, only cared for their own interests. Unlike the Athenian Democrats, these “corrupt” Ionian aristocrats were against the rule of the Persian Empire and were for the independence of the Greek states.
The Cult of Delphi added to this mob frenzy by spreading superstition that bad things would happen if the people continued to support the Ionian rebels.
As a result of the loss of Athenian support, the men of Miletus were all butchered, the boys castrated to serve the Persian Empire as eunuchs and the women were either forced to become brides, brought to harems or forced to fend for themselves.
When Mardonius, Persian General, in 492 BCE (son-in-law to Darius I) led an armada of 600 ships against Ionia. Rather than replace Ionian aristocrats with Persian overlords, Mardonius instead placed Greek democratic stooges into power, as they were considered a much more effective control on the population.
The Council of the Areopagus, the traditional leadership of Athens established by Solon, consisting of aristocrats, also started to come under attack from the Athenian democrats.
And so there was a fight as to what the future of Athens was going to be, whether they were going to be a free people or subjects of an empire.
Cleisthenes, the first democratic leader of Athens in 510 BCE attained power not by any popular movement or class struggle but by the financing of the Cult of Apollo. Cleisthenes’s Alcmaeonid family went on to dominate the Athenian democracy for nearly one hundred years with the backing of Delphi.
In 507 BCE Cleisthenes voluntarily sent to Persia the traditional tokens of submission, earth and water, marking the first official contact between Persian imperialism and Greek democracy with a promise of Athen’s vassalage to King Darius I.
Years later, King Leonidas of Sparta also received envoys from Persia asking for these same tokens of submission. According to legend, King Leonidas exclaimed “You want earth and water?” and threw the entire Persian envoy to their deaths down a deep well.
This led to the legendary battle of King Leonidas’ 300 men at the Thermopylae in 480 BCE where they fought an incredible resistance to the onslaught of the Persian Empire, and are remembered as heroic warriors against the rule of tyranny to this day.
During this period, Athenians would also have their share in legendary battles against the Persians with the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, and the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE. However, despite their legendary victories against incredible odds, Athenian democrats were able to move the political foment to an increasingly pro-Persian stance under the government of the Cleisthenes’ Alcmaeonid family (whose members also included Pericles and Alcibiades).
The historian Herodotus (484-425 BCE) offered the following account of Persia’s motives for establishing so-called democracies to rule over its satrapies.
And thus, Greek democracy did not have a lot of respect from Herodotus either, who lived during the time of Xerxes.
King Darius I (550-486 BCE) was successful in crushing the Ionian revolt and so he thought it was going to be a piece of cake to take over the Greek mainland.
The Areopagites who were made up of the Athenian aristocracy, described themselves as the party of the Beautiful and the Good [“Beautiful” in this case, referring to that which pertains to the soul].
To the Areopagites, Greeks did not live in a nation or an empire, but in city-states, independent communities clustered around a city center.
Each city-state had different laws, worshipped different gods but were unified by the common Greek language which created the bedrock of their common culture under Homer.
One of the tools used by the Greek city states against the threat of Persia, under the direction of the Council of the Areopagus, was found in classical Greek tragedies and the Greek tragedy competitions. These competitions were held between three different playwrights (selected half a year before), who were required to compose three tragedies and one satyr play each. The Greek tragedy festivities were second only to the Athletic competitions and were deeply influential on the Greek culture.
In 493 BCE, Phrynichus staged his drama Capture of Miletus on the Ionian Uprising (about the population that was slaughtered by the Persians). The drama carried a strong warning to mainland Greeks that the defeated Ionians’ fate would soon be their own if they did not prepare to expell the Persians.
The leaders of the democracy banned it, and this became the only play ever to be censored in the history of the politically volatile Greek theater because it “called too strongly to mind the suffering of the people.” However, likely the real reason why the play was censored, was due to the fear that it would instigate an uprising by the Greek people against Persia’s increasing control over their lives.
Another famous playwright who would follow Phrynichus is Aeschylus, known as the greatest Greek tragedian.
Aeschylus would write the Orestes trilogy, as already discussed and also wrote The Persians, recounting the heroism of the Greeks in defeating Darius I at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE.
As already mentioned, Darius I was very cocky after subduing the Ionian Uprising and figured the conquering of mainland Greece would not be difficult. The Battle of Marathon was the first battle the Greeks fought against Persia and it was a humiliating defeat for the Persian Empire, where 10,000 Greeks were able to defeat 100,000 Persians.
It wouldn’t be for another ten years before Persia would try to attack mainland Greece, this time under Xerxes in 480 BCE.
Xerxes had defeated King Leonidas, but that was only because Leonidas could only organize three hundred men to follow him, since Sparta was also going through its own problems with influential Spartan politicians bought with Persian coin. If this sort of corruption had not taken hold and King Leonidas had his full army, they would have undoubtedly beat the Persian onslaught.
The Battle of Salamis would again deal a humiliating defeat to the Persians in 480 BCE. As the story goes, the Phoenicians, who had been conquered, were manning the ships of the Persian Empire and met the Greek ships, only to immediately defect to the side of the Greeks.
The Persians written by Aeschylus was again to rouse the the spirit of the Greek people to resist being ruled as a vassal state by the Persians. The play taught the people that there was no need to bow down to an inferior system that was based on subjugation and plunder.
How greatly the victory of Marathon effected the political morale of the Greeks can be seen from the fact that Aeschylus’ chosen epitaph forty years later written on his tomb stone, said nothing about his plays which guaranteed his immortality or about his lifetime as a political organizer for the Areopagites but only that he had fought at Marathon.
With this victory, Greece was now on the offensive and was preparing to take back Ionia and assist in the liberation of Egypt. This force for the first time united the two most powerful cities in Greece, Athens and Sparta, in an alliance known as the Delian League, founded in 478 BCE.
From c.461- 429 BCE Pericles would be the head of Athenian democracy. Falsely remembered as the architect of the Golden Age of Athenian culture, in fact, Pericles had done much to destroy the good works of Athens and to sabotage the anti-Persian cause. Pericles broke the alliance of the Delian League and led Greece into the Peloponnesian War, pitting Greek against Greek instead of Greek against Persian.
Under Pericles’ leadership, Athens increasingly became imperialistic and began to experience an agricultural and industrial decline and its economy was suffering for it.
Athens, under Pericles’ direction, responded to this economic crisis not by increasing the emphasis on scientific and industrial advancements but rather on increasing their imperial looting of other Athenian city-states, which increasingly were treated as vassals to Athens.
Sparta was clearly not going to go along with this and this is what broke up the very important alliance of the Delian League leading into the Peloponnesian War.
Pericles actually led Athens into the first two years of the Peloponnesian War against Sparta. So it is clear, Pericles was a massive saboteur of the Greek cause against Persia.
The Peloponnesian War had Greeks fighting Greeks from 431-404 BC, lasting for nearly thirty years.
Pericles is also the one to have introduced the infamous sophists to Athens, which Plato eviscerated throughout his writings, notably the dialogues of Gorgias and Protagoras, not to mention the character of Thrasymachus in his Republic. None of these characters were fictional devices created by Plato, but were in fact leading sophists of their day. In the dialogues, Plato would showcase where these men’s true values and morals lay. In fact, it was Gorgias who was responsible for encouraging Alcibiades to commit to the suicidal run attacking Syracuse which resulted in extending the Peloponnesian War for another thirteen years.
For a price, these foreign sophists would offer any Athenian who wished his children to prosper in the city government, tutoring in the use of rhetoric and “sophistry”, which was simply the art of making a weaker argument appear the stronger. Sophistry promised a fast track to success in government, and was heavily promoted by Pericles’ chief adviser Anaxagoras.
The sophists were not surprisingly also against the anti-Persian cause.
Because Persia had not been successful in their attacks from the outside, the strategy had changed to have Greece destroy itself from within, pitting Greek against Greek.
In 417 BCE Athens was strong enough to bring the war to a close but was subverted by the decisions of one man named Alcibiades. Plato had introduced this Alcibiades in several dialogues as a promising young man that Socrates was attempting to organize, but failed to sway from the influence of the sophists. Alcibiades would heed the advice of Gorgias to invade Syracuse since this would deliver him fame and fortune. Syracuse was known for its vast troves of riches, and at the time Athens was bankrupt, largely from the costly Peloponnesian War.
The Athenians enthusiastically backed the invasion of Syracuse, and paid no heed to their leading general Nikias who is presented in Plato’s dialogue Laches discussing the meaning of courage with Socrates. Alcibiades’ expedition resulted in the decimation of the Athenian army and navy as tens of thousands of Athenians died of starvation in caves as captives of Sicily.
This massive loss was enough to keep the Peloponnesian War going for another 13 years.
Persian subversion had brought the Greeks into a collapse administered by their own hand.
***
Now we enter the timeframe of Plato.
Plato was born in 427 BCE, and thus four years into the Peloponnesian War and is a young man when the war ends in 404 BCE. Athens is considered the loser of the war, however, this had much to do with Admiral Lysander of Sparta who struck an alliance with the Persians sealing Sparta’s victory and ending the conflict.
Subsequently, the Thirty Tyrants, chosen by Lysander, are put in place as the new Athenian government.
Historical accounts say the the rule of the Thirty Tyrants, which was only about eight months long, was so horrendous that it made the Peloponnesian War look pale in comparison. Many executions and brutal in-fighting occurred further weakening a defeated Athens.
Plato is living as a young man throughout all of this, and by the age of about twenty meets Socrates, who is among the few leaders remaining of the anti-Persian force. Socrates was, among others, leading the efforts to revive the city-building tradition of Solon.
Socrates’ education in public affairs doubtlessly came from his father, who was a close friend of Aristides the Just, the leader of the Athenian Areopagites (Council of the Areopagus). Socrates was himself closely associated with the Aristides family and acted as ward to Aristide’s granddaughter and tutor to his grandson.
There is a lot of criticism that Plato and Socrates were simply philosophers who did a lot of talking but never participated in the political fight within Athens. This could not be further from the truth.
One example occurred in 406 BCE, two years before the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian war.
Conon, the a leading democratic military man in Athens (and massive stooge of Persia), charged the entire Athenian staff of military Generals with the crime of refusing to pick up shipwrecked soldiers following the Battle of Arginusae. The fact was that doing so amidst stormy waters would have put the rest of the crew at major risk. This was nothing other than an attempted military coup d’état on the part of Conon, who was calling for the execution of all of the leading Athenian military men.
Socrates, who was serving his term in rotation as president of the Athenian Assembly stopped the trial, declaring it in violation of the laws of Athens and refused to put the question to a vote. The democratic party, nonetheless, illegally condemned the Generals to death the following day. The military leadership of Athens was destroyed which paved the way for a Persian-backed Spartan victory over Athens in less than two years.
To give a more personal context of what Plato was being confronted with as a young man here are a few excerpts from his Letter VII.
In my youth I went through the same experience as many other men. I fancied that if, early in life, I became my own master, I should at once embark on a political career. And I found myself confronted with the following occurrences in the public affairs of my own city. The existing constitution being generally condemned, a revolution took place, and fifty-one men came to the front as rulers of the revolutionary government, namely eleven in the city and ten in the Peiraeus-each of these bodies being in charge of the market and municipal matters-while thirty were appointed rulers with full powers over public affairs as a whole. Some of these were relatives and acquaintances of mine, and they at once invited me to share in their doings, as something to which I had a claim. The effect on me was not surprising in the case of a young man. I considered that they would, of course, so manage the State as to bring men out of a bad way of life into a good one. So I watched them very closely to see what they would do. And seeing, as I did, that in quite a short time they made the former government seem by comparison something precious as gold-for among other things they tried to send a friend of mine, the aged Socrates, whom I should scarcely scruple to describe as the most upright man of that day, with some other persons to carry off one of the citizens by force to execution, in order that, whether he wished it, or not, he might share the guilt of their conduct; but he would not obey them, risking all consequences in preference to becoming a partner in their iniquitous deeds-seeing all these things and others of the same kind on a considerable scale, I disapproved of their proceedings, and withdrew from any connection with the abuses of the time. Not long after that a revolution terminated the power of the thirty and the form of government as it then was. And once more, though with more hesitation, I began to be moved by the desire to take part in public and political affairs. Well, even in the new government, unsettled as it was, events occurred which one would naturally view with disapproval; and it was not surprising that in a period of revolution excessive penalties were inflicted by some persons on political opponents, though those who had returned from exile at that time showed very considerable forbearance. But once more it happened that some of those in power brought my friend Socrates, whom I have mentioned, to trial before a court of law, laying a most iniquitous charge against him and one most inappropriate in his case: for it was on a charge of impiety that some of them prosecuted and others condemned and executed the very man who would not participate in the iniquitous arrest of one of the friends of the party then in exile, at the time when they themselves were in exile and misfortune. As I observed these incidents and the men engaged in public affairs, the laws too and the customs, the more closely I examined them and the farther I advanced in life, the more difficult it seemed to me to handle public affairs aright. For it was not possible to be active in politics without friends and trustworthy supporters; and to find these ready to my hand was not an easy matter, since public affairs at Athens were not carried on in accordance with the manners and practices of our fathers; nor was there any ready method by which I could make new friends. The laws too, written and unwritten, were being altered for the worse, and the evil was growing with startling rapidity. The result was that, though at first I had been full of a strong impulse towards political life, as I looked at the course of affairs and saw them being swept in all directions by contending currents, my head finally began to swim; and, though I did not stop looking to see if there was any likelihood of improvement in these symptoms and in the general course of public life, I postponed action till a suitable opportunity should arise. Finally, it became clear to me, with regard to all existing communities, that they were one and all misgoverned. For their laws have got into a state that is almost incurable, except by some extraordinary reform with good luck to support it. And I was forced to say, when praising true philosophy that it is by this that men are enabled to see what justice in public and private life really is. Therefore, I said, there will be no cessation of evils for the sons of men, till either those who are pursuing a right and true philosophy receive sovereign power in the States, or those in power in the States by some dispensation of providence become true philosophers.
What this letter means is that despite the fact that Athenian society had a good constitution, a good foundation that was based off of Solon’s laws, there was nonetheless a degeneration into tyranny, corruption and mob rule.
So Plato is confronted with this and as a young man thinking to himself “What can I do about this?” Already at such a young age, Plato had the ability to see into the distant future and knew that there was nothing he could do in that very moment that could change the outcome which he was trying to prevent. Athens had reached such a point of decay, that the situation called for not only a great intervention but a great deal of work. There needed to be a total educational reform at this point because there was such a crisis in thinking which sophistry had done much to invoke.
It is at this point that Plato decides that this will be his life’s mission. Not as some romanticized idea of revolution, where one needs but lead the masses, for Plato understood that if you did not have a qualified group of thinkers to lead such a revolution, it would only bring about a bloodbath and further mayhem.
In 403 BCE, the Thirty Tyrants are expelled and there is a campaign in 401 BCE for a grouping of anti-Persian Athenian and Spartan forces to support Cyrus the Younger who is the brother of King of Persia Artaxerxes and thus heir to the Persian throne. This campaign became known as the Ten Thousand, mostly made up of Spartan soldiers.
It was hoped that Cyrus the Younger would dethrone Artaxerxes and rule Persia as a continuation of what was believed to be the rightful legacy of Cyrus the Great, a builder of cities, culture and industry and not a destroyer, plunderer or enslaver.
It was Cyrus the Younger’s wish to coexist peacefully with Greece.
Interestingly Xenophon, who is one of the leading students of Socrates (Plato and Xenophon were the two star pupils of Socrates), writes a historical account known as the Anabasis. This is especially relevant since Xenophon is also one of the soldiers of the Ten Thousand that accompanies Cyrus the Younger to fight Artaxerxes in the heart of Persian territory.
Xenophon writes in his Anabasis that he had asked Socrates for his advice and permission to join the expedition, and whether he thought it was a good idea. Xenophon was then sent on an intelligence probe to the Temple of Delphi.
Unfortunately, Cyrus the Younger is killed at the Battle of Cunaxa, after making a fatal decision to enter the fray by himself. The army of Ten Thousand won the battle but lost the war. There was now no hope that a Persian philosopher king could be placed on the Persian throne.
After Cyrus the Younger fell, chaos followed, for it was not clear whether the army should proceed to Babylon anyway or retreat back to Greece to form a contingency plan. Meno who is included in Plato’s dialogue by the same name, organizes for all of the Spartan and Greek Generals as well as all of the Captains of the Ten Thousand to be invited as “guest friends” of Persian soldiers supportive of Cyrus who had been fighting alongside the Greeks. They needed to reach a consensus whether the campaign should continue into Babylon or not.
It should be noted that to the Greeks, a “guest friend” is regarded as sacred promise by the host that no harm will be done so long as those individuals remain as guests, and the breaking of such a pact was considered one of the worst violations of the law of the Gods. But Persians are not Greeks, and the pact was broken. The very Persian men the Spartans and Greeks were fighting alongside in battle for weeks slaughtered the generals in the middle of their meal. And it was Meno who organized all of this with the Persian men.
According to Xenophon, Meno is then sent to Babylon and slowly tortured it is said even longer than any other captive. It is likely that the Persians turned on him, since they thought someone capable of this most dishonorable betrayal was not the kind of man they could ultimately trust.
Meno and Conon were biggest agents bought by the Persian Empire in Athens at the time.
At this point, the army of Ten Thousand was like a body left headless. Luckily a group of young men step up to take leadership of the disorganized force and Xenophon was among them. Through this new leadership, the ten thousand were led to safe return to Greece through a 1500 mile journey through hostile Persian territory.
In Plato’s Meno dialogue, Meno is referred to as a “guest friend of the great king” which was a polite way of saying a Persian agent and discusses with Socrates whether virtue can be taught. In this dialogue, Socrates shows Meno, how even a child Meno is keeping as a slave can discover the doubling of the square, displaying that the slave child was indeed not the inferior to Meno who was unable to solve the problem. Anytas, who is a close friend of Meno, also appears in the dialogue. It was not lost on Plato that Anytas was the chief accuser of Socrates as a corruptor of the youth, which led to Socrates’s execution.
This is no coincidence, that the traitor Meno is also associated with Anytas the chief accuser of Socrates and hints that much of this organized opposition to Socrates was Persian bought.
In 399 BCE, two years after the fall of Cyrus the Younger, Anytas and two other members of the democratic faction grouped around Admiral Conon, brought charges against Socrates on grounds of impiety and corruption of the youth. Plato writes about Socrates’ trial in the dialogue titled Apology.
Thus the many popular slanders that assert Socrates to be only a detached philosopher or Plato to be a supporter of tyranny are easily disproven when one takes the time to look at their actions in history. And despite Socrates conviction as a “corruptor of the youth” being made in the frenzy of mob rule, he abided by the verdict nonetheless, despite having opportunities to escape from his captivity (where he was kept for over a month), Socrates drank the hemlock which caused his death at the age of seventy-one.
By Socrates accepting such an unjust verdict, it showcased the terrifying injustice that arises out of mob rule (rule by popular opinion) which can easily take the form of a vicious species of tyranny onto itself. When the frenzy of mob rule is at its peak, it is the most destructive form of tyranny that can be unleashed upon a society.
Once Socrates dies, his leading allies flee Athens temporarily, because it is politically too hot for them and they risked also being imprisoned and executed.
Plato leaves for Egypt where he stays for thirteen years.
Even though Egypt was a satrapy of the Persian Empire by 525 BCE, which was conquered by King Cambyses of Persia, Egypt nonetheless had maintained a potent anti-oligarchist, anti-Persian elite. This Egyptian elite was centered in the Amun priesthood. In fact, the Athenian law-giver Solon, the philosopher Pythagoras and the scientist Thales of Miletus (another one of the seven sages alongside Solon) both traveled to Egypt nearly 200 years earlier to consult with the Amun priests.
Plato likely followed Solon’s footsteps to Egypt and during his thirteen year stay was likely involved in a political conspiracy against Persia.
During this time Agesilaus is selected by Lysander (who has been working with the Persians) to inherit the Spartan throne. Agesilaus was thought to be not too bright and thus easy to control and was also partially lame physically. Thus Agesilaus was thought to be great puppet material for the Persians.
However, things did not quite work out that way.
As soon as Agesilaus is named King of Sparta, he fired Lysander as Admiral and takes full command, turns on his pro-Persia supporters. He then used the battle-ready ten thousand soldiers (that made up the contingent that fought for Cyrus the Younger), still assembled in their camps on the coast of Ionia, to liberate Ionia from Persian rule, rather than subjugate Athens as Lysander had wanted.
Agesilaus meets Xenophon at the coast of Ionia with the Ten Thousand, and Xenophon becomes his advisor, remaining good friends for the rest of their lives. Xenophon was rather adept at military strategy and wrote The Education of Cyrus the Great, a masterpiece on military strategy which became Alexander the Great’s most cherished book, which he carried with him everywhere.
In 395 BCE Agesilaus and the Ten Thousand completely destroy Artaxerxes’ army. Lysander in Sparta and Conon in Athens maneuver to stop Agesilaus’ next move which was to strike at the heart of the Persian Empire in Babylon. They achieved this sabotage by creating a navy blockade in the Aegean Sea, which would have prevented Agesilaus’ return home making the entire military campaign for naught, and causing the Ten Thousand army to run out of resources, left completely vulnerable to a Persian onslaught.
The Cult of Delphi also aided in spreading ominous prophecies and called for the resignation of Sparta’s King, Agesilaus.
Agesilaus’ forces were saved from being cut off from their return route, thanks to the support from the Egyptian component of the anti-Persian alliance, where Plato was on the scene.
The Egyptian navy effectively moved their forces north to the Aegean Sea and forced the Athenian and Spartan navy to stand down, reopening the return route for Agesilaus and his Ten Thousand men.
Lysander’s plot to capture the Spartan throne was thus undone by the priests of Amun (in Egypt) who came forward publicly for the only time in recorded history to denounce the Temple of Apollo and Lysander as conspirators, demanding the expulsion of Lysander from Sparta.
In addition, Egypt’s King Nepherites I (Nefaarud I) gave Sparta, under the leadership of Agesilaus, materials for the production of one hundred ships and 500,000 measures of grain, to withstand any attempted attack by Conon.
Plato’s connection to this campaign can be seen by his principal activity in Egypt, and his collaboration with Eudoxus of Cnidus, one of the most outstanding mathematicians of all time, who he would continue to work closely with during their stay in Tarentum with Eudoxus’s teacher Archytas, the leader of Tarentum. Later Eudoxus’ school would merge with Plato’s Academy.
According to Charles Tate’s paper “The Truth About Plato,” Eudoxus is described by his ancient biographer to be an agent of Agesilaus in Egypt. With Plato and Eudoxus being close political allies, it is safe to say that Plato played a major role politically in organizing the Egyptian support for Agesilaus’s military campaign against the Persians.
Agesilaus, however, would have to wait for his next opportunity against Persia, after a Corinthian War was declared against Sparta before he could continue the operation. This war prevented Sparta from sending its best troops to Asia for Agesilaus’s campaign against Babylon.
The Corinthian War was an ancient Greek conflict lasting from 395 BC until 387 BC, pitting Sparta against a coalition of Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos, backed by the Achaemenid/Persian Empire.
Agesilaus has been recorded in history as having said “I have ben driven from Asia by 10,000 archers,” however, he did not mean actual archers, but Persian coin, the Daric, which had showcased Persian archers on them. Agesilaus was referencing the Persian bought city-states of Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos whose declaration of war with Sparta sabotaged his military campaign against Babylon.
In 388 BCE Plato left Egypt and he arrived in Tarentum where he stayed for three years, building an intelligence network with Eudoxus and Archytas where the trio worked on their next game plan.
Despite the Greek and Spartan soldiers being militarily superior to the Persians, the Persians had been very successful in creating internal resistance with the Greek city states against these military campaigns, through bribery and other forms of corruption.
According to Charles Tates’ hypothesis in his “The Truth About Plato,” Plato, Eudoxus, and Archytas decide that they need to first destroy the Temple of Delphi, which was the source of this corruption and counter-intelligence in Greece. By destroying the Temple of Delphi, the source of this pro-Persian financing would be cut off, making it feasible to finally lead a military campaign into the heart of Persia, Babylon.
By the fourth century, Syracuse was the richest city in all of the Mediterranean, and it was decided by Plato, Eudoxus and Archytas, that this was strategically the best base from which to launch their attack.
Unlike the Persian bought Greek city-states (except for Sparta of course), Syracuse was not pro-Persian, and had sided at every instance during the Peloponnesian War on the side of the anti-Persian forces. This is likely why Gorgias encouraged Alcibiades to launch his suicidal run against Syracuse earlier.
Plato enters Syracuse in 387 BCE and meets Dionysus I and tries to organize the him to change from being a tyrannical ruler to a lawful philosopher king. Dionysus I was a soft tyrant in relation to others who existed during his time. For instance, despite the many prominent Syracusans exiled under his reign, there is no reliable record to show he ever executed citizens. Being exiled was often only temporary with a return of possessions and citizenship often delivered in time.
Reported by the first century BCE historian Diodorus, Plato had convinced Dionysius I that if he were to liberate Greece he must destroy the Oracle of Apollo of Delphi by military force.
In 385 BCE, Plato was able to organize Dionysus I to begin one of the most ambitious city building projects ever conceived. His plan was to establish cities on the Adriatic Sea, to gain control of the passage between Italy and Greece. With this secured, the route to Epirus on the western coast of mainland Greece would come under Syracusan control. Next Dionysus I planned to use these cities as a military staging ground for a great invasion of Delphi.
With the temple priests destroyed, the financial and political intelligence underpinning of the Persian-backed Theban-led alliance against Sparta would be destroyed. Once freed from battling for its very existence, Sparta led by Agesilaus, and backed with a Syracusan fleet and all the gold captured from Delphi could complete the task begun ten years earlier and end the Persian empire.
However, Dionysus I became convinced by members of his court that Plato was plotting against him, and consigned him to a fate never used against Greeks except in a state of war. Dionysus slave of his fears and ignorance sold Plato into slavery.
Plato is purchased from slavery with the help of Dion the nephew of Dionysius I, who refuses to be paid back. The funds are subsequently used to pay for the building of the Grove of Academus, which later became known as ‘Plato’s Academy’. Eudoxus also brings his school from a city on the Black Sea and merges it with the academy.
Lists of Plato’s students have survived showing that they came from all over Greece and that several women were even included, typically excluded from schools of philosophy.
It was not just an educational center but an intelligence center.
In 367 BCE, almost twenty years after he had auctioned Plato into slavery, Dionysus I suffered the consequences of leading a tyrant’s life and died, under circumstances that strongly suggest poisoning.
He was succeeded by his son Dionysius II. Dion, the most experience person at court, quickly became the virtual regent of the young man who had just entered his twenties. Dion asked for Plato’s return to Syracuse and immediately began to immerse the boy in a rigorous study of geometry and epistemology, making it clear, that he would never become a great leader of his people if he did not first master these sciences. At first the young man was eager to learn. According to Plutarch the floors were covered with sand and used to sketch geometric constructions.
However, young Dionysus II soon became frustrated with his long hours of studying, and starts to feel like he has been lied to and cheated by Plato, who had promised him great power if he only took the time to commit to his studies.
At this point, it is getting pretty heated between Dionysus II and Plato, and Plato is kept under house arrest.
Dion is exiled and becomes a student of Plato’s Academy. Syracuse is at war with Carthage within a year, and Plato, who was under house arrest, is able to leave at the outbreak of the war.
Plato then writes his Republic, to which the question of political leadership is fundamentally a question of education. It is here that Plato characterizes the bronze, silver and gold souls, representing individual concern only for personal gratification (bronze souls), the rational individual who strives to conduct his affairs according to existing laws (silver souls), and the individual who functions on the basis of creative reason to better humankind (gold souls).
According to Charles Tate, beginning in 357 BCE Plato’s Academy directed its resources into a two pronged military campaign with the aim that Syracuse was to be seized by Dion and Delphi was to be destroyed by the forces of the native population of Phocis, with aid from Sparta.
The Third Sacred War (356 BCE – 346 BCE) is thus launched between the forces of Thebes and Phocis for control of Delphi.
Dion would eventually take the city of Syracuse, however, less than one year later, in 354 BCE Plato’s ally was assassinated.
The Asia Minor offensive had suffered a crippling setback in 362 BCE when the Spartan king Agesilaus dropped preparations to move his army from Egypt to join the rebel forces. Instead Agesilaus stayed behind in Egypt and militarily supported a rebellion by the Egyptian nobleman Nekht-har-hebi against the successor of Nectanabo I, who had died several months earlier. This rebellion was known as the Straps’ Revolt.
Not only did Agesilaus’ intervention into the succession cost the Satraps’ Revolt the support of the Spartan Army, but it pulled the troops of Nectanabo’s successor from the side of the other armies in Asia Minor, as the Egyptian Pharaoh rushed home to defend his throne.
As a consequence of the departure of the Egyptian army, Datames withdrew his forces, Orontes had already sold out to the Persians by then and the revolt collapsed.
Agesilaus died at seventy years old, the year later in Egypt.
Amun priests would guide and nurture and then bring into their country a man who would fulfil the ambitions of Agesilaus and finally free Egypt from the Persian domination: Alexander the Great. Asked to explain to the Egyptian people who this great liberator was, it is said Alexander’s soldiers gave the simple answer: “he is the son of Nectanabo.”
Historians Plutarch, Curtius, Justin, and Diodorus all report that Alexander was told upon his visit to the Temple of Amun that Amun, not Philip, was his true father.
According to history records, Alexander was recruited to this program through the embassy of Delius of Ephesus, a student of Plato’s Academy. Throughout Alexander’s career, he was to rely on Plato’s students for his guidance in the extraordinary feat not only of conquering but rebuilding Persia as a humanist empire founded on Greek culture.
This is most clearly shown by him being greatly organized by Xenophon’s The Education of Cyrus the Great.
Alexander did not have complete success, murdered after his conquering of Babylon in his early thirties. However, the cities he had built and through his education of the peoples based on the best of Greek classical culture, he had preserved for later generations the seeds of future renaissances.
In many ways, Alexander the Great was the true continuation of Cyrus the Great, with the important exception that Alexander had a much clearer idea of what was required for a re-education and advancement of culture and civilization.
Alexander the Great would die at a young age, but the accomplishments he would make in the regions that he reconquered from the Persian Empire would continue to have a strong foundation in classical Greek culture, preserving for later generations the basis upon which civilization find its renewal.
One of the best examples of this legacy of Alexander the Great is the Library of Alexandria.
The city of Alexandria was founded in 331 BCE by Alexander in Egypt.
The Library of Alexandria was founded in around 283 BCE by a Greek, which would stand as a center for knowledge as wisdom for nearly 1,000 years.
Eratosthenes, a Greek, famous for calculating the circumference of the Earth, with just a stick, headed the library starting in 255 BCE.
It is at this point that I would like to end with a few thoughts from Plato’s Theatetus, which is a beautiful dialogue written after the Republic and near the end of Plato’s life. It is a dialogue Socrates has with Theatetus, a young boy on the nature of knowledge and wisdom. In real life, Theatetus showed a lot of promise as a brilliant student in the academy but tragically died in battle as a young man.
Plato writes:
“Nothing ever is but is always becoming. The result, then, I think, is that we (the active and passive elements) are or become, whichever is the case, in relation to one another, since we are bound to one another; and so if a man says anything “is” he must say it is to or in relation to something, and similarly if he says it “becomes”; he must not say it is or becomes absolutely, nor can he accept such a statement from anyone else. If perception is knowing how do we have knowledge about the future which we have not perceived yet? This is the foundation for any good statesman and development of statecraft. Where does this wisdom arise from then? Is it not true then that all sensation which reach the soul through the body can be perceived by human beings and also by animals from the moment of birth whereas reflections about these with reference to their being and usefulness are acquired if at all with difficulty and slowly through many troubles, in others words through education Is it then possible to attain truth for those who cannot even get as far as being? And will a man ever have knowledge of anything in truth of which he fails to attain? Then knowledge is not in the sensations, but in the process of reasoning about them; for it is possible to apprehend being and truth by reasoning but not by sensation. Knowledge is thus true opinion when accompanied by reason, but that of unreasoning true opinion is outside of the sphere of knowledge. Thus excellence is not a gift but a skill that takes practice. We do not act ‘rightly’ because we are born ‘excellent’ but rather, we achieve ‘excellence’ by acting ‘rightly.’”
Germany’s military ramps up presence in Indo-Pacific
Germany’s Bundeswehr is increasing its military presence in the Indo-Pacific — at a time when war rages closer to home, in Ukraine. But Berlin is seeking to demonstrate cooperation with its “value partners” in Australia.
A war is raging in Europe. This has put a spotlight on Germany’s Bundeswehr and its shortcomings, with leading officers deploring a dramatic shortage of functional equipment.
And yet, Germany’s air force is currently participating in a military exercise on the other side of the globe, in Australia, where it has sent six Eurofighter jets.
It’s an ambitious undertaking. Some 250 German soldiers are involved; in addition to the fighter jets, four transport aircraft and three newly acquired air-to-air refueling tankers have been sent to Darwin in northern Australia, with some 100 tons of material.
From HERE
Why is it cheaper to manufacture products in China?
From Quora. -MM
I own a factory and work with Chinese factory owners and their staff every day. Every business owner I know is actively involved in cost-cutting.
Every factory doesn’t produce every component that goes into a product e.g. a hair clip factory would buy the plastic from one company and the spring from another and assemble it. If it were with an emblem, they would buy that from a third company and stick it on.
So an assembly company = factory.
Infrastructure – In China, almost every product is produced in a region where their suppliers are all nearby. e.g. electronics in Shenzhen, tiles in Foshan, furniture in Shunde, etc. Having suppliers nearby saves time and cost.
Specialization – Since each company makes only their range of products, e.g. a spring manufacturer just makes springs, they focus on more volume for that product, which gives them leverage to bargain on raw material costs.
Volumes – The more volume, the better prices you can negotiate. Also, your machines work more efficiently, the process of work is smoother, all these factors bring down the costs.
Quality – Good or bad, many companies are willing to drop the quality or replace components with the cheaper alternative to save on costs. If you compare prices, you should also compare quality. It’s often that samples are good and production is made a little cheaper.
Margins – In this cut-throat economy, margins are small. Many companies are willing to sell at low / no margins or even at a loss to get a new customer on board or to stay alive and try to see it to the next phase by losing a little but retaining the workers and factory space, etc.
Logistics – China has developed their logistics in a very efficient manner. You can get things cross country in a couple of days or across the city in a couple of hours. Less downtime, higher efficiency = lower costs.
Automation – In many industries, manual labor is being replaced with automation as salaries have risen a lot.
Flexibility – Owners are willing to relocate, change suppliers, hire / fire workers and do what it takes to reduce costs. Most are very hardworking and quite involved in their daily business.
Export rebate – Government support promotes exports and gives export companies a rebate on the value exported. Many companies rely solely on this rebate as their profit margin.
It has taken China years to set up such infrastructure and so it is not easy to replace them by moving to other countries where labor costs are lower as that is only one component of the cost.
Germany tries to turn India against China
China’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh is ‘outrageous’ and its infringement on India’s northern border is unacceptable as it amounts to a violation of the international order, German ambassador to India, Philipp Ackermann, said on Tuesday.
Read full article →
Beijing’s zero-Covid policy and inward-looking development tactics are among the primary challenges facing the global economy, according to the new German envoy to China. German ambassador Patricia Flor also raised concerns over the rising tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and criticised China’s “unfair” practices for foreign businesses.
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Russia making it’s moves…
Russia is considering a plan to buy as much as $70 billion in yuan and other “friendly” currencies this year to slow the ruble’s surge, before shifting to a longer-term strategy of selling its holdings of the Chinese currency to fund investment.
The Chinese RMB Yuan Has Become Russia’s Reserve Currency. This Is What It Means. - Russia Briefing News
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Huawei has launched two new phones, a laptop, a tablet, and a medically-certified smartwatch in Europe.
Huawei took to IFA 2022 — the ongoing tech fest in Berlin — to announce a range of new devices for the international markets. The Chinese tech firm has suffered quite a blow since its US ban. Once a smartphone powerhouse globally, Huawei is now fighting for a slice of the pie even in its home country. That said, the tech maker is still very much inclined towards launching new phones internationally, even though they don’t come with Google services. Its latest set of devices is the Huawei Nova 10 series comprising the standard Nova 10 and the Nova 10 Pro. The phones were launched in China in July but are now making their European debut in Berlin. To stand out, Huawei has flipped the script on the two handsets. Both of them feature a 60MP ultrawide camera on the front. Yes, you read that right. Wow! Get ready for super selfies. The Pro model features another 8MP selfie camera for portrait shots.
Xinjiang exports to US hit two-year high despite Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act
Industry observers surprised by leap in reported shipments for July, as many believed number would plummet to near zero after law took effect in June. Importers now required to rebut presumption all goods from the tightly controlled far-west region of China are tainted by forced labour.
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What does it feel like to become poor after being wealthy?
From Quora. -MM
It’s absolutely horrible. I was 50, had recently sold my very successful car washes, had a $1MM in my checking account, the big house, kids in private school and life was grand. I was focused on growing my other business (car wash equipment sales) when the manufacturer we represented lost a client that accounted 1/3 of our business, Hurricane Katrina hit (followed by several other hurricanes), and then the great recession. I had stopped taking a salary and started loaning the company money. I was determined to work through this. I even spent my retirement in a last attempt to turn things around. Fast forward, the company was broke, I was broke, and I couldn’t pay the house mortgage. I had to give up the house and shut down the business. A personal bankruptcy soon followed, and then a separation from my wife of 30 years. The stress was unbearable, and I contemplated suicide. The only thing that stopped me was that my dad had taken his life when I was 26, and I knew first hand the pain that my loved ones would bear for my actions.
The worst part is the loss of self confidence and depression, followed by the loss of “friends”. It’s amazing how quickly they disappear! I will say that two friends stuck by me. One in particular would check on me and take me out to ride his motorcycles to help take my mind off of things. I moved into a friend’s rental property and I started looking for work. I had owned my own companies since college, was a past Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and had never really worked for anyone. At the worst, I was working at a construction company repairing equipment in their yard, collecting food stamps and living alone.
Fast forward a couple of years. My wife and I got back together, we moved to Texas, and I took a job back in my industry (building car washes). We now rent a nice home, and were recently able to buy a nice used car. It gets better every day. I love my job, and I hope to get back into car wash ownership (with investors), while continuing to do what I do.
In summary, there are a couple of important lessons to take from this:
- Good times don’t last; bad times don’t last.
- Most of the people who claim to be your friend are only there for the good times.
- Business associates that you’ve spent millions of dollars with over decades will instantly turn their back on you when the money stops.
- Don’t ever stop taking care of yourself. Exercise is great for relieving the stress.
- Face facts. Recognize when you have a losing hand and walk away. And if bankruptcy is inevitable, just do it. Don’t procrastinate and stick your head in the sand.
- Do not EVER use your retirement money. I used mine to try and save the company, and I am now 60 years old and starting over.
- Never stop believing in yourself.
First Scotland-China cargo ship link starts with 1 million bottles of whisky | The National
Why only one million, why not two million?
Scotland endorsed China belts and roads. The world should endorse Scotland independence by endorsing their products.
Supporting the CCP
I am born in the 90s, a small town in the southern China.
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I was a firm anti-CCP teenager back in my junior high to high school time, social media in China were just taking off, most of the young ones used QQ and nothing more.
That was roughly 15–20 years ago, when a type of Chinese people we today call ‘the public intellectual’ were at their highest activeness. They were well educated and occupied in decently-paid jobs, and often exposed to overseas experience, studying abroad, visiting scholars, doing international business or working in MNCs. They were seen by the general public as people with international vision and are well established.
They loved putting themselves out there and acted like they speak for the benefits of Chinese people, they praise western countries, western political systems, western educations, western innovations and technology, western people, western civilization and basically everything western, in a seemingly neutral, rational, sane and objective tone and manner, following with a comparison with how China does, concluding in a point that the west does everything right while the CCP government does everything wrong.
For instance a very famous case was the piece on the city sewer system in Qingdao, a former German colony in Shandong province of China.
The piece talks about how the sewer system built by the Germans during the colonial time still works today after a century, and how Qingdao never once suffered from city being flooded during heavy rain thanks to the German-built sewer system, while China today doesn’t even have the urban planning capability that the Germans had 100 years ago, leaping forward to how superior the German manufacturing was and still is today, being proved by how Chinese people love German-made cars nowadays, and how China was way behind Germany and can’t never catch up, moving on to how superior the Germans are as a people compared to the Chinese.
Such a piece was largely based on selective facts, some of which were true and made the piece believable in a way that fits people’s common sense, you’ll just think ‘oh yeah Qingdao has never been flooded by pouring rain’, then you read the part about German cars and you go ‘oh right the German cars are indeed most reliable and of excellent quality’, and you read the part comparing German and Chinese people you just go ‘yeah we cannot do what the Germans do, we are so far behind’.
You see the interesting part?
The truth is, the Germans-built part counts for roughly 0.1% of today’s city sewer system, and the one that is running well under Qingdao’s ground was built by Chinese government. The reason that Qingdao doesn’t get flooded is because the city government has implemented a thorough plan based on scientific study to prevent flood in light of heavy rain or hurricane, as well as an emergency action plan, being a coastal city also helps in some cases.
The knowledge of foreign countries was taken advantage by those ‘public intellectuals’ to make themselves look good and admirable, it plays the similar role as luxury items to showcase your social status and gain social currency.
Back in that time, stuff like this was everywhere, from newspaper to magazines, from state media to local television, and of course the internet.
People post and repost such articles on social media, driving a wide spread belief that western world is heaven: the freedom and political superiority of America, the manufacturing of Germany, the taste and gentlemen spirit of UK, the fine art and romance of France and Italy, the craftsmanship of Japan … the list goes on and on.
Such contents usually embedded indications that CCP government lacks of tons quality to pull off what the west can do, and you get the impression that the CCP government isn’t leading the country to a better place.
You find yourself in a hopeless position when you look around and see only western cars, western airplanes, western computers, western applications, western movies, western music, western coca cola … Everything you seem to like or enjoy is from the western world.
And you aspire towards the collective west, and you wonder what if China becomes ‘westernized’:
are we better off if we employ the western system?
isn’t it better if everyone can vote?
will it be better if we can do whatever the law doesn’t forbid, like in the west?
You gradually turn against CCP government, you just can’t understand why you aren’t getting what the west has, why China isn’t going as good as the west, and what is with the great fire wall? is CCP trying to hide its incompetence?
It started as disagreement, leading to oppose, and eventually becomes hatred and anti-China/CCP-ism with a pro-west sentiment.
This is what happened with me.
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When I started my university time, I had the chance to finally go abroad on international internships and backpack trips, and see for myself what it truly was out there.
My point of views started to change as I found every country has tons of problems, some are way worse than China.
I visited the *best countries* like USA, Germany, Singapore, and I visited *okay countries* like Thailand, Vietnam, India, Russia, and then I visited *bad as hell countries* like Iran and North Korea, and after graduation from college I moved to New Zealand.
I find that Beijing has filthy streets so does New York, Guangzhou has slums so does LA, I also find that Auckland has crystal clear sky so does Shenzhen, Singapore has amazing skylines so does Shanghai, big cities all suffer from traffic jams and have angry drivers and it has nothing to do with ‘being civilized’, the best urban traffic condition I found was in Pyongyang, no jams, no idiots running in red lights, no angry taxi drivers giving you the finger, just pretty traffic policewomen.
You see, when you go there and actually see it, you pick up the other side of the coin, and you realize how blinded and misjudging you were before.
I finally realized that, China was not doing bad, we were just in a shitty place to start with, and for a fact that the CCP government was doing good in pulling a country of 1.4 billion people from hell to earth.
As Chinese people continuously sharing the benefits of their motherland’s rapid growth, they become wealthier and can afford overseas trips to see the ‘western wonderland’ those public intellectuals once bragged about, and guess what? They are all like ‘oh so this is it? oh ok well…’ With 140 million outbound visits every year, the Chinese quickly gain a full picture of what the world actually looks like, the good and the bad, what others do better and lesser of China.
Putting the puzzles together, it only makes sense to have a fresh, rational and sane understanding of Chinese government and the CCP, they aren’t great for sure, but they have done some really amazing shit to get the Chinese to where they are today, and consider where they begin with and how fast they do it, it is nothing short of spectacular.
I still won’t consider myself a supporter of CCP, but I do appreciate how well they are running this country.
Perhaps some of the western fellows can also go to China and see for yourself, whether it is an evil regime as some of your media insists on, maybe you will also pick up the other side of coin like I did, who knows.
Entire whisky distillery ships out to China
An entire whisky distillery is being shipped out from Scotland to China on Friday.
More than 35 tonnes of equipment, including stills, flooring, control valves and pipework, is leaving Buckie in Moray for the port of Tianjin.
The equipment will be assembled at a facility being built in Inner Mongolia.
The shipment is part of a £3m “design and build” deal signed between Forfar firm Valentine International and China’s Mengtai Group in 2019.
The facility in Ordos will become Inner Mongolia’s first whisky distillery when it opens, probably at the end of this year.
All of the distillery equipment was built by Rothes-based firm Forsyths, which is sending a team of five engineers to supervise assembly.
From HERE
Undeniable Evidence: Covid19 from Fort Detrick CIA lab, released in Wuhan to blame it on China
From Ann Ruth
Will you share your ideas with China’s Premier?
Hi, thanks for the a2a.
The gentleman pictured above is Li Keqiang and he is the current Premier of the People’s Republic of China. He has been actively involved in Chinese politics since 1982. He earned a doctorate of Philosophy of Economics. He became the youngest provincial governor at the age of 43.
In every post he has served, he has ensured that he left it better than when he inherited it.
His economic plans have thus far been excellent. His system for monitoring China was been more accurate than the traditional measurements currently. He has lessened poverty in areas of service, he grew the economy in Henan and helped it become a thriving area.
He established a network of ports for trading and cooperation in the Dalian area. He proved to be outspoken and succinct on the international stage as he represented China at the World Economic Forum.
He is second in the nation only to President Xi Jinping.
He has also reiterated the importance of industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization in China in order to improve its competitiveness, food security, energy security, affordable housing, and healthcare.—Wikipedia
Why am I giving you his background? To help you understand that I’m not even in the same universe as a man like him. How utterly arrogant would I be, to think that I, as an American woman, have the ability to share ideas with a man of his caliber?
Would I love the opportunity to sit down in his presence, and listen to him lecture or talk about his hopes and concerns for China’s future? I absolutely would. I could learn a lot from him. And I’d be honored to have the opportunity of just hearing him.
I noticed his government website has a section where you can write him with suggestions. I think I will write him; but to tell him he’s doing a great job, and that China is prosperous in part, because of his leadership.
What is “Chronicle of The Rabbits (那年那兔那些事儿)”?
If you don’t speak Chinese, know a lot about 20th century Chinese history, don’t actively browse Chinese online forums (especially military enthusiast sites like Tiexue), or don’t particularly like Chinese people in general, then nothing about this cartoon or its popularity will make sense to you. In which case, feel free to call it a “CCP/wumao propaganda”, downvote and report this answer, and move on with your life.
For the rest of you still reading, Year Hare Affair is one of those cartoons I would recommend to a non-Chinese person for entertainment purposes, and learning to see China from the average Chinese person’s perspective. Because both the cartoon and the comic it was based on were created by grassroots netizens, for other grassroots netizens. People like it, because it is relatable.
Far from being a cartoon that waxes poetic about Chairman Mao (who only appeared very briefly in a couple of episodes), or endlessly praises the Communist Party of China, it instead pays respect to the average people of the past who made China what it is today – people who could have been one of our grandparents or uncles/aunts.
One of my favourite episodes for instance is season 2 episode 8, where an unnamed rabbit visits the eagles’ homeland (which alludes to Sino-American cooperation during the brief honeymoon period in the 70s).
There’s a scene in it where the rabbit stands before a magazine vending machine, and is forced to make the difficult choice between a boring science magazine, and a more…”exciting” one.
The rabbit begrudgingly picks the science magazine.
This scene is basically a metaphor for the kind of choices China had to make on its way to modernisation. The biggest question back then was whether to learn from the west’s superior technology and methods of production (the science magazine), or their systems and way of life (the playboy magazine). China stayed true to its dialectical materialism, and chose to build up its hardware first.
This decision would in turn determine my fathers’ generation’s values and way of life. My parents’ generation gave up their dreams of becoming writers and artists and musicians, in order to become scientists, financial analysts, and other such experts. 科學救國 – “save the nation with the sciences” – as they used to say. “Non-constructive” hobbies (e.g. playing) were discouraged, because getting good grades and learning hard knowledge was all that mattered.
To this day, my parents are proud of my brother for graduating with honours in a global finance degree. They are less approving of my lower-second class journalism degree.
Also in the episode is a conversation between two rabbits, after seeing all that eagle’s country had to offer. One says to the other, since eagle’s home is so great and has everything, why couldn’t they just move there. The other rabbit says that “everything in eagle’s home will always belong to eagle”. Eagle built his home for other eagles, and he had to build it from scratch – good things don’t just fall out of the sky. If the rabbits wanted to make their homeland just as advanced, starting today is always better than starting tomorrow.
And that’s exactly what generations of rabbits did, in real life.
Same person, 26 years apart.
Season 1 episode 7 was another great one. This one is about how the Soviet Union helped China transform from an agrarian nation to an industrialised one pretty much overnight, due to China’s immense contributions (and casualties) in the Korean War.
Everything in this episode is astonishingly similar to the stories my grandfather told me as a child. He was a university student who studied metallurgy engineering under a Soviet professor who was sent by Stalin himself.
When Khrushchev had an ideological split with Mao in the 60s, the USSR withdrew their technical support, and ordered all the Soviet experts to destroy their research so they wouldn’t fall into Chinese hands. Many Soviet experts, faced with the dilemma of either upholding the Internationalist spirit and doing what’s best for their students, or serving the interests of their own country first, secretly compromised by leaving their notes and diaries in public places, “forgetting” where they put them, and only destroying/finding them later, which was what my grandfather’s teacher did.
Digging for salvageable research papers among piles of burning documents was also historically accurate, and something my grandfather actually did – I couldn’t even begin to imagine his generation’s thirst for knowledge, their desire to make China a better place.
There are some real tear-jerking moments as well. This one is from episode 5 of the Korean War special (around the 4:54 mark):
Greetings, dearest. How have you been? Surely you must be dealing with all sorts of problems? Me too. We haven't had any food supplies in this foxhole for days. It is fine though, the Americans probably won't charge up this hill until the next barrage begins. I'll take this opportunity to write you a letter, and have a chat. Oh dearest, when won't we have to fight in wars anymore? We fought Japan, we fought the Nationalists, now we fight America. Every time we are forced to fight by others. If you do not fight back, they bully you. I too would love to live in peace, but if we do not show some courage, and beg on our knees, we will never enjoy a peaceful existence. I heard from some of our mates who studied abroad, that America is actually very wealthy. They have many many tall buildings, many many factories, many many vehicles. Do you think you will have so many tall buildings, so many factories, so many vehicles, by your generation? Haha, I'm overthinking this. I actually hope that when China is beset by wars no more, I will be able to return home with the others, and tend to our crops. I wish...I wish...that everyone will have some land to till, always have a full meal, have new clothes to wear on Chinese New Year, and best of all, meat for every meal! Dearest, I write this letter to you, in the hopes of knowing whether by your generation, you will be able to have enough to eat, enough to wear, live your lives in peace. Whether you are able to walk out there with your heads held high, without being insulted as "Sick Man of East Asia", whether our dreams of a greater nation would be realised. I think, if there are so many of us who are cultured and well-learned, maybe China will be able to develop faster? Oh no! The American artillery is firing. let's end our chat here. If I don't make it back to China, please remember me, who fought for the dreams of a greater nation.
Nowhere in this scene is the greatness of the party, or any particular leader, ever mentioned. It is simply a letter from someone, who could have been one of our grandfathers, to us here in the future, wishing that we could live the kind of good life they never got the chance to experience.
We do live a good life. We don’t have to fight, because they fought for us.
This cartoon covers China’s journey from the Opium War to modern times, from the average Chinese person’s perspective. It isn’t as political as you think, and it actually does a really good job of portraying Chiang Kai-Shek (the “baldy”) and the Nationalists in a generally positive light. It also covers some of the PRC’s less honorable moments, such as its decision to partake in the global weapons market in the 80s. We made a lot of money, sure, but that’s blood money. We’re not America, we’re supposed to be better than this.
The history and politics behind a lot of events are often simplified due to time constraints (each episode is basically 10 minutes long), but I think it’s an interesting way to introduce someone to the big mystery that is China. The first three seasons in particular.
All of the countries are depicted in a comedic and occasionally derogatory manner, including the rabbit, who is somewhat greedy and manipulative. Don’t take it personally if your country is represented by an animal you don’t like. Remember, it’s just a harmless internet cartoon that, as far as I know, is only watched by people in the Sinosphere.
Word of advice: if you want to learn the Chinese language by watching this thing, don’t. It’s filled with in-jokes, memes, expressions and slang only Chinese people understand. It’s an absolute nightmare to translate a lot of it into English, and most of the English subtitled versions out there are just terrible.
What do Indonesians think of China?
I can not speak on behalf of all Indonesians. I will speak for myself and according to my perspective and experience. so, this is what I think about China.
They are a rising superpower. The country that makes a country such as the USA frightened because of its power in Economy, military, and politics. USA’s trade war rival and super influencer in Asia even the world
Cities of skyscraper buildings. We can say that with many metropolitan and megacities like Shanghai and Beijing, China has enough money to build many tall buildings. and It makes sense since the economy is also huge.
Exporter of Cheap products. A few decades ago we had a stigma that Made-in-China products will break before we use them for the second time. but we now know that China increases the quality of its products even still at a cheap price. many Indonesian importers come to Guangzhou city to buy products in huge amount and resell it in Indonesia. here is the moment when I visit Guangzhou at a shoe store. the owner said many Indonesians came here to buy thousands of pairs of shoes to resell in Indonesia.
Problem with the environment and garbages. Yeah, many countries struggling with this issue including China and Indonesia. but it’s already being a stigma that China’s city is dirty. even in the reality I Only see it someplace only and it’s very clean in general.
Problem with Muslims and Islam. Before I came to China. I was afraid I can not perform pray and showing my identity as a Muslim in public. I am also afraid that I can not find any Halal food easily. but it is not that hard. I can find quite many halal restaurants may be owned by Arab of Indian expatriate living there. and people do not care about someone’s beliefs and religion.
In the conclusion, I will say that in my perspective China is a great country. maybe have some issues as other countries but they still have a very strong and positive impression on me.
Country Blueberry Dessert
As this homey dessert bakes, the batter rises to the top, creating a delicious pudding-like creation that is irresistible!
Ingredients
- 1 cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup fat-free (skim) milk
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 2 bags (8 oz each) Cascadian Farm™ frozen organic blueberries
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped crystallized ginger, if desired
St. Clair’s Defeat
The absolute worst was probably the fight simply known as St. Clair’s Defeat.
It’s sometimes called the Battle of the Wabash after the river it took place on. In early fall 1791, US military units were sent to the ‘West’ to quell an uprising by local Indian tribes. This is the modern-day Midwest. The US was trying to sell land in that area to settlers, in order to pay off war debts and to populate the newly-claimed area and keep a hold on it from Indians and other colonial powers—the British still held forts in the region. The various Indian nations in the area, needless to say, were not pleased with this policy, or the fact that it would require their removal from ancestral lands and territories.
Warriors from these tribes, including mainly the Miami, Shawnee, Sauk, and Lenape/Delaware, had banded together to fight the young United States, and began by harassing and killing settlers migrating into their territory without their approval. The settlers themselves formed a militia, whose responses only set up a cycle of violence. This bloodshed was fairly effective at dissuading others from trying their luck, and that really put a wrench in the US plans.
So president Washington sent an army to deal with it in 1790. That army was crushed, and ran home in humiliating defeat.
As any student of that era knows, George Washington was not a man to be discouraged by mere defeat. So the next year, he sent a bigger army, this time led by General Arthur St. Clair. St. Clair had not been particularly successful on the battlefield during the Revolution, but as a trusted aide de camp to George Washington, he had made friends in the right places. He was also the governor of the Northwest Territory, so his appointment also sent the message from Washington that it was time to clean up the mess at his own doorstep.
St. Clair ran the usual playbook: He built a fort or two to establish a supply chain, and sallied forth with 600 regular soldiers, 800 draftees, another 600 local militia, aiming for the Miami capital.
He did not do very well. The army got a late start, and while marching through the thick woods during a November chill, nearly half the force deserted. The remaining 1,100 or so men finally set up a camp along the Wabash River (in present day Ohio, just east of the Indiana line). But St. Clair did not fortify it despite frequent skirmishes.
The Indian confederacy seized its chance. Led by Little Turtle, they encircled the camp in the pre-dawn hours, and snuck in close because the militiamen charged with patrol duty didn’t bother to do it.
(The crosses on this battle map represent Indian placement)
The attack began at dawn.
Little Turtle was a better tactician than St. Clair, and had experience fighting US forces. He aimed the first attack square at what he knew was the weakest link: The citizen militia. The militia dropped their rifles and fled the field. Now the US forces were down by nearly a third and severely outnumbered… and the battle had just begun.
Luckily, St Clair had an artillery unit nearby, and they began to swing into position to relieve some pressure on the camp. Unfortunately for them, Little Turtle was expecting this, and Native sharpshooters picked off the artillery crews, driving them to flee the field too. The camp was doomed.
Faced with certain annihilation, there was only one solution: Fix bayonets and charge the enemy to break through the encirclement. One battalion tried this, but the Indians saw it coming and simply retreated into the woods… where they encircled the breaking out unit and slew them almost to a man.
As noon approached, the besieged Americans made one last desperate charge through the Indian lines into the woods. This time they made enough headway for a few of them to escape to a nearby fort. However, as they fled, their numbers dwindled as the Indians kept picking them off. After a few miles of routing the harried Americans, the Indians let them go and turned back to the camp, where the spoils of war lay with the severely wounded and camp followers, who were nearly all slaughtered.
Out of the 920 US soldiers who actually fought in the battle, 896 were casualties… a 97% rate. 632 were killed in action. 88% of officers were casualties. To this day this is the worst any American unit has suffered in battle. I nominate it as the worst situation any has faced, because they didn’t manage to save themselves.
One of the survivors was Arthur St. Clair. His unit was so routed they couldn’t even go back for the bodies and spiked cannons. St Clair’s career as a general was obviously over, and his failure spurred the first Congressional investigation of all time.
It also made the US realize that it could not rely on irregular militia or short-term conscripts, and so it formed the volunteer unit called the Legion of the United States. This unit went on to defeat the Indian confederacy a few years later at Fallen Timbers, securing the region for US settlement once and for all.
Rescue of a kitty
This made me smile with a bit of a tear in the eye. I wish that every single animal in the world would be adopted into a loving home, like this kitty from Bored Panda photos:
This Cat Was Abandoned And This Is His Photo Minutes After Being Rescued:
