I was a juror on a murder trial. An older, disabled gentleman, Bill, was charged with murdering a 20-year-old male, Derrick, twice his size and 1/3 his age.

It was in Baltimore. Bill was a quiet tiny gentleman. He was disabled from a bus accident that left him with a small settlement, a disability check from the government, and a metal plate in his head.

The gentleman that was killed was young, and judging from the photographs entered into evidence, very powerful. He was shot once, through the heart, with a .38 caliber bullet. He died as he was falling to the ground.

On the day of the killing, the accused had gone to cash his disability check. “Check day” was well-known in Baltimore at the time. All, or most government checks physically arrived on the same day each month. On this day, checks are cashed, rents paid, groceries purchased, needs met. Depending on the needs that are met, it can get pretty energetic on check day.

Maisee and Derrick encountered Bill at the check cashing center. Maisee knew he would be there because her mom did some cooking and cleaning for Bill, and he always paid her mom right after check day. Maisee and Derrick demanded money from Bill. He refused and started walking home. They followed him to the street, pushed him down, and kicked him. He pulled a revolver from his pocket, fired it into the air, and got away running towards his apartment.

Derrick and Maisee followed him, with Derrick picking up a piece of steel rebar, and Maisee throwing rocks. Bill ran to his house. He realized he couldn’t unlock the door and get inside before they caught him, and firm in the knowledge that any strong blow to the metal plate in his head could kill him, he pulled the revolver from his pocket, shot one time, and a man was dead.

The police and ambulance were called. Derrick was taken to a hospital to be pronounced dead. Bill was found and arrested in his bedroom, hiding under his bed. He had hidden the pistol in the back of his closet. It was a five shot revolver. It had three empty chambers, and two expended shells. He literally had no more bullets.

Baltimore city was as violent then as now, and gun crime was prosecuted to the maximum. Bill was charged with 2nd degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, assault, discharging a firearm in the city limits, everything. Baltimore was going to prosecute its way out of crime.

Judge M. was presiding. She was a no-nonsense black lady in charge of a case where an old black man was accused of killing a young black man. The girlfriend Maisee, was also black. Race enters into this because of her reaction.

Maisee told the police that she and Derrick had confronted Bill because he had beaten her mom. The defense attorney called Maisee’s mom as witness, and asked a few about Bill. No, he had always been kind, and had never hit her.

Of course, the case for the defense was self-defense.

When the defense attorney was asking Maisee about the events of the day, it was clear that he wanted to establish the fact that Bill had run from the confrontation several times, that it was physical, and it was escalating. Every time she began her answer, she prefaced it with a variation of “he beat my mother”.

“How did you meet Bill?”

He’s the man that beat my mother.

That was the lead-in to every answer she gave. The defense attorney objected, because the police had asked, and her mother had testified that he was only paying her to help him around the house. Judge M. told the jury to ignore that remark, and instructed her twice to answer only the questions as they had been asked, without any mention of the fictionalized assault.

She did it again, was interrupted by the judge, and the jury was sent from the court so she could better instruct Maisee.

When we came back to court, Maisee was still in the witness box, and the highly professional defense attorney asked her about the chase through the street, where Maisee and Derrick were following him, she with rocks, Derrick with a piece of steel… Maisee answered to the effect that “He had been beating on my..

Judge M: “Miss xxxxx (Maisee) do not make such a reference again. Now please just answer the question as we discussed.

Maisee: ”Well if you would stop interrupting me…”

THAT’S ENOUGH!

“Young lady, if you think I sweated and worked myself nearly to death to get on the Baltimore Police Department as one of the first black female officers, worked every weekend, night, and holiday shift the good Lord sent my way to pay for my night school law classes, studying law while raising two kids so I could become one of the first black female lawyers in Baltimore, and the first female black judge in the city just so some gum-popping finger-snapping Miss Thang can tell me how to conduct my courtroom, then here is your another think coming.”

“The next two words out of your mouth will be ‘I apologize’. You will apologize to this court, and you will then apologize to the jury for wasting their time. Then, every question you are asked will be answered as it is asked. You will show nothing but a respectful voice and tone in your answers to me, or any member of my court, and before I allow you to respond to me, I want to make one thing absolutely and perfectly clear to you: I will put you in jail for contempt of court. And that stands for you, and anyone else in this courtroom who wants to test my patience today. Now, what do you have to say?”

“I apologize. To you, and the jury.”

“Excellent. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I regret you had to witness that, but we judges are only human, and my understanding and acceptance of some habits is growing thin over the years.”

We, the jury went back to the jury room later, and all promised not to make Judge M. angry no matter what.

I shared this story later with a couple of lawyer friends that I knew practiced in city court, and they had the same long, slow whistle response that I did on that day, and mentioned that they had heard of that episode before.

Sorry for the long prelude, but it was a heck of a thing to witness, and I remember the hush that fell on that courtroom was as if all the oxygen had left. Everyone was remembering an important appointment anywhere else, but afraid to broach the subject. That lady was impressive.

If you are interested, we found the old fellow innocent of everything except discharging a handgun inside city limits, which he plainly admitted to doing.

I checked out the defense attorney, and he is still practicing: A. Dwight Pettit was a heck of a defense attorney then, and most certainly got better. That guy was as smooth as wet silk, and smarter than anyone has a legitimate right to be.

Edit notes. I updated the story to include a warning shot that the old fellow fired on the street.

I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of readers and comments. When I posted my story, I was concentrating on the actions of the judge. It wasn’t until I saw the comments about the guilty verdict for discharging a weapon in the city limits that I began searching my memory. This was twenty five years ago, and I had to think for a bit. I remembered being concerned that he only had two bullets. It was remembering that fact that brought the warning shot to mind. It was for the warning shot, fired into the air/street that he was found guilty. In retrospect, I wish I had worked harder for an innocent verdict on that as well.

As I reflect on that week-long trial, I remember being pleased and proud of how seriously the jury took our duty. It stunk, because a young man lost his life, a family lost a son, and a frail, old man feared for his life and took another.

Huawei begins Third-Gen 5G Massive MIMO deployment in global markets, starting from Philippines

Where are you getting this nonsense from?

You’re getting it from Western mainstream media.

Haven’t you learned your lesson yet? You can’t trust Western mainstream media. It constantly publishes anti-China propaganda. Western mainstream media is essentially the propaganda arm of Western hegemonic governments (USA, UK, Australia, Canada).

Pardon me? Did I read this correctly? You want to convince your Chinese girlfriend that you know her country and her country’s political system better than she, a native born Chinese?

You are smoking something stronger than tobacco and need to stop because China will put you in prison and throw away the key, unlike what they do to the Uighurs. That or you have no business dating this woman. None.

You do not respect her, her beliefs, or her country—and by extension, her heritage. I am all for interracial relationships. If I ever remarry I hope he’s Chinese so it’s not like I have problems with the practice. Interracial relationships can help two people grow stronger together and build a relationship of respect unique to them.

But not everyone should date interracially. It burns me up to see arrogant non-Chinese people treating their partner disrespectfully by assuming their Western view is automatically correct. It especially upsets me when it’s about something Chinese. Do you really think you know better than a native Chinese on these subjects?

Likely not! Sit back and ask questions of her. Intelligent and thoughtful questions. And then listen to her. If you disagree, respectfully express that and then drop it. It isn’t your job to change her. She’s not perfect but she’s entitled to her own political beliefs.

According to “the free world”, every country in theory is allowed the right to choose who to ally with. Which sounds logical and reasonable right?

Until they choose to ally with Russia, China, or Iran. Then, you get headlines like this

“How the West should respond to China’s search for foreign outposts”

“Chinese influence is spurring violence in the Solomon Islands”

“Why won’t India’s government condemn Vladimir Putin?”

“India’s vaunted strategic autonomy is a mirage”

“Iran’s rulers enthusiastically seek to destroy the liberal world order and therefore support Russia’s aggression.”

The hypocrisy of certain countries and their undying will to dictate to the little guy who they can and can’t have relations with is amusing. If Ukraine has the right to choose, why doesn’t the Solomon Islands?

Lemme tell you a story about some of the most hardcore and admirable vegans in the world.

In 2008, the Chinese province of Sichuan was hit by a giant earthquake. When a maternity ward in the city of 什邡 (Shifang) collapsed, the hospital manager helped the afflicted families seek refuge at the local Luohan Temple, a Buddhist place of worship.

The temple’s leader, 素全法師 (Master Suquan), did not hesitate to take them in, and let them pitch tents in the courtyard.

However, new dilemmas soon surfaced – some mothers were giving birth, leaving puddles of blood and filth on the temple’s holy grounds; babies needed to be breastfed, which meant mothers had to bare their breasts in public; husbands needed to slaughter, cook and feed livestock to their wives to help them recover after giving birth and produce breast milk.

These offended many of the monks, who lived by a strict code of discipline, including tenets on diet that forbade them from consuming living creatures (i.e. animals). They considered what the families were doing to be utterly taboo, blasphemous and disrespectful.

Master Suquan rebuked the other monks, by saying that the biggest taboo in the universe was to see a life in need of saving and doing nothing. Next to that, nothing even compared. He decreed that they had no business interfering with the choices of others.

He opened the temple’s granary and allowed the families to take anything they needed. When the local People’s Liberation Army medical corps arrived on the scene, the monks would cooperate and do their share to ensure the women had a roof over their heads, and managed to give birth in sanitised conditions. Most of them would have violated some tenet by helping a woman give birth. But it didn’t matter – saving lives was more important.

Eventually, 108 healthy new babies were delivered, and the mothers were all safe.

No doubt the act of slaughtering and eating animals can be horrific and traumatising, especially for privileged people with no other worries in their lives. And yet, most people on earth aren’t privileged white collar workers in developed countries with time, money, energy or knowledge to spare. They depend on meat to survive. Between loving animals and loving human beings, the biggest good is always to love human beings first.

How vegan are you? No more than a Buddhist monk, surely. If those monks could stand the sight of meat and other such “obscenities”, so could you.

Some years ago before the global financial crisis, I began to develop a habit of grinning at almost every piece of supposedly serious journalism on China, whether it was Time, NYT, the Economist or even the BBC and Der Spiegel.

I was unaware of my subconscious bubbling to the surface until my friend asked worriedly “why are you smiling at the laptop?”

I came to the realization I was reading about China in English, and it was a far different picture from the one painted in Chinese, a rusty language I had brushed up in my two years stateside.

I was tickled by the absurd gap between the two, further reinforced by the dismantling of the China in my mind with the reality of modern China I had witnessed with my own eyes.

I have slowly come around to the conclusion that the free west love communist China for the same reason they hate her.

I kid you not.

You see, the west loves doing business with China because she is big and delivers.

But the west also hates competing with China because she is big and delivers.

The west used to dismiss and laugh off Chinese competition.

Today, they still dismiss Chinese efforts, but there is no laughter. The rhetoric is designed to stir up anger instead.

China delivers, but that is because the evil communists government has turned the poor Chinese people into a monolithic army of spying zombies.

Anyone who wakes up from the zombie apocalypse will be caught and delivered to Tiananmen square to die under passing tank tracks.

Evil must be opposed.

Cue heroic music and the entrance of the white hero with guns blazing to save the day.

On a more serious note, the CCP leadership over the past 70 years has led China from an agrarian, feudal, war-ravaged and exhausted society to a confident, peaceful and modern nation state that has landed on the far side of the moon and launched her own Beidou GPS system with global coverage.

China is behind because she squandered a century and three generations whilst the west industrialized.

She is closing the gap, because a stable China at peace is a formidable proposition.

My Favorite Martian S01E01 (1963) colorized

Yes. Meet “Tipsy”:

This is a picture of her when I brought her home.

I adopted her from Humane Society when she was 2-years-old. She’s diagnosed with Cerebellar Hypoplasia.

Basically, her hips tip as she walks.

She’s grumpier than most cats. It’s lots of low growls (or something like that) from this girl, if another cat just walks past her the wrong way.

She has mood swings. “Yay! I love you!” or “Ew! Get away from me!” in seconds.

She always tries to beat me to a door. Don’t let her wobbly demeanor fool you, she’s a fast cat! If she hears the creak of a door, she’s at my feet.

She LOVES hugs! I swear, she could hug on me for hours. She puts her arms around me and presses her face against my shoulder. So sweet!

She needs a little extra help with going potty. She’s litter-trained, but accident-prone. I have to hold her hips still, to avoid any poos or pees out of the litter.

She loves to explore! Since she can’t jump too high, she’s safe in my backyard (under supervision, of course). I take her for short walks, to parks, even on road trips (although she’s only been on one).

She’s scared of loud noises. Fireworks, thunder, barking, car horn, ocean waves—she needs a hug to get past those sounds.

She’s completely healthy. While she may look different, walk different, meow different, and act different—she’s not all that different. She’s a normal kitty that will live a long, healthy life. She’s currently 9-years-old, going strong!

The Wild, Wild West s02e10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PeJVsRsKJM

To be honest, I would also like to know what China has done! I’ve been racking my brain thinking, did China disrespect the US? Did it provoke the United States? Or did it collude with other countries to try to bring down the US? But I don’t see China doing anything like this at all. On the contrary, it is the US that has been actively provocative and offensive. So I reasonably believe that the United States is turning their jealousy of China’s rapid development into a containment policy that suppresses China in an all-round way.

I want to ask every fair and rational person, is there anything wrong with making his country strong and prosperous? In the past three decades, China has experienced unprecedented economic growth in modern history, with a GDP that rivals that of the United States.Some people see this as a threat to the United States, but in fact, China is doing so well because the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party are trying to make life better for the Chinese people. Moreover, China’s economic growth has directly benefited the United States, and the United States has always been dominant in bilateral trade. It is unfair to blame China for the US economic recession. This is entirely caused by the mistakes of the US’s own economic policies.

As we all know, China is the most peaceful major country in the world. It has always been moderate and does not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs like the US. It hopes to coexist peacefully with other countries for mutual benefit and win-win results. China will not compete with the United States for hegemony, but the real problem with China is that it does not want to dominate the world, but it may prevent the United States from doing so in a unipolar manner. Therefore, we are now seeing more and more of China’s counterattack against some of the sanctions imposed by the United States.

So do you know what the truth is? The United States has tried hard to make so many accusations against China, but what the United States is really angry about is China’s “crime of disobedience.” There are many countries that are not obedient, but only China is the “real threat” in the eyes of the United States. Because of its size and influence, it enjoys good popularity in the world.

Finally, I would like to ask if a country relies on its own strength to be arrogant and domineering, requiring the whole world to act according to its will, interfere in other countries’ internal affairs under the banner of “human rights” and “justice” and even launch wars, will you stand up and resist? Maybe some people say yes, some say no, I understand. But if there is another powerful country to stand up bravely for you to fight back, help maintain world peace and multilateralism, help poor countries develop, would you support it? I hope there is no hesitation now.

American Roulette

By Batiushka for The Saker blog

Introduction: America’s Death-Wish

‘Russian roulette’ is a most peculiar expression. At least for any Russian. For the simple reason that he has never heard of it. In fact, it does not exist in Russian, neither the expression, nor the reality. It is something we learn about with astonishment when we learn English. The expression is an American invention and only an American with a death-wish could have thought up such a thing, in 1937, in fact (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_roulette). And so it is that only an American with a death-wish could have thought up the present situation. He has poked the bear so much and so often for over thirty years that the bear has had a lot of time to plan exactly what he would do. Now he is doing it. Why are you surprised? You loaded the gun and pointed it at your own head, now expect the bullet to come out.

Where We Came From

The Special Military Operation (SMO) in the Ukraine could have been over as early as April 2022, or at latest in August when most of the old Soviet weapons of the Kiev regime forces, augmented by supplies from ex-Warsaw Pact countries, had been destroyed. However, ignoring the Ukrainian people, since they are mere cannon fodder, the West intervened and escalated the conflict into a full-scale war by supplying its weaponry, technology and manpower at the bidding of the Westernised Ukrainian oligarchate. (Just as in February 1917, when the West created the ‘Russian Revolution’ at the bidding of the Westernised Russian oligarchate, also ignoring the people). Thus, the Ukraine has become merely the battleground for the real War, that between Russia and the USA.

The Russian response to Western escalation and aggression is partial mobilisation. The limited SMO will need more manpower to defeat the doomed NATO-supplied Nazis, whose numbers have been much increased by the arrival of NATO troops in Ukrainian uniform as well as by mercenaries. President Putin was accused by the Western ruling class through their State-controlled media mouthpieces of threatening them with nuclear attack. This was not the case. He had simply answered Truss, who had threatened Russia with nuclear attack, replying that any such aggression would be met by Russia with the same.

President Putin now awaits the winter in order to give the peoples of Western Europe opportunities to reflect and then force their spineless leaders to reject American tyranny. Since 2014 President Putin has become determined to remove the American threat to his Western borders and so to Western and Central Europe once and for all. Only then will the North-Western peninsula of the Eurasian continent at last become free. In order to do this, he has built up relationships with China, India and others in Asia, as well as with many countries in Africa and Latin America. Thus, in recent months he has rapidly gathered influence all over Eurasia.

Where We Are Now

As the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991, so the European Union between 2022 and 2024. Now is not the time for top-down Unions –in the last two generations since 1989 they have been collapsing in favour of international co-operation between sovereign nations, as is needed by the grassroots. Demonstrations have taken place in the Czech Lands, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, all calling on Kiev to start negotiating with Russia, and on the EU Commissars to stop behaving like vassals of the US feudal magnates. Germany is very nervous, it risks its industry shutting down. And German winters can be very cold. Now the two undersea Nordstream pipelines for Russian gas to Germany, have exploded. Of course, it is sabotage.

The USA has successfully cut off German industry, and much of Europe, from the Russian gas that could have powered it up again, had the EU wanted to be free of dependence on the US. The Hungarian government also wants Kiev to negotiate – it has Hungarian citizens across the border in Zakarpattia. And there are those in Romania who think the same about the province of Romanian Chernivtsi across the border, though those who think that are not allowed to be part of the present US-puppet government. Poland also wants its territory back, perhaps all five provinces of the far western Ukraine: Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk. Meanwhile, Italy is about to get a new, anti-Brussels nationalist government, much to the dislike of the unelected EU elite.

The euro has already collapsed against the dollar. Now it is the turn of the pound sterling. The pound sterling has lost 20% of its value against the dollar since MissTrust came to power. The UK, stabbed in the back by the US for its anti-EU policy on Northern Ireland, has an economy which is not emerging from covid, but submerging after covid. The UK Establishment media trumpet that the UK State Health Service’s waiting lists are now down to only (sic) two years for most people (if you don’t die before that). Over 10% of UK citizens, 7 million people, are now waiting for treatment. Some are in great pain. In any other country in the world, there would be a revolution if waiting lists for health treatment were longer than two months. Some UK citizens are even going to the Ukraine to get proper health treatment.

The UK’s infrastructure, utilities, roads, railways, education and healthcare, has in many places reached what used to be called ‘Third World’ levels. The UK currency crisis has come about because of the UK government’s need to borrow huge amounts of money – this was MissTrust’s ‘bold plan’. After all, the UK Establishment follows to the letter US orders and has had to refuse Russia’s riches and subsidise the bankrupt Ukraine. The UK level of debt is now approaching that of the USA and catching up with that of Italy, whom it used to mock as a ‘basket case’. As they say: ‘What goes round, comes round’.

Where We Are Going

How will all this end? From the start I have believed that this will all end with the Russian victory. This means:

1. Another Ukraine

There will always be an East Slav-speaking country between south-eastern Poland and south-western Russia, whatever it will be called. However, in the future it will be a country within its natural borders, occupied only by those who voluntarily identify with the government and culture in their capital of Kiev. Moreover, deNazified, it will present no military, biological or nuclear threat to its neighbours and will be independent of geopoliticians in Washington and Brussels.

2. Another Russia

As a result of the War against NATO, Russia will be freed of the froth of Westernised sycophants formed in the 1990s, the liberal chattering classes, called in Russian ‘the creative class’. The 5% who are enserfed to the West and its overpriced consumer baubles are only repeating the treason of the Westernised ruling class and traitors from before 1917 who also wasted their fortunes on overpriced Western consumer baubles. Those who will continue to behave like chimpanzees with regard to their Western lords and masters should go and live in the West, if they have not already fled Russian justice for Finland, Georgia or elsewhere. Russia at war against NATO (= the US) is a land that needs patriots, not traitors.

3. Another Europe

At the present time Central and Western Europe risk ‘Donbassisation’ as a result of US demands for absolute obedience to their anti-Russian tyranny, known as ‘sanctions’. This means that NATO-ised Central and Western Europe will become deindustrialised, impoverished, cold, hungry and also left defenceless, as their arms will have been destroyed in the Ukraine. However, it is only at that low point that they will begin to understand that their future is not across the Atlantic, but next door, with Eastern Europe and Eurasia, the gateway to Asian growth and prosperity.

4. Another World

Seven billion of the eight billion people of the world, 87.5% of the planet, await the day of freedom from Western imperialism, exploitation and nuclear threats, aspiring to humanity, truth, justice and prosperity. Their only hope is the coming Russian victory over the US. Once that is here, much will fall back into its natural place. Asia with China and India, Africa, Latin America and all the Western peoples (basically, Western and Central Europe, North America and Oceania), so long oppressed by the gloomy darkness of the feudal Western elite, will be able to follow in Russian footsteps and walk, at first dazzled, into the bright daylight of freedom.

Conclusion

In 1939, quite infamously, Winston Churchill expressed his extraordinary ethnocentric ignorance by calling Russia ‘a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma’. Like many ignorant people, he was of course talking about himself. When you cannot be bothered to understand someone else’s viewpoint, just call it ‘a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma’. You will then have successfully defined yourself as a blinkered and selfish narcissist. The only thing is, when you depend on that someone else for vital gas, oil, fertiliser, wheat, paper, titanium etc, maybe you really should after all make an effort to understand their viewpoint. Otherwise, they will definitely consider your death-wish, the totally suicidal behaviour of your American Roulette as, ‘a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma’.

Eagles – Turn To Stone (1977)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzkKAyFpnjY

US politicians move to introduce radical bill over China’s Taiwan, in a ‘dangerous provocation’

By  Wang QiPublished: Sep 29, 2022 11:06 PM

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In the latest round of increasingly frequent attempts by US politicians to “score points” by provoking China over the Taiwan question ahead of the midterm elections, Republicans introduced their own version of the highly provocative “Taiwan Policy Act 2022,” which is more radical and dangerous than the version approved by Senate Foreign Relations Committee two weeks ago.

Analysts said that as the current House minority, some Republican lawmakers have tried to use their version of the Taiwan Policy Act to put pressure on Democrats and speed up the progress of the legislation. But at the same time, it also shows that there are indeed some pragmatists among Democrats who are concerned over the damage the bill will do to China-US relations.

Along with 36 other House Republicans, Michael McCaul, Republican leader of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced the House minority’s version of the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 on Wednesday.

According to VOA, the Taiwan Policy Act introduced by GOP House representatives retained and restored some highly sensitive requirements in the original version, including a requirement that the US increase strategic clarity in “defending Taiwan” and designate Taiwan authorities as a major “non-NATO ally.”

The GOP’s bill calls for the renaming of the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office” as the “Taiwan Representative Office.” The legislation would also require the US to sell Taiwan island more weapons.

On September 14, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved its own version of the bill initially introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez and Senator Lindsey Graham in June.

Republicans, the minority party in the House of Representatives, came up with a new version of the bill to further hype the Taiwan question, and apparently to pressure Democrats in Congress and the White House to speed up the passing of the bill before the midterm elections, Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.

“I don’t think it means that the Democrats, who have a majority in the Congress, are interested in passing this bill quickly,” Diao said. “If the Democrats want the legislation to be achieved as soon as possible, it should be the Democrats that introduce a House version, which is different from the reality.”

But it does show that some members of the pragmatic wing of the Democratic Party are concerned about being so loud and provocative in damaging China-US ties, Diao noted.

Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense, expressed strong opposition to and condemnation of a series of recent US acts that infringe upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including the Taiwan Policy Act and arms sales, at a press briefing on Thursday.

Some people in the US have violated the one-China principle, reneged on their political commitment to China on the Taiwan question, and strengthened military ties with Taiwan island’s DPP. These provocative actions are very dangerous and do great harm, Tang said.

We urge the US side to end military links with the DPP authorities, or bear the resulting serious consequences, Tan added.

Despite the belligerence of the US lawmakers in drafting the Taiwan Policy Act 2022, experts say that procedurally, there is limited time for the bill to complete its legislative process before the midterm elections.

If more Democrats join the Republicans, the bill is likely to be taken up in the House, followed by bipartisan, House-Senate negotiation. If there is no reaction from the Democratic majority, the bill will just sit there and the Senate version will go to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where it will be reviewed and amended, and another long process of bipartisan, House-Senate negotiation will ensue, experts said.

In less than 40 days, Congress needs to pass a series of appropriations bills for fiscal year 2023, as well as some major authorization acts, such as the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023.

However, experts warned of the risks that lawmakers defeated in the election may be more likely to be driven by “special interests” to do risky things for the sake of their legacy. As for the possible winners, they may also do something extreme in the next two months on the Taiwan question in order to meet their own interests.

Although November 8 is the date set for the midterm elections, lawmakers who lose will have to leave office by January 3. If the legislative process for the Taiwan Policy Act is not completed by this date, the next Congress will have to go through the whole process of proposal, review and approval all over again, Diao said.

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The “Indian chef” came to our house to fix a meal for our office staff and the neighborhood. The guy had creds. He was the chef at some of the G7 meetings, at various White House events, and carried with him clippings from various magazines that followed his career.

He came to us owing to the kindness of his son, who was training our technical staff on some specialized software. When he learned of my love of Indian cuisine, he said, “Great! I’ll bring my father next time, and he’ll cook for you!”

Which he did.

I collected father from his hotel in the early afternoon, when he handed me his clippings and I began to comprehend his skill and authenticity. He carried with him a black “doctor’s bag” which contained various spices and herbs and some utensils. Our agreement was that I would buy whatever food he wanted, and he would cook, gratis.

Off went we to a supermarket, where he trundled the cart up and down the aisles, tossing in this and that, eventually filling the cart. I was getting nervous about the cost of all that food. But I need not have been. Most everything was fresh — he would be cooking from scratch. We didn’t get coconut milk; we got the coconuts! And the only meat was chicken wings. The bill, I think, was around $60.00. To feed about 20 people.

Now back home, he took over the kitchen, directing the volunteer helpers and me to do this and that. And there was he, roasting red peppers directly on the stove burners! When they caught fire, he would hold them by their stems and gently rotate them for an even char. Pots of heaven knows what were bubbling, and the most alluring fragrances soon filled the home and wafted onto the street.

At roughly 6 p.m., he directed the assembled company to evacuate and await his call to dinner; he and his son would finish everything and set table.

And so we gathered on the deck, preparing ourselves with copious volumes of spirits, wine and beer, while struggling with churning stomachs which eagerly anticipated the feast to follow.

At last, we were called into the dining room, where his creations were arrayed down the center of the table. He explained what each item was, and from what region of India it originated. “I hope you enjoy,” he concluded, modestly. I then asked if people of Hindu faith had such a thing as “grace” before dinner. “We do,” he said. I replied, “Please, then, give us a traditional blessing for this food.”

Which he did.

Now as it turns out, a Hindu blessing is not like the short Christian prayer most of us knew. No, it was more in the nature of a little sermon, drawing parallels between food and nature and goodwill and music and I forget what else; but it all had to do with a kind of karmic harmony. All very nice, but at this point, we were ravenous and wondered when his hermeneutics might, at last, conclude.

Which they shortly did. I pulled out a chair of honor, for him, but he wasn’t having it. No, he preferred to keep the platters and serving bowls filled, to clean up scraps and otherwise wait on us. I didn’t argue.

So at last among the clatter and clinking of plates, bowls, and silverware, we circled the table, filling our plates and either sitting right there or drifting off to the porch, the deck or other rooms as space permitted. And every time we returned for seconds, or thirds, or more, the serving vessels were all filled, again.

By 10 p.m., we were all fully sated and immobile; belt buckles were loosened, bras discreetly removed; there we sat or we laid out like beached whales, groaning with contentment, emitting vapors from our pores or otherwise.

When at last I stumbled to the kitchen, I found it pristine. The left-overs had been neatly packaged and stowed in the refrigerator, and the Indian chef was quietly reading the newspaper. And he thanked ME for the privilege of serving us. He and his son took their leave.

Sixty dollars, over 20 people, a sumptuous feast, prepared by a famed chef. And there were leftovers.

Incredible.

The Guitar Man – Bread – HQ/HD

I was 13 years old…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPoJNdKNT40

Followed a rabbit down a hole.

I own a cleaning chemical manufacturing business in Australia. My business makes all sorts of cleaning chemicals for retail, industry, commercial and end users. My niche, something the business does very well, is private labelling.

The vast majority of the products leaving my business has other company’s labels, not my own. This has it’s pros and cons but for me and my business it has been hugely successful.

Now here’s the thing. I receive an awful lot of enquiries from people who want their own brand cleaning chemicals and most are simply too small for me to deal with. I give them the time of day but know they are wasting my time.

So this one day, maybe 5 years ago or more, my business receives an email from a Chinese online seller wanting us to manufacture and private label, cleaning chemicals for him and ship them to China for him to sell online.

Of course I dismissed this as an absolute waste of my time. China manufactures for the world. Almost every western nation has outsourced their manufacturing sector to China, why would he want me to manufacture for him?

Fortunately I didn’t dismiss it entirely. What I did was tell my sales rep to “follow the rabbit down the hole and see how far the hole goes”.

From their it progressed. We sent samples, which I was sure would not only be a waste of my time but now my money too. We waited for the samples to get there, and then be tested by them, and to my surprise they wanted to move forward.

So we priced up the products they were interested in and sent through the quote. This would finally put a stop to this absurdity and I could get back to business as usual. Even though I priced it fairly, I was certain we would be too expensive.

But no. Too my surprise they in fact wanted to place an order for something like 20000 500ml bottles. Now I was certain it was a scam. I had been suspicious all along, after all China buying from an Australian manufacturer didn’t make any sense at all. A scam!

My response was I won’t do anything until 100% of the invoice is paid and only after the money has been sitting in my account for a week. They agreed and promptly paid. It turns out they are legitimate after all.

Not only are they legitimate but they are wonderful people and fantastic to deal with and now some several years later they buy a 40 foot container every month on average and it is growing. It is great business to have and fantastic to be supplying China instead of the other way around.

So why did they want to buy from us I hear you say? I asked them the very same question.

Because China has a lot of middle class and wealthy people that don’t necessarily trust products made in China. These people prefer products made in Australia, the UK and the USA. So my client invented his own brand that is manufactured in Australia. And it has been hugely successful for him and for my business.

An insignificant email I almost dismissed entirely as a waste of time has changed my life and my business considerably.

Before I leave you I will tell you what he said to me when I asked him why he chose my business.

“You were the only one that responded to my email.”

Phew! I nearly didn’t either.

Did your cat make your house a home?

Absolutely. My wife and I decided to remain childless – and we never really intended on adopting cats. But here we are. The kittens were born in our parlor and we have been a constant presence since they took their first sniffs and opened their eyes. We are as much their parents as mama Pumpkin and daddy Midnight. They let us do things to them that Pumpkin would never allow us to do to her. Dr Wifey has confessed on several occasions that she has never been around an animal that has loved, trusted, and needed her so much, and fulfills her natural maternal instinct that we rightly avoided with human children.

If you aren’t familiar with out story, Midnight was also born in our house prior to our buying it – so the only ones who weren’t born here are us and Pumpkin, a minority! The dynamic is pretty incredible and interesting. I love that they are all comfortable here, especially Pumpkin. Her life, as was Midnight’s, was so hard outdoors. She hasn’t been outside for 18 months as of yesterday- and she displays no desire to leave. She enjoys lying on the screened porch watching nature – or just napping – but she loves her big house with her family – and I love that I could provide this for her.

Why has China increased military activity around Taiwan?

China is sending a message to the world, loud and clear:

• Stay out of China’s domestic matter. You cannot prevent Taiwan reunification.
• China will reunify with Taiwan one way or the other. She prefers peaceful reunification but is not above using force.
• This matter is non-negotiable.

Get the message?

Russia Says US Probably Sabotaged the Pipelines!

Andrew Anglin • September 28, 2022

Ah, tank man Radosław Sikorski claims the US is behind the pipeline sabotage.

Either the United States bombed the pipes directly, or the US puppet state “Ukraine” bombed the pipes in the name of the Western war on Russia.

There is no other possibility.

RT:

 Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has asked who the EU intends to punish with the “strongest possible response” for damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

The diplomat said Poland’s former foreign minister has already identified the US as the party behind the apparent sabotage. Radoslaw Sikorski is well connected to Washington elites through his employment at various think tanks.

The two Nord Stream pipelines were seriously damaged this week in what is suspected to have been a deliberate attack.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday called the incident “sabotage action” and warned that “any deliberate disruption of active European energy infrastructure is unacceptable and will lead to the strongest possible response.” 

 

 On Wednesday, Zakharova asked who exactly the warning would apply to.

“I don’t get it. MEP Sikorski thanked the US for what had happened, so whom is Ursula ‘threatening’ there?” she wrote on social media.

Zakharova was referring to the reaction to the incident by Sikorski, now an EU lawmaker, who posted a photo of the site where the explosions occurred on Twitter with the words: “Thank you, USA.” He described the incident as a “special maintenance operation.”

Sikorski added that “there’s no shortage of pipeline capacity for taking gas from Russia to Western Europe, including Germany,” referring to the Yamal-Europe land pipeline that goes through Belarus and Poland. After the damage to the Nord Stream strings, Russian President Vladimir Putin “will have to talk to countries controlling” the alternative route to resume supplies, he predicted.

Zakharova earlier asked if Sikorski’s tweets amounted to an “official statement that this was a terrorist attack.” Meanwhile, Dmitry Polyanskiy, the Russian deputy ambassador to the UN, thanked Sikorski for “making it crystal clear who stands behind this terrorist-style targeting of civilian infrastructure!” 

The Ukrainian Jews came out and blamed Russia for the pipeline attacks, which means the Ukraine probably did it themselves. The Ukraine has been obsessively pushing this “false flag” stuff whenever they do terrorism, so I think it’s safe to assume that whenever they blame Russia for something that benefits them, they did it.

Of course, bombing a pipeline is a pretty complicated sabotage operation – much easier than say, blowing up someone’s car – so it’s possible it was done by the US.

It’s notable that the US and NATO are doing drills in the Baltic Sea right now. It’s kind of a weird coincidence.

McHale’s Navy 3×28 The Great Necklace Caper

Have you ever stumbled across a valuable rare find at a garage/yard sale or a secondhand store and knew you were getting too good of a deal? If you bought it, did you feel guilty and tell the other party what you found was worth at some point?

I worked with an estate sale company for four years. We saw all sorts of things, and sometimes the first person to slap a price on items erred pretty spectacularly. So, we looked out for each other and often suggested bumping prices up or down (all before our first day of sales, during the prep week).

For example, there was a full canister of r-22 refrigerant someone had slapped $10 on (it was going for about $60 a pound at the time, and this held maybe 5 pounds). We bumped it up to $80 & it was still one of the first things to sell. Another time, there was a $10 box of lightbulbs that was $6 at the store – we bumped that down to $4. If a wildly underpriced item from your area came up to the register, you were going to catch heck from the boss later and you would also get chewed out (to a lesser degree) if few things sold in your zone of responsibility because they were all overpriced.

One thing though – if the boss had priced an item, you did *not* suggest changing that price. She took it as an insult to her pride (& really did have a good grasp on market pricing 99% of the time).

At one sale, I couldn’t work the prep week and came in just to help out during the sale days. Before the doors opened, I was doing a once over, looking for any items we had missed putting a price on. A big serving spoon caught my eye. It had a certain “bong” to it, that you may have read about in the Lovejoy novels. Simply lovely, well crafted, and heavy. I turned it over, and spotted English hallmarks (1815, London, if memory serves). It was about 3 ounces of silver… priced at $8.

Not knowing who had priced it, I took it up to the boss and suggested we bump the price up because it was hallmarked. She got a bit haughty and told me never mind, she had priced that one and serving spoons never sell. I said, “Well, OK” & put it exactly back on the table where I’d found it.

At exactly the 1 hour mark into the sale (when employees are allowed to buy items), I carried that silver spoon up to the front and put it in a basket. She didn’t think much of it, but I certainly felt like I’d found a way to pay myself that day.

Someday I’ll sell it. But, for now I keep it as a memento from that job and a reminder that no matter how much I think I know, it never hurts to listen to someone else for a second opinion.

Mr. Ed | Ed The Lover

5 Major Events That Have Happened Within The Last 100 Hours

September 27, 2022 by Michael

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If you think that nothing is happening, then you have not been paying attention.  Within the past 100 hours, there has been a mysterious attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline system, two monster storms have threatened North America, NASA rammed a spacecraft into an asteroid in order to knock it off course, and our ongoing stock market crash reached a new level when the Dow Jones Industrial Average officially plunged into bear market territory on Monday.  I would say that is a pretty active 100 hours, but of course this is just the beginning.  I believe that global events will continue to accelerate during the months ahead, but meanwhile most of the general population is still assuming that things will eventually “return to normal” somehow.

We live during times when so many things are happening all at once that it is truly difficult to keep up with it all.

Personally, I fully expect things to get even more “interesting” now that summer is over, and we are certainly off to a flying start.  The following are 5 major events that have happened within the last 100 hours…

#1 A series of explosions has caused “unprecedented” damage to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines…

The Nord Stream gas pipeline system endured “unprecedented” damage to three offshore lines on the bed of the Baltic Sea in one day, Nord Stream AG, the network’s operator, said on Tuesday.

The AG said it was impossible to estimate when the gas network system’s working capability would be restored.

“The destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented. It is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transport infrastructure,” the operator told reporters.

As I discussed in a previous article, these pipelines are very well constructed and are extremely thick.  In order to damage them, very large explosions would be needed, and that is apparently exactly what happened.  In fact, the explosions that damaged these pipelines were so large that they actually registered on the Richter scale.  Many European officials are insisting that this could not have been an accident, and I agree with them.

But if this was not an accident, who was responsible?

#2 Fiona turned out to be a truly historic disaster for our neighbors to the north.  It violently slammed into Nova Scotia on Saturday, and we are being told that it was one of the most powerful storms in the entire history of Canada…

Fiona, the most powerful storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, roared ashore in eastern Nova Scotia early Saturday as one of the strongest systems ever to hit the region, knocking out power, toppling trees and forcing residents to flee.

Across Nova Scotia, 414,000 households were without power, or about 80% of Nova Scotia Power’s customers. Thousands more were hit in neighboring areas as well.

This was definitely a “monster storm”, but it looks like an even bigger storm could be about to hit Florida…

#3 On Tuesday, Hurricane Ian strengthened into a “major Category 3 hurricane”, and forecasters are warning that it could actually turn into a Category 4 storm before it finally collides with the west coast of Florida on Wednesday…

The center of Ian could strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane as it continues to move over the Gulf, NBC News forecasters said.

Ian will continue to intensify today through Wednesday as it approaches the west coast of Florida on Wednesday “as an extremely dangerous major hurricane,” according to the National Hurricane Center.

Without a doubt, Ian is a very dangerous storm, and it has the potential to cause an immense amount of damage once it reaches shore.

#4 On Monday, NASA rammed a spacecraft into an asteroid for the first time in history in order to see if it could alter the trajectory of the giant space rock…

NASA’s DART mission slammed into Dimorphos, a smaller space rock circling a larger asteroid called Didymos, to see if it could throw off the orbit of a potential future asteroid that was threatening life on Earth. Scientists will be watching the Didymos system closely to see how much Dimorphos’ orbit actually changed – those results won’t come for at least another two months.

Confirmation of NASA’s successful planetary defense test came seconds after the 7:14 ET (00:14 BST) 14,000 mph collision, sparking applause among the ground team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. ‘Impact success!’ NASA tweeted after the DART spacecraft collided with the 560 foot asteroid, around 6.7 million miles away from Earth.

Is NASA conducting such a test for a specific reason?

If so, they would never actually admit it.

Personally, I have a feeling that this is a very important story that is far from over.

#5 U.S. stock prices continue to crash.

Unlike the crash of 2008, what we have witnessed so far in the fall of 2022 has been slow and steady.

But prices just keep going down.

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average officially entered bear market territory.

And then on Tuesday the Dow fell some more.

Overall, the Dow has now fallen 21.2 percent from the previous all-time high, the S&P 500 is down 24.3 percent from the record it set in January, and the Nasdaq has plummeted more than 33 percent from the peak that it hit last November.

The amount of wealth that has already been wiped out is absolutely staggering.  In fact, Forbes is reporting that the wealthiest tech tycoons have collectively lost 315 billion dollars over the past year…

Stock prices have dropped and inflation surged, making the members of The Forbes 400 list of the richest people in the U.S. a collective $500 billion poorer than last year. The wealthiest tech tycoons have taken the brunt of the beating: They have lost a combined $315 billion in net worth since the fall of 2021—accounting for nearly two thirds of the total drop in The Forbes 400’s wealth.

How would you feel if you and your friends lost 315 billion dollars in just one year?

Unfortunately, it appears that much more turmoil will be coming to Wall Street in the months ahead.

Economic problems are erupting all over the globe, more war is on the horizon, and our planet just keeps getting hit by one disaster after another.

It is almost as if we have entered some sort of a “perfect storm”, but most people out there still do not understand what is happening.

The strange events of the last 100 hours are not an anomaly.

We live at a time when really weird things are happening on a regular basis, and I have a feeling that the remainder of 2023 will bring us a lot more surprises.

 

What was life like in China year by year when it was having double digit GDP growth? What rapid quality of life improvements did you witness?

As a foreigner who has lived in China for almost twenty years, I think I have a lot to say on this issue.More than ten years have passed have passed since I followed my wife, whom I met abroad, to Hangzhou, China in 2005 and started a family here. Over the years, I have been to many places in China and have felt the many changes that have taken place. I would like to share my true feelings.

My city, Hangzhou, is located in the eastern part of China’s Zhejiang Province, it is a city with a long history and beautiful scenery. When I first came here, there were not so many high-rise buildings and clean and spacious streets, but many muddy and potholed alleys, poor drainage and even lack of lighting, and the traffic was not so convenient, but soon after I came here, Hangzhou government started a “city improvement” project, from road leveling, demolition of illegal buildings, construction of highways and overpasses to landscaping and landscape lighting, and suddenly the place became a new look. The city has suddenly become a new place. Hangzhou has been developing faster and faster over the years, with all kinds of beautiful skyscrapers going up and infrastructure getting better and better, and there are many scenic spots here, so more and more domestic and foreign tourists come here every year. As a “half” Hangzhouer, I am proud to be a part of it.

In addition to the changes in the appearance of the city, there is a change is also very obvious, that is, more and more small cars on the street. When I first came here, there were not many people driving cars, so I didn’t have to worry about traffic jams, but slowly, people are getting richer and richer, and more people are buying cars, but every time there is a traffic jam I can’t help but complain: I wish people weren’t so rich!

I have met many friends in China who have gotten better and better over the years. Almost all of my friends live in bigger and more beautiful houses, some completely self-funded and some government subsidized. I used to think that my friends were always hustling for a better life, they rarely thought about how well they would eat or how stylishly they would dress, they were always waiting for that “better” moment. Then one day, they finally began to enjoy, no longer “life is forced” hanging on the lips, food and clothing are more sophisticated, we have more opportunities to meet and have fun, and sometimes travel together. From them, I feel the happiness that life is becoming better and better. Of course, our family is also getting better and better.

The most amazing thing to me is that one day, cell phone payment suddenly appeared everywhere. You don’t need to carry cash when you go out, a cell phone can realize all the payments. Whether it’s taking the bus, taking the subway, eating at a restaurant, or visiting a tourist attraction, you can easily pay as long as your phone is in your hand, which is convenient and time-saving without worrying about the hidden dangers of carrying cash. In addition, you can also pay the phone bill, gas, electricity and other daily living expenses through the cell phone, no longer need to run to the relevant department institutions to pay, not to mention how convenient!

And, you know, there’s no fees. NONE. ZERO. No ATM fees, nor banking fees, no late fees, no “processing” fees. You can do it anywhere you want… pay in the toilet, at the bus station, in the taxi, at lunch. Easy to do, simple, and no fees at all for anything.

In addition to living in Hangzhou, I love to travel around China, it’s just so big and interesting! Every time I go to a different city, I get to experience a different culture and people. That’s why I found out that not only Hangzhou is changing, but also other places in China are developing and progressing. I used to have to take a train for more than 20 hours to go to places that are far away and not accessible by plane, but then there are many places that can be reached in 10 hours at most by high speed rail (you have to know that China is so big, this speed is already very impressive.) Over the years China has seen more and more high-speed trains and airports, connecting many big cities and smaller ones, forming a convenient transportation network, so you don’t have to worry about transportation when you go out to travel.

What struck me was some of the rural areas of China. I like to travel a lot, and when I first arrived in China, I would occasionally visit some rural areas, because many special landscapes are located in rural areas of China. But I have to admit that many of the places I visited at that time were not so economically developed, as evidenced by the muddy roads, backward infrastructure and imperfect tourism services, where people lacked transportation to get around and not many people had cell phones and computers. But when I went to these places several years later, I was shocked by the spacious and flat concrete roads, the solar-powered streetlights standing by the roadside, the beautiful buildings, and the well-built mobile communication base stations. I was amazed by such a strong change.

All of the above are the most realistic things I have seen and felt in the more than ten years I have lived in China. I have to admit that I didn’t like it very much at the beginning, but my wife is here and I am going to have a family here, so I choose to accept it. But when I saw the changes in both the big cities and the small places, I felt a huge surprise and emotion. China is a big country with a huge population. It is not easy to make the lives of so many people better in a short time, but China has done it. Now, I have fallen in love with the city of Hangzhou and with China.

So back to your question: What is life like in China that achieves double-digit GDP growth year after year? My answer is: progressive and full of hope. Welcome to come and see China if you have the chance.

Three Legged kitty

I have two 3-legged cats, Bert and Prius, but despite this difference they seem to be able to do everything they want to! They both can jump up 4–5 feet, and they often start the day with 3-legged races (zoomies). Bert is a master eater and cuddler, and Prius keeps close track of the activities of the next-door neighbors and the pigeons in the roof. And they are both exceptionally talented shedders of fur.

There’s an interesting difference between China, and say, US politics. I use the US as I am American and know more about my government than other Western countries.

In the US, it’s just a matter of course that our politicians accept large amounts of money for their campaign, that they have access to stock market trading information (I just read articles this week about Nancy Pelosi and her insider training), and they’re given money and perks by special interest groups and we call it lobbying. They have truckloads of money that their salary doesn’t explain (guess they got paid well for some appearances etc) and many if not most of them have mistresses or lovers outside of their marriage. They get special privileges if they’re ever pulled over by the police. Heck, Trump had advance notice that Mar-a-Lago was being raided. Must be nice!

We just accept all of that. We don’t like it but we know those with power will never vote to reduce their power. That’s why they never vote to set term limits even though it’s needed for both sides of the aisle. I’m fair about it; I hate both sides equally. We don’t like it but we know we can’t change it.

So we watch our country implode. Crumbling infrastructure, a homelessness epidemic, a drug crisis, kids being killed at school, systemic racism, urban inner city areas turned into turf wars and shoot-outs between gangs. Broken healthcare, broken education, broken justice system. We are broken.

In China? If their government officials are money hungry and ineffective they will pay for it. And depending on how bad the corruption they could receive the death penalty. People are people everywhere so of course some still try to fly under the radar but Xi’s reform and targeting of corruption has improved things a lot. Is he supposed to fix all of it in three terms when it’s a decades-old problem? He’s not God. He can’t work miracles. He’s doing what he can with what he has. He’s trying to return them to a meritocracy and for that I applaud him.

In preschool, when my daughter was bullied, she was instructed to inform a teacher, and the bully was immediately punished.

Upon entering kindergarten, she was struck by a boy in her class, and she informed her teacher. The teacher replied, “You’re tattling! Stop it!”

My daughter came home and related the story, and I taught her how to punch.

Hard.

The next time the boy hit her, she punched him in the face and he burst into tears.

Big surprise – I was called into the school for a conference with this teacher.

She barely got two words out when I broke in,

“So, if the boy hits her and she tells you, its tattling. If she hits him back, she's in trouble? 

What, do you expect she should just get hit? 

Nobody, but nobody, is teaching my child that she must be somebody's victim! 

That's how abused women are made. 

My daughter will either take the problem to you - you do have those anti bullying posters all over the hall - and you punish the child who is causing the problem, or if you won't stop him, SHE WILL. 

It's called self defense. 

She is nobody's victim including yours. 

She will not be punished here or at home for defending herself. 

If she lays hands first, she WILL answer TO ME and I assure you this will not happen. 

Now are you going to take care of this boy problem or is she?”

The teacher just stared, open-mouthed, and never answered.

I said, “I guess she will then.”

No punishment was ever served on my daughter, and that boy didn’t bother her again – until once in the fourth grade.

He smacked her in her back and she turned around and punched him in the head.

Two teachers saw it, and laughed.

Never happened again.