All evidence is suggestive of the USA eventually engaging both Russia and China simultaneously in a hot war

This fact is emerging.

The West is run by idiots. They aren’t stopping, and the rest of the world is terrified. However, the pragmatic ones: China and Russia, have made plans and have taken steps. This ain’t gonna be another Vietnam, Syria, or Ukraine you all…

Friends

My.husband struggles with PTSD

Ps from serving in Iraq. HE is recovering alcoholic without Daisy as his companion he be hurting.

Yes he spoils her and she is very devoted to him. He rewards her with her favorite treats Temptations. She loves water with ice in it. He only gives her bottle water and every six months she sees the vet.

My husband loves her and she loves him ❤

Plan A, Plan B and Plan C

Space programmer, Margaret Hamilton was one of the reasons why the astronauts came home safely!

One day, her 4-year-old daughter, Lauren, was playing with the simulator’s display and keyboard until an error message appeared. Lauren crashed the system by launching a program called P01 while the simulator was in midflight.

---

There was no reason as to why an astronaut would do this, but regardless, Hamilton wanted to add code to prevent this crash from happening in space.

NASA disagreed with this idea, believing that the astronauts would not make any mistakes for they were trained to be perfect. So instead of adding code, she created a program-note that said:

“Do not select P01 during the flight!”

…

…

Ironically, this is the opposite of what happened!

Five days into the flight, astronaut Jim Lovell selected P01 mid-space. This wiped out all the navigation data! Without the data, the Apollo computer wouldn’t be able to figure out how to get the astronauts home.

Hamilton knew this was a possibility so she had a plan devised.

---

Back then, programming meant punching holes in stacks of cards. This would have been processed overnight in batches.

But she did it! In 9 hours she uploaded new navigational data and thanks to her, the astronauts came home safely!

Moral of the story?

A mistake may seem like a tragedy, but often, they’re one step towards your success. You mess up, you learn and you grow.

Never should you have one single plan; make a plan B, make a plan C.

Don’t dwell on the negatives but be prepared for the worst situation so that disappointments hurt less.

Think out of the box, be one step ahead. You are not perfect and you will make errors, but know that mistakes were never made to destroy you, but to lift you.

Hamilton implemented all four points and turned an event that could have been a historical disaster into a huge achievement.

Footnotes

Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—And Invented Software Itself

Their Economy Is Collapsing All Around Them As Europeans Head Into An Extremely Cold And Bitter Winter

According to Reuters, with Poland still basking in the late summer heat, hundreds of cars and trucks have already lined up at the Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka coal mine, as householders fearful of winter shortages wait for days and nights to stock up on heating fuel ahead of the coming cold winter in queues reminiscent of communist times.

Artur, 57, a pensioner, drove up from Swidnik, some 30 km (18 miles) from the mine in eastern Poland on Tuesday, hoping to buy several tonnes of coal for himself and his family.

“Toilets were put up today, but there’s no running water,” he said, after three nights of sleeping in his small red hatchback in a crawling queue of trucks, tractors towing trailers and private cars. “This is beyond imagination, people are sleeping in their cars. I remember the communist times but it didn’t cross my mind that we could return to something even worse.”

Millions of households will see their energy bills rocket as the price cap is hiked to £3,549 a year, plunging many into financial hardship.

The record 80% October increase, announced by the regulator Ofgem, will see a typical default tariff customer paying an extra £1,578, laying bare the deepening cost of living crisis.

The rise follows a 54% increase in April, which saw average bills surge to £1,971 a year.

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 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.

The country’s prime minister, Alexander De Croo, told reporters on Monday that fellow citizens can expect that “the next five to 10 winters will be difficult” due to the country’s worsening energy crisis exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The development of the situation is very difficult throughout Europe,” De Croo told Belgium broadcaster VRT.

“In a number of sectors, it is really difficult to deal with those high energy prices. We are monitoring this closely, but we must be transparent: The coming months will be difficult, the coming winters will be difficult,” he added.

According to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, roughly 20 million households in the U.S. — one out of six homes — are behind on their utility bills.

The consequences could be dire.

“I expect a tsunami of shutoffs,” Jean Su, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, tells Bloomberg.

Loki

After my dad passed away I was desperate for a companion so I went to my local animal rescue center to find a cat to help me combat my grief and loneliness. I hated coming home to a now empty house since Dad and I lived together.

There happened to be a bunch of kittens there and a few older kittens also like five months or six months and some four month old ones too.

At first I was going to take a young kitten and then I walked by the cage where a young brown and white tabby with green eyes was.

He was a recent arrival and had only been cleared to be adopted three days ago.

I paused to look inside the cage and he put his paw out and tapped me on the arm and meowed.

I asked to see him and the minute his door was open he jumped into my arms and began purring and kneading me.

The staff said they had never seen any cat respond like that to someone and when I set him down on the cat tree he meowed and rolled over to let me pet his belly.

It was quite clear he had chosen me and I didn’t dare not bring him home.

So home he went and here he stayed. I named him Loki for he is the prince among mischievous cats and it was the best decision I ever made.

Cheddar Meatball and Pasta Skillet

This meatball and bacon skillet dinner will be an instant hit at the dinner table.

Ingredients

Marcel Felix Petiot

Quora Question: Why do Chinese want to immigrate out of China?

Top Answer:

The CCP propaganda constantly says that China is a communist paradise and that everyone is very happy with the CCP! They say that the US is a dying nation, with lots of poverty, crime, racism and violence!

CCP propaganda is full of lies, slanders of the US, half-truths and fake statistics.

An analysis and observation of history indicates that the USA hegemony has provided substantial benefit to humanity.

As even though the USA led hegemony is not perfect, it has regardless given the world the greatest economic, health, education, trade advancement in the history of humanity.

The US government and institutions have protected, managed and supported institutions, agreements that make up the framework of the international system.

These international institutions include the Bretton Woods system, International Monetary Fund, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, world bank, UN, International bank for Reconstruction and Development, United Nations Security Council, UN universal declaration and countless more.

The US uses their military to protect and maintain a safe and open flow of maritime and land trade routes while promoting positive concepts and ideas such as multi-ethnic societies and mass immigration.

There is a reason why the entire world including China gravitated towards the USA, instead of to the alternative word order promoted by the USSR.

It’s important to realise however, that the USA is not perfect. It has engaged in substantial atrocities such as the heavy bombings in Iraq, and Vietnam.

Yet, it’s achievements outweigh it’s poor actions.

China would have conquered the whole of Asia, and Russia would have conquered the whole of Europe if the US and NATO did not exist!

Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany tried to do this during WW2.

The whole quality of life in China is much worse than in the US!

That’s why people like Xi Jinping’s daughter live in the US and has a Green Card! She cannot get these human rights and freedoms in China despite her wealth and political connections!

In the US, she alike all Americans, have the Constitutional right of freedom of speech and expression which includes the right to burn the US flag, to burn or to trample and spit on the Quran or any religious book! That’s the amount of freedom we have! She certainly does not have this level of freedom in her China!

That’s why all the rich citizens of China are trying to emigrate to the West! They are not stupid! They know the truth about life in both China and in the US!

Personally, I think that he forgot to add “‘Merica! Merica! Merica!” at the end.

MM Answer:

Do you want to hear the truth, or do you want your ignorance to be reinforced? Take you pick.

[1] When China was very poor, yes, many Chinese fled China and moved to other nations for opportunities. They searched for a “middle class” lifestyle, and opportunity. They moved to places that had factories where they could work, and schools where their children could be educated, and where food was available in abundance. Great waves of Chinese left China for the West. They went where opportunities were.

[2] As China grew, became the manufacturing powerhouse, and it shook off the cloak of despair that the West had shackled it to, the flow of Chinese to the West decreased. Eventually, it reached a point, say 2008 - 2013, where there were more Chinese (who emigrated) returning back to China. This is because in the balance of things, China had more to offer than what the West had.

[3] Today, those that leave China for the West do so for functional purposes (to get an education, experience at a occupation, or to buy land) the majority return back to China.

So you can see that over the last forty years there has been different reasons for global migration of ethnic Chinese. This migration might, one day, change it’s vector again. Say, when manufacturing and cultural opportunities open up in Africa, or South America, or Russia for instance.

You see, we have to see things as they are. Not as we want them to be.

Remember, boys and girls, migration from one’s homeland is driven not by ideology, but rather by economic considerations. As China's economic situation evolved, so did it’s immigration profile.

Opinions of others

The novelist Michael Crichton, author of dozens of bestsellers such as Congo, Jurassic Park and The Lost World, tried an experiment as a Harvard undergrad back in the 1960s.

Tired of receiving C’s on his English assignments and having his writing style severely criticized by Harvard professors, he decided to submit an essay for an assignment on Gulliver’s Travels that had been published years earlier by the famed author George Orwell.

It was a risky experiment as the punishment for plagiarism was expulsion. But Crichton figured his professor was not only wrong about writing styles, but was probably poorly read as well.

Crichton received a B- for Orwell’s work.

At that point the young undergrad assumed that the Harvard English department was too difficult for him, so he switched to premed, eventually earning his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Although he never practiced medicine, he used his medical training to create the TV series ER in 1994.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs on the Covid Origins Cover-Up

 An amazing article.

Sachs is not only remarkably candid; he’s also remarkably knowledgable about the issue. 

 That’s one hell of an interview, no doubt about it. 

 This is an amazingly good interview on Sachs’s part – clear, forceful, humorous and all the more compelling because he started off on the other side of the issue. Interesting what a deep perspective he has now developed, tracing the train of events back to Fauci’s acquisition of the biodefense portfolio. 

Captain

A couple of years ago, I did have the honor of adopting a wonderful cat, Captain Timothy (Starfleet), my first cat ever.

He was the perfect cat, in every sense.

Considerate, gentle, playful.

Every single time I came home from my shift at the hospital, he was there to greet me, standing on a couch, in an attentive position, as soon as the door was open.

Until one day, he didn’t and I knew something was wrong.

5 am, and he was crying on the hallway.

He had a renal lymphoma, and passed away 15 days after he was diagnosed.

Sometimes when I get home, I’m still wating for him to be there, waiting.

Waiting.

Rest in peace, Captain.

Dan Bongino: We are going bankrupt

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Europe’s Economic And Social Suicide – Provoked by The U.S. And Helped Along By Europe’s Leaders

Due to the stupidity of Europe’s political leadership the U.S. has managed to push it towards committing economic and social suicide.

On February 8 Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, wrote about the then upcoming conflict in Ukraine which the U.S. was intentionally provoking.

Michael Hudson: America’s Real Adversaries Are Its European and Other Allies

The sanctions that U.S. diplomats are insisting that their allies impose against trade with Russia and China are aimed ostensibly at deterring a military buildup. But such a buildup cannot really be the main Russian and Chinese concern. They have much more to gain by offering mutual economic benefits to the West. So the underlying question is whether Europe will find its advantage in replacing U.S. exports with Russian and Chinese supplies and the associated mutual economic linkages.

What worries American diplomats is that Germany, other NATO nations and countries along the Belt and Road route understand the gains that can be made by opening up peaceful trade and investment. If there is no Russian or Chinese plan to invade or bomb them, what is the need for NATO? And if there is no inherently adversarial relationship, why do foreign countries need to sacrifice their own trade and financial interests by relying exclusively on U.S. exporters and investors? 
...
Instead of a real military threat from Russia and China, the problem for American strategists is the absence of such a threat. ... 
...
The only way left for U.S. diplomats to block European purchases is to goad Russia into a military response and then claim that avenging this response outweighs any purely national economic interest. As hawkish Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, explained in a State Department press briefing on January 27: “If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.” The problem is to create a suitably offensive incident and depict Russia as the aggressor.

To provoke a war in Ukraine was easy as the movie production team ruling Ukraine was willing to sacrifice its people and country in a unwinnable war against Russia. The Ukrainian actor and president Vladimir Zelensky had already announced that the Ukraine would, by force, take back Crimea and the Donbas republics that were in the hand of a Russia aligned Ukrainian resistance.

On February 15 Professor John Mearsheimer gave a talk (vid) in which he documented how the U.S. had caused, and is responsible for, the whole Ukraine crisis.

Since last year about half of the Ukrainian army was positioned in the county’s southeast at the ceasefire line with the Donbas republics. On February 17 it opened preparatory artillery fire against the resistance positions. Over the next days the barrage steadily increased.

The observers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE), positioned at the frontline, counted and documented each artillery strike and published daily summaries on its website. From 80 artillery impacts on February 16 the attacks increased each day to over 2,000 per day on February 22.

The OSCE observers also provided maps of where the grenades exploded (here of February 21):

biggerThe vast majority of impacts were on three areas east of the ceasefire line on resistance held positions. Anyone with a bit of military knowledge will recognize such intense artillery campaigns along distinct axes as the preparation action for an all out attack.

The leaders of the Donbas republics as well as of Russia had to react to this upcoming attack. On February 19 the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic asked the Russia government for help. Left alone they would have had no chance to resist against the Ukrainian army the U.S. and its allies, since 2015, had financed and built.

Up to this point Russia had insisted that the DPR and LNR were part of Ukraine but should receive some kind of autonomy as provided by the Minsk agreements. But it now had to take steps that would legalize Russian support for the Donbas. On February 21 Russia recognized the republics as independent states. The three parties signed cooperation agreements which included clauses for mutual military support:

Russia’s treaty with the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) stipulates granting the right to build military bases on their territory and provide mutual military assistance, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told a plenary session of the lower house of parliament on Tuesday.

"An important aspect: the treaty stipulates the intentions by the parties to interact in the field of foreign policy, the protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity and security provision, in particular, by way of rendering each other required assistance, including military aid, and granting the right to build, use and improve military infrastructure and military bases on their territory," the high-ranking Russian diplomat pointed out.

With the agreements in place Russian military help against the Ukrainian attack became (at least arguably) legal under Article 51 (collective self-defense) of the UN Charter.

On February 22, no Russia soldier had yet stepped onto Ukrainian ground, the U.S. and its allies imposed extreme economic sanctions against Russia. President Biden acknowledged that the U.S. had long prepared for this.

Over the last few months, we have coordinated closely with our NATO Allies and partners in Europe and around the world to prepare that response. We’ve said all along and I’ve told Putin to his face a mon- — a month a- — more than a month ago that we would act together and the moment Russia moved against Ukraine.

Russia has now undeniably moved against Ukraine by declaring these independent states.

So, today, I’m announcing the first tranche of sanctions to impose costs on Russia in response to their actions yesterday. These have been closely coordinated with our Allies and partners, and we’ll continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates.

On February 24 Russian forces entered the Ukraine to preempt the coming attack on the Donbas republics. (The Russian plan A was to press on Kiev to agree to a fast settlement of the crisis. That failed in early April after Boris Johnson’s intervention in Kiev. Russia switched to plan B, the de-militarization of Ukraine.)

The German government announced that the Nord Stream II pipeline, which is technically ready to deliver Russian gas to Germany, would not be launched.

On February 27 the German chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a hysteric and moralizing speech in front of the Germany parliament. It accused Russia of breaking peace in Europe.

The Minsk agreement, under which the Ukraine had committed to federalize and give some autonomy to Donbas, was not mentioned once. Germany and France were both guarantee powers who in 2015 had cosigned the Minsk agreement but had, over seven long years, done little to press for its implementation.

Instead of working for a fast ceasefire and a renewal of economic relations with Russia Scholz committed Germany to economic suicide.

On February 28 Professor Hudson published another deep analysis of the crisis:

America Defeats Germany for the Third Time in a Century: The MIC, BARE and OGAM Conquer NATO.

In a forward to the piece Yves Smith summarized:

Michael Hudson expands on his theme on how the conflict in Ukraine is the result of much bigger forces at work, and not necessarily the ones you have top of mind. He argues that preventing European countries, particularly Germany, from developing deeper economic ties with China and Russia is what’s really at stake.

Here, Hudson describes the hold key US interests have on foreign policy and how they see conflict as a way to hold off a possible fall in their status and power.

The Hudson piece is quite long and deep. I recommend to read it in full.

The U.S. idea is to isolate Europe from its Eurasian hinterland, to move Europe’s industries to the U.S. and to buy up the rest for cheap.

To take Nord Stream II out and to get European countries to boycott Russian energy the U.S. had promised that it would ‘help’ by selling its (quite expensive) Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Europe. But when natural gas prices started to rise in Europe free market forces set in and they also started to increase in the United States. High energy prices threatened to damage Biden and to tank the Democrats in the midterm elections.

Then a mysterious accident happened:

An explosion at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Texas has left nearby residents rattled and is taking a substantial amount of the fuel off the market at a time when global demand is soaring.

Freeport LNG will be offline for at least three weeks, the company said Thursday, following a fire in its export facility. 
...
Most of Freeport LNG's exports were going to Europe, according to Rystad Energy. Europe may be able to offset the lost volume with increases from other facilities, said Emily McClain, vice president at Rystad. Europe gets about 45% of its LNG from the U.S., and the rest comes from Russia, Qatar and other sources, she said.

Three weeks was too short to lower U.S. natural gas prices. The U.S. regulator for such plants, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), stepped in and prolonged the restart process:

The second-biggest U.S. liquefied natural gas export facility hit by fire earlier this month will not be allowed to repair or restart operations until it addresses risks to public safety, a pipeline regulator said on Thursday. 
...
U.S. natural gas futures tumbled 15% on Thursday due to the report and on a continued inventory build, contributing to a 33% price drop in June, the biggest monthly drop since 2018. 
...
"The actual process (of reviews, repairs and approvals) will take longer than three months, and potentially take six to 12 months," said Alex Munton, director of global gas and LNG at consultants Rapidan Energy Group.

There was also some news of sudden ‘problems’ at other LNG facilities.

It is not only natural gas but also petroleum products that the U.S. is withholding while Europe is in need:

The Biden administration is warning refiners that it may take “emergency measures” to address fuel exports as stockpiles of gasoline and diesel fuel remain near historically low levels in the Northeast.

Fertilizer making plants in Europe have shut down because of way too high natural gas prices. Steel and aluminum smelters are following. Glas production in Europe is severely endangered.

In a long piece today Yves Smith is looking at the economic and political consequences for Europe. In a breach of Betteridge’s law</A she headlines:

Will Europe Go Down to Defeat Before Ukraine?

We will be so bold as to posit that not only has the sanctions war against Russia backfired spectacularly, but the damage to the West, most of all Europe, is accelerating rapidly. And this is not the result of Russia taking active measures but the costs of the loss or reduction of key Russian resources compounding over time.

So due to the intensity of the energy shock, the economic timetable is moving faster than the military. Unless Europe engages in a major course correction, and we don’t see how this can happen, the European economic crisis looks set to become devastating before Ukraine is formally defeated. 
...
As we’ll explain, this shock will be so severe if nothing is done (and as we’ll explain, it’s hard to see anything meaningful enough being done), that the result will be not a recession, but a depression in Europe. 
...
In theory, the EU could try to make up to Russia. But the time for that has passed. It isn’t just that too many key European players like Ursula von der Leyen and Robert Habeck are too deeply invested in Russia-hatred to retreat. Even if there were blood in the street come December, they wouldn’t be turfed out quickly enough.

It is also that Europe has burned its bridges with Russia beyond just the sanctions. Putin has repeatedly offered the EU the option of using Nord Stream 2. Even with Russia now using half its capacity, it could still fully substitute for former Nord Stream 1 deliveries. Putin did warn that option would not stay open for all that long, that Russia would start using the rest of the volume. 
...
So the outcome seems inevitable: many Europeans businesses will fail, leading to job losses, business loan defaults, loss of government revenues, foreclosures. And with governments thinking they’d maybe spent a bit too freely with Covid relief, their emergency energy fillups will be too little to make all that much difference.

At some point, the economic contraction will lead to a financial crisis. If the downdraft is rapid enough, it could be the result as much of (well warranted) loss of confidence as actual losses and defaults to date.

The U.S. has, out of purely egoistic reasons, dragged Europe, and especially Germany, into a trap that will lead to its economic and social destruction. Instead of recognizing the danger, and taking the necessary countermeasure, the European and the German ‘leaders’ committed themselves to help with the process.

The best thing for Europe and Germany would of course have been to avoid the crisis. That failed because of a lack of insight and effort. But now, as Europe is deep down in a hole, the politicians should at least stop digging. It is in Europe’s and especially Germany’s obvious interest to keep the crisis as short as possible.

But the lunatics who are ruling over Europe are still doing the opposite:

Germany will keep up its support for Kyiv "for as long as it takes", Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday, calling for an enlargement of the European Union to eventually include Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. 
...
Germany had undergone a "fundamental change of heart" in recent months on its military support for Ukraine, he said.

"We will keep up this support, reliably and, above all, for as long as it takes," he told the packed university audience.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen echoed the "as long as it takes" promise to Kyiv in a speech in Slovenia, calling for "a new strategic thinking" to uphold European values.

As those ‘leaders’ seem to see it, affordable energy, warm homes, sufficient food, jobs and pensions of Europe citizens are not part of the ‘European values’ they intend to uphold.

The economic and financial breakdown of Europe will be much faster than the obviously necessary political change of its third rate leadership.

The only political sector that will not be damaged by all this, at least in France and Germany, is the far right. That in itself is also a danger.

Posted by b on August 29, 2022 at 17:38 UTC | Permalink

A mega project/plan to move 500,000 Japanese elderly to retire in China.

Now that such plan is uncovered, I don’t think so the CCP will allow.

These people will eventually become a social burden to china hospital system.

The other question is , once this project is successfully, will there be the second, third such project?

Earlier, China uncovered Japanese schools in China, with a secret plan to train Japanese children with parents working in China as future agents merging into all sectors of the Chinese society. These Japanese schools exclusive to Japanese students only. No one know what they taught, everything in secret.

In 100% won’t trust Japan; this is Asia's most warmongering nation.

50万日本老人将赴中国养老！首批接收城市曝光！|养老院_网易订阅


Article HERE in Chinese

Clayton Morris: We are watching the West collapse right before our eyes, and it’s all their fault

Pretty good.

The announcement of a New Taiwan reunification organization in the name of China revolution army

Important speech from China about the Nancy Polaski visit

Speech by Professor Zhang Weiwei 张维为 and professor jin chanrong 金灿荣 re pelosi Taiwan visit and China strategic response within minutes of pelosi landing in Taiwan includes


1) announcement of large scale military exercise surrounding Taiwan and
2）a 6000 words official statement

These moves showing the CCP has planned long time ago how they will take back Taiwan, and only waiting for the (stupid) American to provide the right opportunity and atmosphere.

I added the (stupid).

Unfortunately, it is in Chinese, for those who understand Chinese , the speech by this two CCP members, former Deng xiaopeng translator 张维为 and senior advisor to the CCP 金灿荣 are very informative. 

Worth your 42 minutes time to listen the full content.

Video HERE (in Chinese)

Still remember how former Singapore minister George Yao describes China as a panda bear with claws.

If the coalition of crusaders led by the US; and defeated by a backward China in the Korean war in the 1950s is of any lesson to learn...

(military might no match for brain power plus strong will), 

Any Nations that dare to start another war over Taiwan in the 21st century will not have a "chance in Hell" (to win).

China is formidable. (advanced Chinese military, training, quality and quantity,  plus brain power and will power.)

U.S. Business Leaders Not Ready for the Next U.S.-China Crisis

May 16, 2022 From HERE

It is no exaggeration to conclude that U.S.-China ties have deteriorated to depths not seen since the late 1960s, when the two had no diplomatic ties and were actually shooting at each other in Vietnam. China has long since stopped fomenting revolutionary wars, but from Washington’s perspective (which is increasingly shared by others in Europe and Asia) Beijing’s promotion of state capitalism, disregard for human rights, irredentist claims, and support for Putin collectively represent a deeply dangerous challenge to the existing world order. To Beijing, a declining United States is trying to use every tool in its toolkit to undermine and isolate Beijing and keep China from achieving its rightful resumption as a world power, which is driving China’s approach increasingly in a zero-sum direction.

While the Biden administration has expressed a desire to manage competition, the two governments are barely on speaking terms and when they do talk, it is usually an exercise in frustration. President Biden’s phone call with Xi Jinping in early March was most noted for the warnings the U.S. side issued against Chinese support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai has said her conversations with Beijing have yielded no progress on commercial differences. And when the United States recently announced the departure of nonessential personnel from the Shanghai consulate, the Chinese Foreign Ministry accused the United States of not trying to protect lives but of politicizing the pandemic.

There will be no easy exit from this new chapter of Sino-American strategic competition—a chapter that arguably started with Xi’s moves against the South China Sea and neighboring states seven years ago, as the Obama administration was still exploring modalities for a productive bilateral relationship. No political leader in Washington will now argue for returning to that earlier hopeful period in bilateral relations and the thrust of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy is properly to strengthening alliances and partnership to deal with a more coercive and ambitious China. Yet at the same time, the current trajectory in the bilateral relationship bodes ill for the ability of Washington and Beijing to manage crises that might emerge in the coming years. Both sides regularly assume the worst intentions of the other: Beijing’s anti-Western social mobilization campaign continues unabated, the quiet dialogue mechanisms that once allowed strategic exchanges between the White House and Zhongnanhai have been replaced by lecturing megaphones.

In the wake of the global financial crisis, natural disasters, Covid-19, and extensive supply chain challenges, corporate leaders have become adept at preparing for “black swans” and the continuity of business contingencies, embracing “just in case” over “just in time” and learning to prepare redundancies and protect key technologies. But the current dynamics in U.S.-China relations suggest that there may be a need to prepare for a new bevy of potential black swans from technology competition to major military contingencies.

Thinking the Increasingly Probable and No Longer Unthinkable

The impediments to war between the United States and China—from the deterrent effect of nuclear weapons to the trillions of dollars in possible economic damage—remain robust. But the escalation ladder from current “gray zone” coercion and diplomatic jostling up towards cyber, technology decoupling, and even military threats is also closer at hand for Beijing, and therefore Washington. In the Taiwan Strait, Chinese military overflights that cross the midline or circle the island are now a regular occurrence. Although there is reason to doubt that Xi Jinping has set a firm deadline for reunification, Beijing may increasingly believe that force is their only option. An accidental collision between ships or jets in the South China Sea is not only possible—it has also occurred. The nuclear submarine USS Connecticut’s collision with an unknown underwater object in October 2021 is a case in point. This incident did not spiral into a larger conflict, but it easily could have. There is now greater commercial and military traffic in the South China Sea than ever, but the United States and China have very few crisis management mechanisms, with insufficient ways to communicate at an operational level in real time.

The U.S. and Chinese economies have become so intertwined over the last 40 years that when Trump first launched his trade war, the idea of decoupling seemed absolutely impossible. Even the restrictions on Huawei looked like a pebble of decoupling in an ocean of connectivity.

Not so anymore. The woven threads of commercial ties have already started to fray. Total merchandise trade has held steady, but processing trading, which highlights movement of goods within supply chains, is down. Equity investment from the United States to China has only dropped a little and U.S. companies still report being profitable, but their angst at their treatment is on the rise. Venture capital deals have steadily fallen. Meanwhile, all manner of Chinese investment to the United States has plummeted. Overall financial flows are still quite high (and perhaps larger than ever), but the storm clouds are gathering, with the 250 Chinese companies on U.S. markets poised to be delisted, and growing concerns in the United States about the downsides of U.S. institutional capital in Chinese markets. Travel is down to a trickle of businesspeople willing to endure lengthy quarantines. The growth of sudden lockdowns, represented most shockingly by Shanghai, is certainly another deterrent to travel.

It is now entirely conceivable that commercial ties could substantially unravel. One route is through the expansion of defensive regulatory measures that would raise the costs of doing business. Both sides have instituted a range of restrictions and are pursuing analogous programs to achieve supply chain resiliency and reduce their dependency on the other. There are now nearly 1,000 Chinese companies penalized in one way or another by the United States for national security or human rights reasons. The final China bill that emerges out of the Senate-House conference may very well start to require U.S. investments to China to undergo national security reviews the same way the U.S. screens inward investment. And China could start to use, among other tools, its Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law and its own Unreliable Entities List to punish U.S. companies that do not toe Beijing’s line.

The other pathway to reduce ties would be an unintentional escalation of penalties. For example, imagine how Washington might react if Beijing suddenly shut down the cloud computing services of Microsoft or Amazon Web Services (AWS) on the excuse that some customers were inappropriately transferring data abroad in contravention of their data localization rules. The Biden administration would likely have no choice but to retaliate, leading to a potential spiral of ever-growing restrictions that would reduce existing activities and ward off future business.

The possibility of a security crisis and economic decoupling have only been magnified by the war in Ukraine. While U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine may in some ways strengthen deterrence against an attack by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Taiwan in the near term, it may also eliminate any hope Beijing had of achieving unification peacefully and further reduce the likelihood of some sort of negotiated settlement. And the radical expansion of Western commercial restrictions against Russia may be a test run for greater limits on ties with China, particularly if Beijing does not further distance itself from Putin and the invasion.

Everyone should take notice when U.S. treasury secretary Janet Yellen, not known as an über-hawk, highlighting this possibility, recently warned: “The world’s attitude towards China and its willingness to embrace further economic integration may well be affected by China’s reaction to our call for resolute action on Russia.”

Business Is Not Ready

This transition has occurred so fast that global companies that have thrived on doing business with China are not well prepared to adapt to this new normal or to try and stem the tide.  Extended interviews and in-depth crisis scenario exercises with dozens of companies and investors, including to an elite group of participants in the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, about these issues over the past few months, have revealed an unexpected combination of overconfidence and resignation in their views.

When faced with the prospect of a military crisis, some companies believe that they could use their connections to be fully informed and potentially even shape the thinking of decisionmakers so that they avoid the worst outcomes. The cold reality is that once a crisis erupts, the economic policymakers get tossed out of the room and the circle of decisionmakers narrow to those who prosecute war. Companies will be forced to operate largely in the dark, or at least be no better informed than Joe Q. Public, and hence, will have to focus on short-term issues such as protecting their most directly affected employees, bank accounts and other assets, and then just hang on.

When it comes to decoupling, we found both rosy optimists and deflated pessimists. Some assert that commercial decoupling is simply not possible because of the continued extent of ties and the obvious economic harm the West would inflict on itself—lost markets, access to resources and opportunities to innovate—that would come from such steps. In contrast to this view that business needs to do little more than remind Washington the benefits of ties, the alternative view—that there is no use in making this argument because no one will listen—is equally if not more prominent. At the end of the day, most companies are highly risk-averse and want to avoid getting on the wrong side of officialdom.

Although some business associations have taken up the challenge, it is hard to find individual companies that are willing to strongly advocate in Washington for continued engagement or push hard on Beijing to liberalize and constrain state capitalism (let alone push on its actions in Xinjiang and Hong Kong). The result is that global businesses are for the most part keeping their heads down, hoping their China opportunities do not dry up, and aiming for greater home government support to relocate some of their supply chains. The war in Ukraine and the concomitant shift in thinking about China in Washington and like-minded capitals in Europe and Asia only reinforces this posture.

What Is to Be Done?

The good news is that almost all business leaders the authors have engaged on these scenarios were already used to thinking about black swans. Few fought the scenarios even if they had not considered them. The bad news is that very few corporations engaged in China have contingency plans or long-term strategies to hedge against the downside risks of growing geopolitical competition. However, there are few good places to start.

First, corporations should not assume that their immediate corporate, regulatory, or political counterparts in China will necessarily be able to protect them against a national-level crisis. Those relationships might help, but they are no guarantee that business operations will survive.

Second, corporations which tend to keep their head down on geopolitics for obvious reasons will now need to engage both governments more actively on the consequences of our inability to manage crises. This will be far more effective if done collectively through business associations. And the effort will only be effective in Washington if the premise is that there will be geopolitical friction and U.S. national interests matter—but that management of that competition is critical. Fighting the premise will mean that corporations do not get a hearing in the Biden administration or Congress on either side of the aisle right now.

Third, corporations need to think about their operating environment the way geostrategists now are—which is to say that there are multiple players shaping relations with China that have weight in Washington and Beijing. U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific and Europe are increasingly aligning with Washington on the necessity of pushing back against Chinese coercion and mercantilism However, all these allies from Japan to Germany also seek careful management of U.S.-China relations. U.S. corporations and business associations rarely align their efforts with counterparts in Tokyo or Brussels, but they need to do so now.

Fourth, corporations need to press for a regional economic strategy that stabilizes U.S.-China relations. Before the Trump administration withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017, the strategy of the United States and its allies was to build a rules-based order in the region that would increase all their leverage vis-à-vis Beijing and offer strong incentives for China to play by the rules. The unilateralist U.S. approach to economic statecraft since then has alienated close allies and left room for Beijing to expand its ambitions for regional hegemony—thus adding to geopolitical friction and uncertainty. The administration’s new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) is a well-intentioned effort to fill that vacuum, but it still falls short of what is needed to substantially restore faith in U.S. economic policy leadership and curb China’s own ambitions to replace the United States as the primary rule-maker in the region.

Finally, corporate leaders need to engage in the kind of scenario exercises that the U.S. military regularly employs. These scenario games are not meant to be predictive, but rather to stress-test current assumptions and point to measures that might be useful in a crisis (for example, who would CEOs need to know in the event of a major technology or military contingency that threatened their operations). No plan survives first contact with the enemy, but no leader succeeds in a crisis if they have not been forced to consider how exogenous shocks would impact their plans.

What is the USA thinking?

A disturbing video. Please check it out. It concerns mRNA injections that are touted as “vaccines”. This is NOT the same thing as a “dead host” vaccine such as used in Russia and China.

Video HERE

Cats of Beijing

The cats in Beijing’s Forbidden City aren’t strays — they have official jobs!

As we all know, the Forbidden City is made of wood, although it is of good quality wood, it can not resist the bite of mice. In addition, rats are the natural enemies of cultural relics, and if you are not careful, cultural relics can be destroyed by their mouths.

However, it is surprising that there is no damage caused by rats in the Forbidden City. And all thanks to the hundreds of cats adopted by the museum. They are a special patrol indispensable to the Forbidden City.

These cats all have their own names and are registered. Cats are fed food every day, and their health is monitored. Age-appropriate neutering and regular vaccinations are provided. There are also friends from all over the country to visit the Palace Museum, if you are lucky, take a photo with them, if you are not, please come again next time!

This is just the number one guardian of Jingren Palace. Because it is very domineering, called “Oboi”.（鳌拜）

This is “Little Boy”, the bodyguard of Yi He Xuan, who has retired from the Palace Museum after working there for more than ten years.

This one is called “Orange”, is a lookout soldier of the Forbidden City, daily reconnaissance is on the roof. The work requires a high degree of concentration, so it often sits motionless on the roof.

When did the US get involved in Taiwan?

This is MM's comment to the Quora question as posited. -MM

The United States has the dubious honor of being the first nation to attack Taiwan. This happened in 1867. The United States then supported and Armed Japan in invading China, via Taiwan, in 1874. This happened during the Mudan incident.

China has NEVER forgotten the “Rape of Nanjing”, and the “One Hundred years of humiliation” that resulted DIRECTLY from the United States actions, efforts, funding and military actions.

To think that China has forgotten simply because you are unaware of history is a dangerous mistake.

China is a peaceful nation, but they are ready, have been ready, and are fully willing to slap the United States back to the stone age if it persists in trying to repeat the last American induced “suppression”.

US Sub That Hit Undersea Mountain Previously Hit Pier: Investigation

So we are supposed to believe that the USN is full of klutz's. And nothing else. Just an article in supportive of the bullshit narrative of hitting an undersea mountain. -MM

The US Navy submarine USS Connecticut ran into an underwater mountain in the South China Sea last October.  Months earlier, in April 2021, the submarine hit a pier in San Diego. The command investigation said the submarine’s leadership failed to learn from the first incident.

Article HERE

China Disputes British Sovereignty Over Falkland Islands; Rattles Both The UK, US With ‘Historic Deal’ With Argentina

With China trying to boost its presence in South America, Argentina has emerged as a valuable partner for Beijing. In a recent development, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez laid a wreath on the mausoleum of former Chairman of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong.

In America’s Backyard, China To Set Up A Massive Nuclear Power Plant Using Its Indigenous ‘Hualong One’ Tech

The deepening association between China and Argentina, which is participating in the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics, is not free of controversy though.

In a move that has angered London, the Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom stated that Beijing’s position on the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands problem is consistent and that it strongly supports Argentina’s rightful claim to complete sovereignty over the islands, Global Times reported.

Malvinas Islands is the Spanish name of the Falkland Islands that are controlled and administered by the British.

The Chinese embassy’s spokesperson made the remarks, which were published on the embassy’s website on February 8. The remarks came after UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Twitter that China must respect the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands, which she considers to be “part of the British Family.”

 

After Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández met China’s President Xi on the fringes of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the foreign secretary stated that “China must respect the sovereignty of the Falklands”.

According to a statement on the Chinese embassy, the two leaders spoke of their “deep friendship,” and Argentina joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a state-backed effort for global influence, stated The Guardian.

They did, however, also sign an agreement in which China reaffirmed its support for Argentina’s Falkland Islands claim, while Fernández endorsed Xi’s one-China policy, which claims Taiwan as a part of the mainland. The statement said Argentina should be able to “fully exercise its sovereignty over the Malvinas (Falklands) Islands issue”.

 

But Truss said: “We completely reject any questions over sovereignty of the Falklands. The Falklands are part of the British family and we will defend their right to self-determination. China must respect the Falklands’ sovereignty.”

Even though this has triggered a diplomatic row between the two countries that already remain embroiled in tensions on various issues, this is not the first time when China has backed Argentina’s claim over the islands.

In June of last year, a Chinese envoy had called for worldwide efforts to abolish colonialism and outlined China’s position on the Malvinas Islands.

 

Beijing-London relations have deteriorated considerably in recent years, with the two nations battling over trade, Hong Kong, and human rights. It is ironic though that China which asserts its sovereignty over the self-governing island of Taiwan does not endorse UK’s control over the Falkland Islands.

Beijing’s stand could be seen as a message to the West. Several western countries support Taiwan’s democracy and independence and oppose the Chinese belligerence and pressure tactics over Taipei.

What Is The Falkland Issue?

Hundreds of Argentine troops landed in the Falkland Islands, also known as the Islas Malvinas in Argentina, on April 2, 1982.

The islands were a British overseas territory located 400 miles east of Argentina and 8,000 miles south of the United Kingdom. The islands were the subject of a long-running dispute between Britain and Argentina, despite their modest size and limited population.

After numerous heavy firefights, the small British garrison surrendered on April 2 in the afternoon. It was a much-needed success for Argentina’s military junta, which intended to divert attention away from its brutal rule and other domestic concerns.

The junta assumed that Britain, which was dealing with its own domestic difficulties, would not strike back from afar. However, Britain dispatched 15,000 men to retake the islands over the next 74 days, aboard warships, logistical ships, and even cruise liners.

After failed discussions over control of the islands, the conflict began in earnest on May 1, 1982. Argentine planes fired the first shots in the air, seeking to intercept a Royal Navy task force dispatched to prepare the area for the invasion force.

However, the British military was able to steadily advance and gain an advantage with each passing day with its superior air and naval power. Finally, on June 14, the Argentines, surrounded by all sides, surrendered.

Although China’s military was not involved in the Falklands conflict in any manner, its analysts have studied it extensively, owing to the many parallels that may be found in a conflict over Taiwan, according to a previous article of Business Insider.

Why China Cares About Falklands

Argentine President Fernández has improved his country’s ties with China, which surpassed Brazil as Argentina’s top trading partner in 2020. Bilateral trade increased by 56 percent from 2007 to 2019, reaching $15 billion. Argentina joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in March 2021, and now finally, it has formally joined China’s BRI.

 

As China aims to expand beyond its immediate region of influence and forge economic relations with South American countries, its support to their stated territorial position is expected to deepen the partnership between them to China’s benefit. It has been interpreted as a plan to occupy space in a region that the United States has traditionally treated as its own backyard.

Further, Beijing has repeatedly chastised Britain’s “colonial mindset” in relation to the Falkland Islands, which overwhelmingly opted to remain a British overseas territory in a plebiscite in 2013.

Last June, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Geng Shuang, spoke on decolonization and advocated for the abolition of all forms of colonialism. Argentina attempted to begin negotiations with the United Kingdom regarding the sovereignty of the islands during the same session.

“But it’s OK for the UK to question China’s sovereignty in the South China Sea by sending navy vessels?” Chen Weihua, a journalist for China Daily, an English-language publication owned by the Chinese Communist Party, said in response to Britain’s outrage against the Chinese-Argentine statement. “At the very least, China has not sent its navy to the Malvinas, or the Falkland Islands.”

Recently, China also reaffirmed its support and friendship with Russia. In a joint statement with Russia, it called on the West to “abandon the ideological approaches of the Cold War” as the Russian build-up on the Ukrainian border remains at an all-time high.

The modus operandi has been the same. In the joint statement with Russia, China rebuked the US for encouraging protests in Hong Kong and indirectly supporting independence for Taiwan while Russia expressed its discomfort with NATO expansion.

With the Falkland issue, Beijing is probably doing a tit-for-tat with the West.

Tucker Carlson: Things are falling apart every quickly

Very, very interesting. Worth a watch.

Cheesecake-Stuffed Pumpkin Bread

This easy pumpkin and cake mix bread gets an eye-catching swirl when it’s stuffed with a creamy, cheesecake filling.

Ingredients

Pumpkin Bread

• 1 box Betty Crocker™ Super Moist™ yellow cake mix
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 4 eggs

Cheesecake Filling

• 6 oz (from 8-oz package) cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg

The Taiwanese are getting pretty darn upset with the current Taiwan government

US pushing war on China: Malaysia’s ex PM explains imperialism’s roots in capitalism

Malaysia. Listen what is being stated here.

The party and the ox

A man killed a big ox, lit the grill, and said to his daughter: “Daughter, call our friends, family and neighbors to eat with us… Let’s feast!”

His daughter went out into the street and started screaming, “Please help us put out a fire in my father’s house!”

After a few moments, a small group of people came out; and the rest acted as if they hadn’t heard the cries for help.

Whoever came ate and drank until they swelled up.

The stunned father turned to his daughter and said, “I don’t know any of the people who came, I’ve never seen them before. Where are our friends and family?”

The daughter said, “These people came out of their homes to help us put out fires in our house, not for the party. These are the ones who deserve our generosity and hospitality.”

Conclusion – “those who don’t help you during your fight, shouldn’t eat with you at the victory party”.